What does it mean to differentiate assessment?

Assessment plays a critical role in a classroom that provides differentiated instruction. The data from assessments inform a teacher's decision making and help her make instructional choices that will support all students as they work toward proficiency of learning targets.

There is nothing like first-hand evidence.Sherlock Holmes

Teachers in EL Education classrooms are familiar with using assessment to support, engage, and hold all students accountable for rigorous learning. They know the importance of crafting quality long-term and supporting targets, using assessment for learning strategies to monitor student progress and adjust instruction throughout a variety of learning experiences, and creating/using quality assessments to gauge student progress. Differentiated instruction is the proactive acceptance of and planning for student differences in readiness, interest, and learning profiles, with ongoing adjustments based on the results of a variety of assessments for learning practices throughout the teaching and learning cycle. Differentiation in EL Education classrooms means that teachers proactively develop supporting learning targets in a variety of ways to ensure that all students meet long-term targets and are successful on summative assessments.

Learning Target

I can describe the role of assessment in a classroom that provides differentiated instruction for students.

OK, jg and all of your supporters, yes, elementary teachers work hard too, but I have (as an administrator) seen elementary teachers who seem to think lesson planning consists of turning to the next page in the teacher edition - and I don't mean the night before - I am talking about doing that when it's time to teach the lesson, so HS teachers with yellowed lesson plans in a dusty cabinet don't have a monopoly on lack of planning. There are excellent and poor teachers at all levels, and none of them have an easy job. We do ourselves a disservice when we bicker back and forth about who has the toughest job. However, in this discussion, the number of students per day IS a valid concern. If you have the same 30 kids all day, even if it is for all possible subjects, you can get to know their learning needs and allow activities to flow from one to another, covering more than one topic in the same activity. You can use non-fiction reading materials for reading and science, you can teach a math and science combination lesson together with a writing assignment afterward, etc. The HS teacher has to stick to one topic and stop after X minutes to begin again with a new group - and every group is composed of different students with unique needs. In many states, and especially now with the Common Core, the sheer number of topics to cover during the course can be quite daunting, and teachers feel the pressure to cover the material. (I don't equate coverage with teaching - I am just saying there is a lot of pressure to cover all objectives.) And, I hate to burst your bubble, many HS teachers do have multiple subjects in a single day. However, even the year that I had four sections of geometry and one of another math (so only two preps), the four geometry classes were all different and had to be approached differently. Same topic with different kids does not mean that you can do exactly the same lesson. Differentiation is difficult but worthwhile, and it is not something you can do for every lesson every day, but excellent teachers find a way to do as much as they can to help all students achieve.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on February 23, 2013 - 4:07pm

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Both Elementary and High School teachers are correct, both of their jobs create quite different problems. I have taught both Elementary and Middle/High School, in regular ed, as well as in the special education classroom. Each classroom presents its own types of challenges. Some classes just aren't condusive to DI, because of the student population you have, and numbers, and weather or not you have an aide. If you have a class with alot of behavior issues and you are the only one in the room, alot of group activities will fail because you can't turn your back on a certain student or two in that situation. We have been talking about DI since I began teaching in the mid 1980's we just didn't have a name for it, we called it teaching, and everyone knew that it was our job to try to reach every student, and use whatever means necessary to do so, now they have names for everything and DI has been around alot longer than the name for it. Also don't try to tell another teacher what they can and can't do in their classroom until you have sat in their specific classroom and witness and monitor the dynamics yourself, because as wonderful as DI is, it doesn't work for everything and isn't the cure all.

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How do you differentiate an assignment?

How do you differentiate summative assessments?