Assessment Strategies
for
Differentiated Instruction
Differentiation is a philosophy that enables teachers to plan strategically in order to reach the needs of the diverse learners in the classrooms today to achieve targeted standards. As individuals come to school with varying learning styles and numerous intelligences, differentiated instruction becomes a means of addressing the learning needs of everyone in the classroom. Because we have used the analogy of "one size doesn't fit all" for years in education, the teacher is quickly using numerous strategies to adjust the learning in his or her classroom to fit the learner instead of using the same strategy for all (Gregory and Chapman,2002).
Just as one size of learning doesn't fit all, one size of assessment doesn't suit either. So in assessing the learning, we need different approaches to check the learning and adjust the learning; the same as we adjusted our instructional strategies to need the learner's needs.
We in education tend to banter about the terms assessment, evaluation, and grading without necessarily having clearly distinctive definitions for each term. Assessment is often referred to as the gathering of data, evaluation is the judging of merits, and grading is assigning values to letters or numbers for reporting purposes (Rolheiser, Bower, & Stevahn, 2000).
Assessment as ongoing feedback is a necessary component of the learning process, not something that happens at the end of learning. It has been said that feedback is often too little, too late, too vague, presented in the wrong form, and therefore lacking in impact (Jensen, 1998a, p. 54). Our challenge is to find ways to facilitate ongoing feedback for students that will increase their chances to grow and improve their learning. The author of this webpage is attempting to showcase ways that assessment can be tailored to meet individual learning styles. The assessment strategies will help the teacher to make informed evaluations about the student's learning and equate grades to the content learned. The information presented is the work of Gayle Gregory, Carolyn Chapman, Carol Tomlinson, and Rita King as well as others noted in the field of Differentiated Instruction. A detailed bibliography will be given in order for the teacher to utilize more fully the understanding of using multiple assessments for multiple intelligences.
The webpage will be divided into three main sections: Pre-assessment, On-going Assessment, and Final Assessment. The author will include examples that can be used to help the teacher devise his or her own assessment strategies. Included after these three main sections, is an explanation of authentic assessment as well as embedded link to rubrics.
A. Pre-assessment: Strategies to use before the instruction begins to determine prior knowledge. However the teacher wishes to devise this portion of assessment, it is very important to realize that this step can help set the learning environment, peak interest about the content, and initiate activities that will address the learning styles of the students. By clicking on pre-assessment, you will find examples of some strategies to help you in pre-assessment.
B. Assessment during learning: As students are working, it is time for the teacher to provide assessment both informal and formal in order to provide feedback so improvement can be made. If the teacher waits to the end of instruction, it might be too late for skill development and to make corrections to information that present incorrectly. By assessing the student during the learning situation, the teacher can alter his or her activities to reteach or enhance the content. By clicking on the assessment during learning, you will find examples of strategies to help you in this step of assessment.
C. Final Assessment: This is the time for the teacher to make both formal and informal assessment about the learning which has taken place. The student can engage in reflections to the learning to encourage metacognition and process what has been learned at the closure of the lesson. This can be done at the end of each activity, the end of the day as students write in their journals, or at the end of the unit. The more formal assessment would be the post-test which is a mirror image of the pre-test given at the end of the unit. In the link provided several strategies of both informal and formal will be given as resources to the teacher.
Howard Gardner's landmark study of multiple intelligence has opened many avenues for improving the process of learning and challenges teachers to explore new instructional practices no matter what the context of their schools. Most teachers who wish to integrate multiple intelligences theory into the classroom face a challenge of assessment. To that end the author of this webpage would like to address authentic assessment in the classroom. This webpage would not be complete if one did not take an in-depth look at authentic assessment and grading of those assessment to individualize the learning in the classroom. By clicking on the following link, you will be able to review some strategies that will offer authentic assessment of learning in the multiple intelligences classroom.
This link will provide the teacher with a BIBLIOGRAPHY of RESOURCES of noted authors and their work concerning Multiple Intelligences and Differentiated Instruction.