FIAE+B1+Chapter+3

Abstract-Sara
Wormeli discusses the need for appropriate [|assessment] in the differentiated classroom. Assessment is key in the differentiated classroom. It is always good to begin a lesson with a clear goal or idea of where you want the students to be at the end of the lesson. Students are more likely to do good work if they are aware of what the end product should be and how it will be assessed. In the differentiated classroom there is a focus on “essential and enduring knowledge" this is also known as “K.U.D.” K stands for what students are supposed to retain from learning, or Know. U stands for the Understanding the student gains of concepts. Finally the D stands for what the students can Do, or the skills students demonstrate as a result of what they learn. Teachers in a differentiated classroom should focus on having an essential and enduring curriculum, this comes from collaboration, reflections, professional organizations, and many other areas. [|Formative Assessments] should be designed to be frequent and substantive. Formative assessments are “as you go” and allow the teacher to change the course of the lesson to fit students needs. Assessments should not just be snapshots of what students are like on a given day. Assessments should be conducted over time to better gauge students. Fluff assignments do not show student’s true mastery of a concept. Fluff assignments may be ‘fun’ but they do not teach children anything. Good assessment takes those being assessed into consideration, and should include student input.

Synthesis-Sara
I noticed how a few entries reference a connection between this chapter and UbD/DI. The two books do have many parallels; the most blatant is the belief in the differentiated classroom. There seems to be a consensus that pre-assessment is a very valuable tool that is too often overlooked. Lessons should be planned around what the pre-assessment shows. Assessment should be based around the current class and[|circumstances] and it should be able to be adjusted to fit different student needs.

Jen T.
This chapter ties in with chapter 5 from ubd/di. I particularly enjoyed the example about the teacher receiving an evaluation that would be tied to his/her salary; that is a great way of explaining it. I think that teachers needs to spend a lot of time going over their expectations for students as far as assessment, this includes: homework, quizzes, tests, in class projects, in class discussions etc. Classes should be structured in a way to provide the most varied and comprehensive grading possible. If all you give are multiple choice quizzes to your group of students and 2 out of 10 bomb them, then you give a take home essay and those two kids ace them, you know what you’re dealing with and how to improve your grading techniques, perhaps for just those two kids or maybe for the whole class. Assessment needs to fit the curriculum, fit the teacher, and fit the students.

Rachel B.
This chapter brought me back to high school and middle school in many ways because I could relate as a student at that time and the examples given to show the students way of thinking, and the way in which they process information, or sometimes the way in which they seem to be “convinced” to process and prepare for information. The example of beginning your year off with the test and having the student aware of what is going to be on the exact test as you teach the curriculum was an interesting and clear example of the idea that students manly want to get the right answers, not necessarily learn the material. This is important to consider when entering the teaching profession. I found this chapter useful in the sense that it broke down EEK which, Essential and Enduring Knowledge. It’s a good reference to look back, and I know that I will be doing more work with it as the semester continues.

Rachel F.
As I have heard emphasized in other chapters and other books, it is so important for teachers to know their outcomes before creating a lesson plan. If you create your lesson around your ultimate goal, you will have a much better idea of what is essential for the students to learn. A way to get ideas on where to start a lesson plan is to give the students a pre-assessment. If you know your ultimate goal then you should create the summative assessment right off. Then, manipulate this test a bit and give it to the students as a pre-assessment. This way you can get an idea of where they are at and they will have a great idea of what to really pay attention to during the course. Throughout a lesson plan, teachers know what information is essential for the students to learn, very desirable, and desirable. The essential information absolutely needs to be taught while the others should be taught but are not necessary. While teaching the essential lessons, it is incredibly crucial to provide many varied formative assessments over time. This way you will know where each student is at with the lesson and you can provide substantial feedback that will allow the student to know where they are as well. If the student does not do well on a certain assessment then give them a chance to redo it. All students have their off days and that might have been the case when they first took a test. This way, the photo album becomes much more important than the one snapshot. I have learned so much from this chapter and I hope to apply many of these aspects in my classroom. My students will greatly appreciate lessons shaped around information like this because they will understand the information better and will learn so much more to use in their future years.

