Skip to main content

Pre-assessment for Differentiation

Pre-assessment and Differentiation in a 9th Grade Beginner ESL Class


Objective: Students write an exemplification paragraph

The goal of this lesson is for students to write an exemplification paragraph. So, the first step is to pre-assess for students' current knowledge and skills. 

Pre-assessment activity: Quiz

Students will take a quiz to see what they already know about the topic. This quiz will include lower-order skill tasks from Bloom's taxonomy with activities like identifying parts of a paragraph (topic sentence, concluding sentence, etc.) and putting these parts in the correct order. There will be questions about the purpose of an exemplification paragraph and what makes it different from other types of paragraphs (persuasive, descriptive, etc.). There will also be a section for them to write a paragraph. After collecting and sorting students into groups based on the number of correct answers, students will go to different parts of the room to do different activities.

Differentiated Groups


Progress Tracking and Monitoring

Group 1

The teacher will monitor students' progress and they will be assessed (informally) afterward on more complex writing skills such as cohesion between paragraphs, essay structure, etc. Through this process, these students will get to use their writing skills to collaborate and explore a more complex writing process. The teacher will have a reflection activity afterward, collect student questions, and encourage independent research into the essay writing process. 

Group 2

 In this group, students will be monitored and assessed on their mastery of writing an exemplification paragraph. It should include all the necessary parts such as a topic sentence, concluding sentence, and examples of the topic.

Group 3

In this group, students will be closely monitored by the teacher for understanding of the content through various activities tailored to these students' knowledge gaps and learning styles. They will be assessed on matching vocabulary with the definition. For example, "exemplification" should be matched with "using examples to explain the topic". Students can then write an exemplification paragraph and be assessed on that. There will be flexibility in this task. For example, students can write in pairs, with the teacher's assistance, etc. 

References

5. Pre-assessment Ideas - Differentiation & LR Information for SAS Teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/lrtsas/differentiation/5-preassessment-ideas

Ascd. (n.d.). Differentiation: It Starts with Pre-Assessment. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/dec13/vol71/num04/Differentiation@_It_Starts_with_Pre-Assessment.aspx

Mcdaniel, R. (2018, August 13). Bloom's Taxonomy. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

What is Differentiated Instruction? Examples of Strategies. (2018, August 21). Retrieved from https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/examples-of-differentiated-instruction/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Formative Assessment in the Classroom

Formative Assessment in the Classroom What is formative assessment? Assessment is generally divided into 2 categories: formative and summative. A lot of people picture a final test when they think of assessment. This falls under the summative category and is typically used to see what a student has learned and to determine a student's grade. Formative assessment, however; serves a different purpose. Formative assessment is a tool that the teacher can use to adjust future lessons, differentiate the classroom to meet students at their current level, and see what general progress has been made. This happens while  the student is learning rather than after . Some examples of formative assessment methods include a pop-quiz (not graded), observations, exit tickets, entrance tickets, discussion, graphic organizers, and more. Is formative assessment necessary? Formative assessment is very important in the classroom. According to Andersson & Palm (2017), "An earlier ...
Post a Comment
Read more