Role of Assessment as it Applies to Differentiated Instruction

 

Assessment can be used “to assess what students already know” as well as what they have learned in class (Koschmeder, 2012). Pre-assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments should be used consistently throughout the class. Pre-assessments are collected before the instruction is provided, so that the teacher can gain a better understanding of each student’s “prior knowledge, skills, interests and feelings,” so that the teacher can differentiate instruction to each student’s needs and strengths (Koschmeder, 2012). This type of assessment comes in many forms, including KWL charts, surveys, etc.

In addition to pre-assessments, teachers should also utilize formative assessments to track how well each student is understanding the material; which instructional methods and activities are working; and how they can present the material differently in order to address more students’ needs. Essentially, the formative assessment is a guidance tool for making changes to the course, which allows for the teacher to create a highly differentiated classroom curriculum.

The last type of assessment, or summative assessment, is provided at the end of a study unit or class. The summative assessment demonstrates how much of the lesson’s content the student has retained, which allows teachers to “evaluate the effectiveness of the unit” and make modifications for differentiation (Koschmeder, 2012). Without these critical assessment strategies, teachers would be forced to guess which methods were working and which methods were failing to help connect their students to the classroom content. Thanks to the development of these various assessments, teachers can adequately provide differentiated instruction that takes every student’s needs, strengths, challenges, personalities, and backgrounds into consideration.

As excellently summarized by Judith Dodge, “Without the regular use of formative assessment, or checks for understanding, how are we to know what each student needs to be successful in our classroom? How else can we ensure we are addressing students’ needs instead of simply teaching them what we think they need” (2009)?

Creating Assessment without Bias

The best way to assess students’ knowledge without bias towards language barriers, learning differences, or cultural differences is to use multiple forms of assessment throughout the unit. This provides the teacher with a much more holistic view of the student’s knowledge. While some students might perform well on one task, they might unexpectedly struggle with another (Dodge, 2009). By varying the type of assessment you use over the course of the week, you can get a more accurate picture of what students know and understand, obtaining a ‘multiple-measure assessment window’ into student understanding” (Dodge, 2009). It is also important to take student challenges into mind when creating each assessment. Instead of relying on students to express their understanding through one method of communication, consider presenting options. For example, provide story maps and allow students to write and illustrate their understanding of the plot. This could help ESL students to better explain their understanding of the story’s concepts and overcome the limitations of their language barrier.

Differentiated Assessment Strategy for Diverse Learners

The use of dry-erase board oral “quizzes” is one of my favorite forms of formative assessment. Since the teacher is interacting with students, he or she is able to adjust their questions as they go. The method of assessment is oral, which is often helpful for students who have trouble focusing or have language barriers. Asking students questions about a story or concept and asking them to write their answer on the dry erase board allows the teacher to connect with each student individually while assessing many students at once. Also, it removes some of the pressure from students that may exist with a written quiz. If students are unsure of the answer—or don’t understand the question—teachers can ask simpler questions to assess what parts of the story or concept they do understand—and which ones need reviewing (Dodge, 2009).

References

Dodge, J. (2009). 25 quick formative assessments for a differentiated classroom. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Koschmeder, C. (2012 June 23). What is differentiated assessment? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvzRcArujOU

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