Differentiating Assessment

Differentiated assessment is closely related to differentiated instruction, and is in fact to beginning of it, because in order to define how to differentiate instruction for students the teacher must first know how well the students perform.  It is assessing the students in different ways depending on their different needs.  It most often includes formative assessment, and can be used easily in an IPP as means of assessing a student's progress of their goals.

There are two purposes to differentiated assessment, including assessment for learning, and the facilitation of metacognition.  Assessment for learning, or formative assessment, includes giving the students immediate feedback on their learning and work so both the students and the teacher have an idea of how the student is progressing.  The grades given in formative assessment are not taken in as part of the student’s grade in that class, but provide an idea on where and how the student can improve.  The facilitation of metacognition includes the teacher giving the students the skills to be aware of their own thinking.  Metacognition is the highest level of thinking, as it is being aware of thinking.  It involves reflection of one's self and how you learn, or assessment as learning.  This is important in differentiating assessment because it helps student know how they learn best and what their strengths are so they can capitalize on them.

In planning for differentiated assessment there are 5 steps: (1) determine the purpose; (2) establish a focus; (3) select and use a strategy; (4) record the results; and (5) interpret the results and take action.

1)      Determine the purpose: determine what the point of the assessment is, and why.  Also ask yourself if the students are mastering the content you are teaching them

2)      Establish a focus: the teacher needs to narrow down the curriculum to a narrow focus, and make it more meaningful. 

3)      Select and use a strategy: the teacher should use some kind of formative assessment to assess the student’s learning pertaining to the subject they are learning about.

4)      Record the results: record the student’s progress and either use the results for feedback immediately or keep it long term.

5)      Interpret the results and take action: take the results you have obtained and consider if students have mastered the content you have been teaching them.  If they are move onto the next subject, or if they are not you may need to spend more time on that subject.

Differentiated assessment should be used in many areas of the classroom as it is very useful for the students in being able to master subject matter and discover how they learn best.  It is very beneficial for the teacher as well as it helps them to understand how well students are understanding the lessons and if they need to re-teach anything so the students understand it.  In the future I hope to use differentiated assessment in my classroom as I am a strong believer in formative assessment.

Differentiating Instruction

Differentiating instruction is essentially modifying teaching so students can learn better.  There are many things involved in differentiating instruction, and it goes hand-in-hand with differentiating assessment.  It is a very student-centred, progressivist way of teaching, and is generally quite effective in the classroom.

Because differentiating instruction has its roots in progressivism, it is very important to understand progressivism compared to traditionalism.  Progressivism involves teaching students practical things, things that they will need to know for their future.  John Dewey was one of the first people to reccommend this type of teaching, because he felt students needed to learn things in school that would be more suitable and relevant to their future careers.  Traditionalism is the idea that students are empty vessels to be filled by the teacher, and are "filled" with whatever the teacher should deem important to learn.  This often included things such as speaking Latin or being able to solve difficult math equations.

There are three things that are modified in a classroom that uses differentiating instruction, the content, the process, and the product.  Differentiating the content involves changing what the students are going to learn and the materials they are going to use to learn it.  This includes such things as the curriculum of what students are expected to learn, and any means they're going to learn through such as novels, poems, and movies, and any other resources they are going to use to learn from.  The process includes differentiating the activities the students are going to be engaging in in order to learn.  This includes reading books, any review activities, and many other things in which the students are learning.  And finally, the product is what it is the student creates that demonstrates their learning.  This can be most types of assesments such as tests or essays, or it could also be diagrams, artistic works, or many other unconventional things.

There are three means through which the teacher can maximize students' learning.  There is students' readiness to learn, students' interests, and students' learning profiles.  A student's readiness to learn includes where they are currently at, and how ready they are to move forward in their learning.  Scaffolding is a large part of readiness in differentiating instruction, as the teacher should always be teaching one step above where the student is currently at so they can build on their current knowledge and strive to achieve more.  A student's interests is also very important to use in differentiating instruction.  Students should be taught about things they are passionate about or that intrigue them.  A teacher can use a student's natural interests to get them to learn new things.  Lastly, teaching to students' individual learning profiles can be very useful to a teacher.  Each child learns differently and the teacher should try to teach according to a student's best way of learning as much as possible.  This may be learning kinesthetically, socially, logically, deductively, or many other ways.

