Welda Simousek - How to Get to the Heart of Differentiation: Real Time Assessments, 2nd Edition

How to Get to the

Heart of Differentiation

How to Get to the

Heart of Differentiation

Book 1:

Real Time Assessments, 2nd Edition

WELDA SIMOUSEK

AND

VIRGINIA PICKERELL

Welda Consults, LLC Sun City West, AZ

Copyright 2016 by Welda Simousek and Virginia Pickerell

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1523455497

ISBN-13: 9781523455492

Table of
Contents

Introduction

A s we have worked with hundreds of teachers on differentiation, we have come to realize that assessment is the first thing that teachers must do to differentiate. It has also become clearer to us that the types of assessments that are timed, multiple-choice, and only given periodically (sometimes only once a year) are not providing the kind of information that teachers need to help students move forward. With the arrival of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), it is doubly important to know where students are in their understanding at all times. Without taking up too much class time, real time assessments can provide valuable information for both the teacher and the student about Next Level Challenge (NLC). These assessments are meant to be self-reflective and very interactive.

These assessments are based on our long-held beliefs:

(1)Children and their work are why schools exist.

(2)Student programming should be based on strengths, not deficits.

(3)The focus of schools is to identify and create programming, not to identify and label students.

(4)Simple or simplifying is not the same as being easy to do.

(5)Accountability and data must be infused into every strand of education.

(6)We learn by daring to go beyond the familiar; NLC for children and adults.

(7)Self-assessment is a powerful tool for change.

The Term
Differentiation

Does not mean individualized instruction

It does mean the teachers plans are based on:

Active engagement of and for learners

The readiness, interests, and learning styles of students

On-going (formative) assessments for learning

On-going (formative) assessments for teaching

Adjusting the content, process, and/or product as needed

Clarity and transparency about what matters in subject areasBig Ideas/Concepts

A dynamic learning process for every child.

START WITH DIFFERENTIATION BY DOING ONE THING.OR MORE, OF COURSE!

Assessments

I nside and outside of our schools, the word is used and used (and misused!):

What constitutes an assessment?

Why do we use assessments?

Is there an assessment, or assessments, that work best?

When do we do assessments?

Who does them?

How do we know what to do with assessment outcomes?

This book is predicated on the following assumptions about assessment:

Education is filled with many assessments that are summative (given to make a judgment, to measure program or systemic effectiveness, one point in time assessments). These assessments are important, but often do not or cannot inform daily instruction.

The most useful type of educational assessments are formative (given to help teachers and learners inform both instruction and learning).

The most effective and efficient types of formative assessments are those that allow students to self-assess (to own their learning).

Real time assessments are useful, effective, and efficient (quick to do, often highly visual, and provide immediate feedback for the teacher and learner).

So, assessments that are given in real time as the students are in the process of learning and the teacher is in the process of instructingcan have a much greater impact on determining where teachers and students go for Next Level Challenge (NLC). Also, real time assessments can be included and repeated as often as possible without taking up valuable classroom time. Real time assessments help students learn not only about themselves as learners but also hear what other classmates are experiencing and learning. Real time assessments inform teachers about the learning that is occurring (or not) in their classrooms.

Before trying any of these real time assessments, it should be clear that these assessments are all based on several brain-based principles:

It has been shown that feedback is best when it comes naturally out of the context of the situation and not directly from the teacher; this also allows for the important brain-compatible element of immediate feedback for the learner.

Students need to actively process experiences and there is no better way to do this than to be involved in self-assessment.

Self-assessment creates powerful learning for the teacher and for the students by helping to uncover myths and misconceptions the students may have.

Assessments should be tied to the three five core concepts that the teacher and students have identified as crucial and on which they will spend the majority of class time. Three-five major Common Core Standards may be the basis here as well.

Based on these and other brain-based principles, it is important to utilize assessments that empower students to think for themselves and about themselves as learners. It is also important to have assessments that students can gain immediate information from and put to immediate use, if given the opportunity.

Real time assessments, then, are about both teaching and learning. What is teaching without learning? (Remember that learning can happen without teaching!) Real time assessments can provide valuable information to the teacher about overall achievement of students, what strengths and/or weaknesses are present, who specifically is learning (by gender, age, etc.), which teaching strategies are having the desired effects, where to go next with the teaching, etc. These assessments can also help to activate students as owners of their learning and as instructional resources for each other. Most importantly, in the whole teaching and learning process, real time assessments can provide feedback that moves learners forward, to their NLC.

In fact, real time assessments are so central to the teaching and learning process that they are the way in to the heart of teaching and learning, to differentiation. All the other stuff that teachers do: classroom management, expectations (setting the stage), and curriculum (requirements) are about teaching. They are not about teaching and learning.

Teaching and learning occurs when you get to the heart of differentiation through real time assessments. With real time assessments, teachers can enter differentiation through any one of many portalssuch as Choice, Creativity, Cover/Uncover, Questioning, Strengths and Interests, Learning Style, Motivation, Pace, Flexible Grouping, Depth and Breadth, and Charting for Change. However, the critical understanding that comes initially is that real time assessments are the pathway for meeting the needs of every child in the classroom and providing his/her next level of challenge in light of the standards.