108: Pre-Assessment

The articles on differentiated instruction were slightly overwhelming. Prior to reading, I viewed differentiation merely as making the time to lay more scaffolding for students who were behind and finding ways to challenge students who were ahead. After reading the article, I realized the differentiation goes far beyond merely thinking about what level students are performing at – it is a mindset that should guide every element of instruction. Students not only perform at different levels, but they learn in different ways. They have different interest and different backgrounds. Some have different language needs and some have different behavioral needs. All of these things need to be considered while planning with differentiation.

I generally feel like I have the knowledge to be able to differentiate effectively. I know my students fairly well, although I do have 80 of them. I’ve gone to a number of house visits and am familiar with many of their learning habits. One of the second grade literacy teachers has surveys from each student where they comment on the type of learner they are and whether they learn best by listening, watching or doing. I’ve reviewed all of those surveys and found that students are all over the spectrum; some prefer watching, other prefer doing and many like listening or reading. I also have plenty of assessment data – especially from end of unit exams. For the first two units of the year I also issued pre-assessments, although I did not for the last two – perhaps that is something I should be doing more consistently. That being said, I have plenty of informal data about students prior to beginning units, most of which stems from bell-work share alouds and mini-lessons on future learning items. Although I feel like I have a decent knowledge base, especially in terms of student needs, it doesn’t always translate to the execution of effective differentiation.

Although I do also feel like there are moments where I differentiate fairly well. For example, during the middle of the lesson I have make opportunities to check for understanding… my checks usually consist of some follow up questions, which, for students at lower levels, allows me a chance to lay scaffolding and, for students at higher levels, allows me a chance to provide a challenge. I’ve also recently begun small groups which are based around both formal and informal assessment data and have so far been effective in getting the students who are behind caught up and providing the students who are ahead the opportunity for enrichment. On Thursday I begin centers, and I will further use this as an opportunity for differentiation. Although many stations will cover the same material, I plan on differentiating the work for each group. There will be many folders at each station, each group will have a folder that has work at their level. If this doesn’t occur during my first go-around of centers, it is definitely in the works for the future.

On the whole, there numerous areas for growth in differentiation, too many to list here. But after reading, there are a few changes I think are fairly manageable and easy to implement. I noticed that many of my students, based on their surveys and my own observations, are visual learners. They can be greatly assisted by a simple graphic organization. A graphic organizer, I’ve found, can be made for almost anything in math. For those students, I need to start making one for each lesson, or at least a few per unit. I can also make little word list for students who have issues retaining important vocabulary and look at me like I am crazy when I ask them to find the “product.” These are just a few of the small things I can incorporate to improve my differentiation.

Overall, I would rank myself at the beginning/emerging levels on the rubic. I think that by the end of 108 I could certainly be at the applying level, but it will take time and effort, which, after reading these articles, is definitely worth it.