By using these ways of differentiating instruction it is very possible to create an effective classroom in which students not only learn well, but they learn well because they want to.  They will be interested in the subject matter and will be able to see how it pertains to their future.  They will be able to use what they have learned in school in their adult life and are not forced to learn material that they have absolutely no interest in.  Differentiating instruction for students is a very good method of teaching, and I personally hope it will become more popular and will be included in schooling more often in the near future.

Creating Objectives for IPP Goals

When creating an IPP, it must include various things, but the most important components of one can be said to be the goals and objectives.  I have previously discussed how to create SMART goals, but under each of these goals there needs to be three objectives breaking up the goal into measurable parts. 

When creating objectives, it is important to keep in mind that they should adhere to the ACT HOW acronym.  This stands for action, context, and terms, and the HOW represents how you are going to measure these things.
A: Action.  This involves the verb of the objective.  It is the action that the student is going to take in order to improve in an area.  It is what they are going to do and learn, and it is what are they going to know when they have achieved the objective.  This can include many things, such as the student will be able to count to 50, or the student will complete written assignments.
C: Context.  The context of the objective is where, when, and under what conditions is the student expected to perform the action.  This may be written in a way such as the student will perform the action twice a week, at home or at school, in a certain classroom, by the end of class, or on the SMARTboard.
T: Terms.  The objective's terms involve writing the criteria for the student's work to be considered a success.  This includes how well or for how long the learning takes place, what percentage they must achieve on the work, or how much of the assignment or learning they must accomplish each time.  These may be things such as the student will achieve 80% on assignments given, or they must accomplish 2 out of 3 assignments.
HOW: How.  This is by what means is the student going to show they accomplished the objective. It is what the student does to show they have achieved their objective.  It also includes how the teacher is going to show that the student has achieved their goals, so how are they going to be assessed?  This may include tests, worksheets, self-reflections, and many other things.

Objectives are very important to an IPP because it makes the goals more specific and breaks them up so the teacher and the student have a vivid start and finishing point.  It elaborates on the goals and makes them seem more achieveable and less overwhelming as well.  A well written IPP should have objectives that follow the ACT HOW model that are specific and pertain to the goal they are under.

Creating Goals in an IPP

Students with disabilities require an individual program plan to be made for them so they can improve throughout the year and their progress can be monitored.  They often are required to learn different things than the other students in their classroom, so it is important to determine what they are going to learn and decide the best way for them to achieve it at the beginning of the year.  In order to determine what they are going to learn goals must be made for the student so they have something to strive to achieve throughout the year. 

The goals that are made must be “SMART” goals, meaning they must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.  It is important for a goal to include all of these things so that the student knows exactly what they are striving for and how they can best achieve it.  It is also important for the student to know how long it should take them to achieve the goal so they have something to look forward to, and can feel a sense of accomplishment when they have reached their goal.

Goals are typically focused on one of five different areas that can be improved.  The first area is self help skills, which includes choice making and personal advocacy, such as sharing with others what their needs are appropriately.  The second area is pro-social skills, including being able to get along with others, and managing emotions such as anger or sadness.  The third area goals can be focused on is communications skills, which involves both receptive and expressive communication like maintaining eye contact and actively listening.  The fourth area is academic skills, including reading, writing, literacy, and mathematics.  And finally, the fifth area of goal focus is work habits, which includes such things as working appropriately and on task, being punctual, coming to class prepared, and many other things.

Strategies for Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities are always in need of “systems” and routines in their daily lives to make things less difficult for them.  Strategies are a way for them to learn new things in their lives, both academic and personal.  Strategies are often used by kids with disabilities but are useful for all people, as they help a person learn and remember new things. 

There are two main things that strategies do; one, it gets the subject active in their learning, and two, it moves the subject toward metacognition.  These are both very important in learning because the subject, or student in particular, will become more interested in what they are learning and will remember it better.  It will also assist them in learning the best way for them to effectively learn any subject matter, which will be useful for them in many aspects of their lives.  Generally students will not willingly consent to using strategies, but once they experience success with it they will adapt the strategy so it works better for them and will be excited about using it.

