Pre-Assessment for Differentiation
Pre-Assessment for Differentiation
Introduction
The unit plan that I
created in module five is designed for grade three Language art students. The
unit theme is about Living and Learning. The standards that I chose follows the
Common Core State Standards.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.3
Describe characters in a
story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their
actions contribute to the sequence of events.
At the end of the unit,
the students need to create a digital story book by using My Storybook app and
then present it to the class. The learning objectives that I designed for this
unit plan are
v
Students will be able to analyze
character’s traits and draw conclusions about characters.
v
Students will be able to identify reasons
why the character(s) acted the way he/she did.
v
Students will be able to explain how
characters' feelings influence events in the story.
v
Students will be able to compare and contrast
how character's feelings change throughout the story.
v
Students will be able to organize all
skills they learn previously and to create a digital project.
This unit plan requires
students to understand and comprehend plenty of skills, thus, it is important
for the teacher to understand students’ learning ability and then the teacher
can instruct students. Thus, the pre-assessment is an essential tool for the
teacher to apply it for the students’ needs.
Pre-Assessment
The ultimate goal for
students is that they can integrate the literacy knowledge of characters,
setting, and plot and then create their own personal story. Students are
required to examine their basic knowledge of literacy elements and their
reading level. In order for me to examine students’ literacy understanding, I
use Kahoot as the pre-assessment for me to check students’ prior knowledge
about literacy elements as well as Achieve
3000 as the reading level assessment tool to check students’ reading level.
Achieve 3000 creates
assignments based off of students’ reading ability. When the students do the
level set quiz, it examine the students’ comprehension skills. It is easy for
the teacher to understand what skills and what ability the students lack.
The Kahoot
quiz consists of four sections. The first section tests students’ knowledge
about characters. There are five multiple choice questions in this section. The
students are required to analyze the character’s traits and personality. The
second section tests students’ knowledge about setting. There are five true and
false questions in this section. The students are required to watch a picture
or read a sentence to identify the when and where. The third section tests
students’ knowledge about plot. There are five multiple choice questions. The
students are required to watch a picture or video and analyze the problem and
solution. The last section tests students’ ability about integrated reading comprehension.
There are five multiple choice questions. The students are required to
read a paragraph and answer the questions. This pre-assessment totally has 20
questions.
(Pre assessment Kahoot Link https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/f899d5fc-dfdc-412a-961c-4187945ef71c)
Students Differentiation
Group
Through this
pre-assessment, I can track students’
prior understanding and group them into
three diverse
groups according to their scores:
(1) Advanced Group: The students
whose Kahoot
total score is above 80% correct in the
pre-assessment. In addition, the reading
level is
above their grade-level number 400L.
(2) Mainstream Group: The students
whose Kahoot
total score is between 80% to 60% correct in the
pre-assessment. In addition, the reading
level is
between 200L to 400L.
(3) Transition Group: The students
whose total score
is below 60% correct in the pre-assessment. In
addition, the reading level is below
200L.
In some situations the
student’s Kahoot score is above 80%, but the reading level is below 200L. Then
the students will belong to Transition Group on account of they might guess the
answer on the Kahoot quiz. Even though Kahoot is a pre-assessment for the
teacher to check the students’ prior knowledge, it still has some defects such
as students might guess the answer. Achieve 3000 is a stable system, that asks
students to do different kind of questions, for example, poll, writing,
multiple choice question, true or false. It is more reliable than Kahoot. As a
result, the group setting is based on the score on Achieve 3000.
Innovative Differentiation -
Teaching Strategies and Formative Assessment for Differentiated Groups
This unit plan aims to
examine students reading literacy and then output what they have learned in the
future. The core concept is to obtain literacy elements on vocabulary, grammar,
reading comprehension skill and writing, thus the Daily 5 is a good core
strategy for each differentiated group. I modified the teaching schedule of The
Daily 5 that was presented by Mrs. Robertson (Center
Grove, n.d.).
(https://www.centergrove.k12.in.us/Page/7256). The
modified teaching schedule and formative assessment is shown below.