Karin
I learned from this chapter that the emphasis must always be on the assessment portion of learning; teachers must first decide what and how to assess before they can decide on the lesson plans and how to present the information. Utilizing this method will have a very big effect on my classroom in the future; without this method, my teaching won’t be as effective. By creating the assessment first, I will automatically know exactly what I need to focus on in my lessons; my students need to know what they will be assessed on in the end. It is much more important to focus on a few things in depth that the students can truly understand for the assessment, rather than leaving them to search for the information that is important.

Jen P.
I really liked what page 21 was explaining about showing the test to students before giving them any information. To me, this was a completely new concept, but it sounds as if it would work. I am already excited to try it out! I also learned a little bit about essential questions and assessments. I also learned a lot about “fluff” (34). The chapter made an excellent point: every student should be challenged. I have a lot more to learn about making sure my assignments are not fluff though! I really benefited from the examples given, but I also need to practice planning and designing lessons before I can successfully challenge all of my students.

Megan
I felt that this chapter really tied in with what we’ve read about in UbD/DI. It’s important to have goals for our students and plan ahead of time how we’re going to help our students achieve those goals. It’s important to plan backwards because it helps us to think of the different ways we can assess our students and what assessments may be the most appropriate for which lesson. Planning backwards also help to avoid fluff assignments or busy work. These are assignments are often given when a teacher isn’t prepared. At the same time it takes time and effort (even though it may be minimal) for a teacher to create these assignments and it takes time and effort for students to complete them. Our time is precious. If I’m going to give an assignment it’s going to be meaningful and have a purpose. It may be because it’s relevant to students lives or important for the next lesson. Whatever the reason it will have a purpose. Planning backwards will help me to plan meaningful assignments but also incorporate various forms of assessments.

Sara
Clearly outlined objectives and expectations are key to good assessments. One can only assess the students if one has been clear about what one expects from the students. Beginning with a clear idea of what the end result should be is a perfect way to teach material. Assessments should be designed with students’ abilities in mind. Summative assessments should be determined first for it allows students and teachers to work towards goals. Pre-assessments are crucial because they determine what students already know and what they need to work on. Finally there are formative assessments which focus on the students’ progress with the current material and their progression towards the completion of the curriculum goals. Fluff assignments are helpful for neither the students nor the teacher. They are fillers and have little to do with achieving the goals stated for the curriculum. Fluff assignments are just busy work and are of no real benefit to the student. I hope to avoid using fluff assignments and stick to the goals I set at the beginning of the unit. Assessment is key in education, but it needs to be done right and there needs to be clearly stated criteria and expectations.

Geoff
In contrast to the first two chapters, I definitely enjoyed chapter three of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//, and I found it packed full of information. I knew I would eventually enjoy this book; I heard a podcast interview with Mr. Wormeli and found him insightful, engaging, and clearly knowledgeable about differentiated instruction (part one of Steve Decker’s “Educational Insights” podcast with Wormeli can be found [|here]; part two is upcoming). Wormeli has all kinds of suggestions for planning units and lessons, many of them framed around addressing essential and enduring understandings, which we have already discussed in doing Stage 1 of our units for class. I will definitely use his suggestion of diagnostic pre-assessments to begin the unit in order to discover and adapt to where students are at in preparation and understanding of the upcoming material. I was particularly fascinated with his suggestion to give the end-of-unit test to the students before the unit has even been started; that way, students will pay more attention and write and point out the answers as the questions are addressed in class. Wormeli suggests this is a good thing, and, while skeptical at first, I feel that I agree with him, and I will likely try this out in my classroom, if not in my practicum classroom. In addition I like Wormeli’s inclusion of Dr. James Popham’s advice from //Test Better, Teach Better// (2003) to distinguish between material that is essential, highly desirable, and desirable, and I appreciate his list for first year teachers of sources to help us make these distinctions. I also appreciate his step-by-step planning sequence for “Assessment-Guided, Differentiated Lesson Planning Sequence;” in other words, mostly everything we are learning in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. I think that this chapter was packed full of very useful information, and I will be sure to use as much as I can in my classroom.