One of the most used strategies for students with disabilities is the “SQ4R” strategy for reading.  It is an acronym for multiple steps in reading and is used as follows:

S: Survey.  The student surveys the text, the content of it, any objectives involved in it, the introduction to the text, and the summary of the text.

Q: Question.  The student asks themselves multiple questions about the text, including what may happen, what the definition of something may be, who the main subject of the text is, and many others.

R (1): Read.  The student reads through the text, answering the questions they previously asked themselves, and paying attention to everything in the text.

R (2): Recite.  The student answers the questions they are answering out loud, reinforcing the knowledge of the text they are gaining.

R (3): Relate.  The student relates the text and happenings in the text to their own lives and events that they have encountered themselves.

R (4): Review.  The student reviews everything they read and recalls events and facts from the text.

This is a very successful strategy for students with disabilities to use when reading.  It helps them to concentrate on what they are reading and become active in their reading.  They can also use this strategy in areas of their everyday life that require reading, whether it be instructions, directions, or many other things.

Richard Lavoie

FAT City: A Look Ahead

Richard Lavoie created a video called FAT City, and we recently watched a follow up to this video in which Lavoie describes the first video and what things in it mean.  FAT City is an acronym for frustration, anxiety, and tension in the classroom, and is referring to the feelings that students with learning disabilities have while in school.  In the second video Lavoie gives many insights about how adolescents with learning disabilities feel, which is very important for teachers to know in order to be good at helping their students.

In my opinion, one of the most important insights that Lavoie offers is pointing out that school is a child’s job.  When they fail at school they are essentially failing at the biggest aspect of their life at the time.  This creates negative feelings about school for these students, and often makes them want to avoid school altogether.  School is a very large chunk of a student’s life, so when they are struggling with it, and especially when they are failing in it, they begin to feel like a failure, and their self-esteem and self-worth takes a dramatic blow.  As a teacher, it is incredibly important to make a student with a learning disability successful so their self-esteem does not decrease, and they can be happy.  You also need to make them feel safe and comfortable in school, so they do not develop negative feelings toward it, and want to come to school and succeed.

Lavoie also points out that learning disabilities are pervasive in a child’s life, and in their life as an adult.  A learning disability is not something that occurs only in school and is something that an adolescent will grow out of, it is with them in every area of their life, for their entire life.  If  a student has trouble reading in the classroom, they will have trouble reading outside of the classroom as well.  All learning disabilities are present in a child’s life no matter where they are, and a teacher must realize this in order to best teach a student.  If I teach a student with learning disabilities I must realize that the strategies I teach them so they can effectively learn in my classroom must also apply to their learning outside of the classroom.  If a student feels more confident that they can effectively learn in all areas of their life their self-esteem will be boosted and they will be more productive and a better learner in the classroom.

These are only a few insights that Lavoie offers in the video, which is very educational and promotes a better understanding of adolescents with learning disabilities.  It is a great video and I recommend that all teachers, teacher aids, and any other people involved in educating a student with a learning disability watch it.

Accommodations: Observations

In studying the many kind of accommodations, I have learned that there are many ways in order to accommodate for a child with a learning disability.  Among many other things students with disabilities should be observed in the classroom in order to learn the best way in which to accommodate them.  There are strategies for observing them, ecological assessments in which the student is observed in multiple environments, multiple observation methods, and many questions to ask while making observations.

Students should be observed objectively throughout the year to determine if the negative behaviour they are exhibiting is general or specific.  This is very important because once it is determined what triggers the behaviour the teacher and school can make accommodations for the student in order to minimize the negative behaviour.  It is also important to do an ecological assessment in order to determine if the stimulant of the negative behaviour is environmental, such as another student, a certain place, or a teacher’s methods, so accommodations can be made for any of these things as well.

There are multiple methods of observation in order to record the student’s negative behaviour and determine a stimulus.  It is possible to keep anecdotal records, event records, duration records, or checklists/rating scales.  Each of these things keeps records in a different way, although none are more or less important than others.  Each has benefits to them, and depending on what the most prevalent misbehaviour is and what accommodations you are attempting to make it is necessary to keep one of, or many of these types of records.

In keeping these records it is easier to make appropriate accommodations for the student with the disability, and accommodations can change over the school year as necessary.  The student will get the best education out of this effort, and will be able to succeed in school.