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Daily Teaching Procedures
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Teaching Section
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Teaching Strategy
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Day 1
Spelling and Vocabulary
Mini-Lesson
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According to different
learning objectives, the students will comprehend different kinds of
vocabulary, such as character’s traits, motivations, or feelings words they
are going to learn for the week. Before the students learn the spelling and
vocabulary, they need to select the books that are appropriated for their
reading level.
(1) Advanced Group:
This group of students will read the book
that is above their grade level 400L. The page numbers of books should over
20 pages. The suggestion book series is The Magic Tree and Magic School Bus
series. When the teacher instructs the vocabulary, s/he can provide
definition of vocabulary for this group of students. The role of the teacher
is a monitor and an assistant in this group.
(2) Mainstream Group:
This group of students will read the book
that reading level is between 200L to 400L. The format of the books should
half pictures and half text inside. The page numbers of books should between
15 pages to 20 pages. When the teacher instructs the vocabulary, the teacher
can provide definition with pictures to this group of students. The
suggestion book series is Oxford Reading Tree series. The role of the teacher
is an assistant to guide and support them.
(3) Transition Group:
This group of students will read the book
that the reading level is between 100 L to 400L. This group of students still work
on their ability, thus, they need visual aids, charts or pictures to support, the
picture books and the page numbers of books between 5 to 10 is appropriated from
them to build up their confidence first. When the teacher instructs the
vocabulary, the teacher can provide pictures
and TPR to this group of students.The
suggestion book series is I Can Read series. The role of the teacher is an
assistant to guide and support them.
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Formative Assessment 1 -
Word Work
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In this part, students
will practice their weekly spelling and vocabulary words diversity.
(1) Advanced Group:
The students can practice the spelling and
vocabulary words by playing a match game. The teacher prepares one set of
vocabulary word cards and one set of definition cards. Each student has at
least 4 cards, they need to take turns to ask their group member “ I have an angry. Do
you have ________(definition of angry)?”After they match, both of them
need to make a sentence with that vocabulary word.
(2) Mainstream Group:
The students can practice the spelling and
vocabulary words by playing Quizlet to reinforce the understanding of
definition of word.
(3) Transition Group:
The students can practice the spelling and
vocabulary words via reading a definition and then draw a picture of the
word.
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Day 2
Grammar Mini-Lesson:
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Since the summative
assessment for this unit is asked the students to write a story, thus, the
grammar teaching is an essential part in this lesson.
(1) Advanced Group:
Show a paragraph or some sentences and ask the
students to conduct and reason the structures of this paragraph or
these sentences.
(2) Mainstream Group:
Show a poster or anchor chart to explain
the concept of grammar.
(3) Transition Group:
Show a grammar video for the students to
understand the concept and then use game to check for understanding.
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Formative Assessment 2 -
Grammar Work
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(1) Advanced Group:
Ask the students to apply the grammar
point they learn to write a paragraph.
(2) Mainstream Group:
Ask the students to apply the grammar
point they learn to make a four columns comic strip with at least 2 sentences in
each column and each sentence needs to have more than 6 vocabularies.
(3) Transition Group:
Ask the students to apply the grammar
point they learn to draw a picture with two sentences description.
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Day 3
Reading Mini-Lesson
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In this section, I will
focus on teaching specific reading comprehension skill that the students need
to absorb in this unit plan. In additional, the CAFE poster can support the
students’ comprehension skills development.
(1) Advanced Group:
For this group of students, the teacher
can ask the students to read a paragraph and explain the reading comprehension
skill by themselves. Then the teacher can describe it more.
(2) Mainstream Group:
For this group of students, the teacher can
show an anchor chart or poster of specific reading comprehension skill and then
explain it to the students.
(3) Transition Group:
For this group of students, the teacher
can show a video to the students and then explain the concept.
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Formative Assessment 3 -
Reading Comprehension
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(1) Advanced Group:
For the formative assessment, the teacher
can ask the students to write a small paragraph to check their reading
comprehension skill.