Stephanie L.
Chapter 3 of "Fair Isn't Always Equal" is all about what makes assessment effective. It breaks down important pieces of the assessment puzzle. One piece is knowing how comfortable the students are with the material when you begin teaching it. Your following lessons should be based on this pre-evaluation period to ensure that all students are capable of fully understanding the material at hand. I have had a lot of classes that started out with a practice test that wouldn't be graded, and would only be used to determine what we know and what we need to know more about. This is a good way for students to get their feet wet and see where their strengths and weaknesses are. It is also important for a teacher to use a variety of assessments.

Jordan
This chapter was very helpful to me, as it reiterated the point that assessment is a very important part of teaching. I think that using pre-assessment can be very helpful in a classroom and creating future lessons. Knowing what the students already understand and how much they understand will help me as a future teacher tailor lessons to what my students need to know more about. I really liked the idea of handing out the test that will be given at the end of the unit. I think that can be very useful and will give students a clear idea of what they are expected to learn from that unit. In this chapter, Wormeli opened my eyes to the idea that assessment can be used as "a coaching and nurturing tool" (20). That is an idea that is fairly new to me as, in school, I always thought of assessment as a way of knowing what was learned and how well the information was learned. I also like the idea of doing formative assessments throughout the unit. I think it is a great way to see how students are progressing with the material leading up to the final assessment.

John T.
After reading this chapter one thing that I realized is that through most of my schooling I was seldom assessed with the same test at the beginning and end of any given lesson. While it is kind of hard to work this into an English literature class, I can certainly see its practicality. The students' growth is outlined almost perfectly, and any areas that need special attention can be readily addressed without much deliberation. I have also always been a firm believer in the keeping of a daily journal. I can recall at least one class where we were required to make an entry a day based on a daily prompt, but the difficulty with this method is that it is very imperative that you find an efficient way to view the journals periodically. If you wait until the end of the semester to look through the entries, you are not learning anything about the student's growth that you can comment on. Rubrics are also some of the most wonderful tools for assessment, because not only are they cut-and-dry, but they allow for the student to compare how they scored on various elements of the project (e.g. grammar, content, style) and see for themselves how they can improve.

Tracey Hollingsworth
Chapter 3 – Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom

One aspect of the chapter that I disagree with is “Begin with the End in Mind”. I do not feel as if I will be handing out my summative assessment at the beginning of my unit. I feel that a study guide and completion of the “homework” can have the same effect. If students have learned the material, they will not need to have a copy of the test. As aspect that I do agree with is “Determining Students’ Readiness”. I feel that pre-assessment is very important especially in math. I need to know exactly where students are at to continue on in the curriculum.

Courtney
This chapter was all about assessing lesson plans to find out what needs to be kept in the lesson plan, dropped, or re vamped. Assessing a unit or lesson plan is not only based on the kids achievements but it is also up to the teacher to do their work in really determining what works for which student and why. There are three ways to assess, the first is pre-assessment where the teacher finds out where their students knowledge is at before they being a unit. Then there is formative assessment which is assessments given to the students throughout the lesson, then there is the summative assessment given at the end of a unit to see not only how successful the students were but how successful the lesson was as a whole. It is the teachers job to compile these assessments and critique the lesson. Another important thing included in this chapter was the fact that teachers should be preparing their students for the moment, for what is going on in school then, not for the outside world or college. I have had many teachers who tell the students that they need to prepare for college, and that's not true, the students need to prepare for what is going on in school then.