Category: Assessment

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Formative Assessment: 7 Strategies

How do we gather ongoing data to inform our instruction? How can we ensure what we are teaching is making sense for our students? Here are 7 ideas to consider for formative assessment:

  1. Use mini whiteboards. Prompts followed by a “1-2-3 Show!” enable you to do a quick scan of who gets it and who doesn’t.
  2. Diamond Sheet Assessment: Fold a paper into 4 quadrants. Then fold the centre over into a triangle. When you open the paper, it should have 4 quadrants and a diamond in the middle. Place the concept in the middle. Each of the four boxes around the outside could show a different way of understanding/representing the concept. (See photo for example)

    Diamond Math
  3. Big Four: Split your page into four boxes. Choose one concept and write 4 questions (one per box) that get incrementally more complex. Collect and scan for understanding
  4. Exit Slips: Fast and easy way to figure out who needs more support. Choose the big idea from that day’s lesson.
  5. Write a letter: Write a letter to a friend explaining the big idea from the lesson
  6. Interview assessment: Meet with the child and have them orally explain the key concepts. See Edutopia’s “60 Second Interview Assessment” Video for more.
  7. Show your understanding with materials like loose parts and write an “artist’s statement” that explains what you created

 

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That was a fine webinar…

Hi All!

Yesterday’s professional development day was very interesting. Not in the least because we got to meet Marian Small…even if it WAS virtually. But also, I had the same experience that you are all having. Giving a workshop or class on-line is so much different from doing it in person. I struggle with the lack of participant feedback in the moment, and it makes it so hard to gauge if what one is doing is worthwhile or landing or whether you are completely bored and scrolling Tik-Tok.. I can see the same thing on the faces of comedians when I watch the Saturday Night Live “At Home” version. I’m understanding why almost none of the teachers I talk to think that this virtual learning is an improvement.

You have been quite heroic in your transfer to the on-line environment. It has taken until today (Apr 28) for parliament to be able to meet virtually, yet here you have transformed our classrooms so quickly. Take a moment to be pleased with what you have achieved.

You can look at the videos of Marian’s workshop and my workshop on assessment at the Continuing Learning Sharepoint.  Here is Marian’s document Big Ideas for Each Grade. And the documents from my webinar on assessment are available to Burnaby staff here.

I know you are excited to enter the draw to receive a copy of one of the Open Questions resources. Just write  a comment below, mention your grade level and if you teach in English or French and I will put you in a draw. Deadline for the contest is May 1 at 4 pm!

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Four Common Mistakes with Differentiated Instruction

Robyn Jackson has written a lot on differentiated instruction and her first book, Never Work Harder Than Your Students, suggested  many ways in which the students can take ownership of their own learning.  Recently, she posted a blog about common mistakes when trying to differentiate lessons and highlighted four common areas.  These are: Creating multiple assignments rather than multiple pathways;  Differentiating by learning style versus learning needs; Differentiating by achievement level rather than by students’ current learning level;  and Differentiating up rather than down.   click here for more info

These four common mistakes really deal with the concept of differentiation:  knowing your students and creating multiple pathways for each learner to achieve the learning outcomes.  By posing purposeful questions and problems in mathematics, students at any level can enter into the problem (multiple entry points), delve deeper into the mathematics (multiple pathways) and reach the conceptual understanding of the mathematics.

Just some ideas and thoughts.  Please let me know what you think.