(2) Mainstream Group:
The formative assessment can be asked the
students to use a graphic organizer to write down what they have learned or
knew to check their reading comprehension skill.
(3)Transition Group:
Ask the students to draw a picture with one
sentence description as a formative assessment to check their reading comprehension
skill.
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Day 4
Listening Mini-Lesson
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In this day, students
will listen to stories via audio. They also can visit various websites to
hear famous authors read popular books outloud.
(1) Advanced Group:
Using Level reader audio to listen to the
text.
(2) Mainstream Group:
Using Youtube to search the audio or video
of the text and listen to it.
(3) Transition Group:
Using Youtube to search the audio or video of
the text and listen to it. Ask foreign teacher to record the audio for the
students to listen to it.
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Formative Assessment 4 -
Read to Self
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Read to Self station is
required students to read a whole book quietly at a specific spot. Students
sit with their group members to do this activity. In this part, the teacher
needs to walk around the classroom to check students’ reading accuracy and
fluency.
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Formative Assessment 5 -
Read to Someone
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Through read-aloud
activity to model and scaffold the skills explicitly. Students will sit with
their group members to do this activity. In this part, the teacher needs to
walk around to check students’ reading accuracy and fluency.
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Day 5
Writing Mini-Lesson:
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In this part, the
teacher emphasizes on students’ writing accuracy, fluency and expanding
vocabulary implement.
(1) Advanced Group:
The teacher asks the students to read a
paragraph, and then ask them to discuss with the peers about the structure of
the writing. Then the teacher explains to them the concept.
(2) Mainstream Group:
The teacher shows an anchor chart or posters
to guide students to understand the structure of writing.
(3) Transition Group:
The teacher shows a video
about how to write ________, and then explains to the students what the
structure it is. The teacher also can provide a writing prompt to guide and
support students.
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Formative Assessment 6 -
Writing
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According to students’
readiness, they will divide into three groups to obtain differentiated
instruction.
(1) Advanced Group:
The teacher gives a
topic to the students and ask them to write a paragraph.
(2) Mainstream Group:
The teacher gives the
opening sentence and ending sentence for the students, and ask them to
complete this paragraph.
(3) Transition Group:
The teacher gives a paragraph with many
blanks for the students to fill the appropriated vocabulary in.
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Formative Assessment 7-
Writing Sharing
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Each student share their
writing work to the class.
(1) Advanced Group:
This group of students need to read their
writing work.
(2) Mainstream Group:
This group of students can use drama to
present their writing work.
(3) Transition Group:
This group of students can use drawing
with explantation to present their writing work.
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The differentiated
teaching strategies and assessment are detailed in the chart below.
(Differentiated
teaching strategy and assessments
The teaching strategy that I apply for each group has a different level. Advanced Group students emphasize building up their writing skills, problem solving and learning autonomy more than the other two groups of students. The Mainstream Group of students emphasize on skills and concepts reinforcement and consolidation. Transition Group students emphasize on understanding and reorganization skills and concepts. In addition, the assessment that I design depends on students’ current ability. As long as the students’ learning development progresses, they can move up one level.
Tracking Method of Readiness and Writing
My school uses Achieve 3000 and Boomwriter to track
students reading and writing ability. Achieve 3000 is a differentiated reading
program for different needs of students. To the teacher, it is easy for him or
her to track students’ progress. Boomwriter
is a website based writing tool for the teachers to track the students’ writing
skill. Through these two tools, I can understand and monitor students’
achievement. If they need help on reading or writing, I can assign them to the
appropriate group for them to comprehend the knowledge.
Conclusion
In sum, when I write this assignment, I enriched
myself in many ways, such as I feel more confident to design different teaching
strategies and assessments for different students needs. Although it is not an
easy job, I still believe that I can boost my students English development in
the future.
RESOURCES
Center Grove.(n.d.) Daily 5. Retrieved from https://www.centergrove.k12.in.us/Page/7256
Tomahschooldistrict. (2011, May 19). Daily 5: Introduction.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBvHn_cHWl4
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