UbDDI+B2+Chapter+5

Chapter Synthesis by Justin Stewart
Abstract: Chapter five focuses on differentiated assessments. Giving students the best chance of doing well in your classroom involves giving them the best chance to succeed in the assessments that test their knowledge. There are three main principles that breakdown differentiated assessments. Principle #1 focuses on the use of a single test to check whether the students really understand the big ideas of the class or the school as a whole. It is better to use multiple tests in order to check for a true understanding instead of a fluke. There are many reasons why students may do well one day but poor the next. Principle #2 is primarily about assessing the students understanding of the material. The [|six facets] of understanding are tools that help test whether a student really understands the material at hand. The six facets include: explain, interpret, apply, perspective, empathy and self-knowledge. Another method that is highly effective in discovering students’ understanding is the GRASPS model. GRASPS stands for: goal, role audience, situation, product, and standard. This model is not meant for every assessment that you hand out. It is there for when you need to test the students on the “big ideas” in your units. The third principle deals with using assessments as tools to further students learning in the classroom. Before you actually teach a unit, find out what they know about the unit so that you can prepare the unit to the specific needs of the class. Every student learns in different ways and so they share information in different ways. Allowing students to take assessments that work best for them in their learning style, you are maximizing the opportunity of the students. Providing the students with feedback early and often is key to helping students learn from their mistakes. By giving the students quizzes constantly and checking their work and telling them what they are doing wrong, they can fix it and change their ways. If you wait, it can be harmful.

Synthesis: A lot of us talked about the need to use as many different ways of assessing our students as we can. This is important because students learn in different ways so they will show their knowledge of topics in different ways. Using pre-assessments and reflections are important with students and teachers because they allow for the teacher to focus the lessons on the individual classes and it allows for students to think back to the information that they studied. Giving students a chance to look back on the things that they have done allows them to process the information and can help them to develop ideas to greater degree. Another important concept that a lot of people mentioned about this chapter was the [|GRASPS model]. This is a very effective way of testing students on the big ideas. This type of assessment is not meant for every test, simply the assessments that need to show the students knowledge of the big ideas. One of the best things that we can do for our students is to give them as many different opportunities to succeed as possible. Not everyone can learn the same way, so allow your students to show you their knowledge in the best way they can.

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Charli Sayward
One major idea from this chapter is to make sure there are multiple assessments throughout a unit, not just one big one to critique a student’s learning. It is important to not only use multiple assessments, but use a variety of methods to test a student as well. This will insure that students have the opportunity to show their strengths. If a student does not learn well through writing, expecting him or her to perform well on written assessments is unrealistic. There should also be a mix of pre-assessments, formative assessments, and self-assessments. This will make sure a teacher gets a bigger picture on how a student is progressing in the class. As a future math teacher, I will want to use pre-assessments to see what skills my students have prior to my lessons. I will also want to give formative and self assessments to see how students are progressing throughout the year and to see how they think they are doing. This will help me know what I need to adjust if students are struggling.

Kassaundra
Chapter 5: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms There are three main principles of classroom assessment. The first principle focuses on the fact that to get reliable assessments one must gather many pieces of evidence of the learning as well as have different types of assessments to benefit different types of learners. This will impact me because I am a very verbal/linguistic learner and I would be more likely to pick assessments, such as essays opposed to other forms. I will need to get comfortable with different types of assessments so that I can get a better “snapshot” of my students’ learning. Another principle explains that assessments should provide a measure of a specific goal. To meet this principle I will need to give assessments that are not just easy for me to grade but assessments that might have me explaining or defending my grading system. My students will need to trust that my grading system is fair. The third principle says that diagnostic and formative assessments should be done along with summative assessments because of this I will need to check up on my students’ learning throughout the unit or lesson to make sure certain benchmarks are being met. Perhaps the most important advice is to give feedback early and often because without feedback students may not know or understand what they need to improve upon or even what they did well. This means I will need to have very good time management skills for this to happen in my future classroom.

Matt Towle
Chapter 5 had a lot of useful information about the need for assessment. I learned that there are many ways to gauge understanding. The best way is to create a "photo album" throughout the unit, so at the end of the unit you have a variety of materials to analyze in order to gauge a student's understanding of the content knowledge. It is also very useful to use the backwards unit design method because it allows you to know what will need to be assessed before you begin teaching the unit. This allows you to have goals to work to. This will impact me in the classroom because I will have to think of creative ways to test student's with every different learning style. Although the projects and assignments can be changed to suit the student's particular needs, the goals need to remain the same in order to ensure everyone is learning the same content. This is a very useful way to become a responsive teacher.

Alyssa Wadsworth
In this chapter I learned the significance of differentiated assessment. Assessments need to happen often and in different styles every time in order to get a true picture of each student’s learning progress. As I read this chapter, I realized that a few of my teachers in high school tried to get the whole picture but most of them only managed to give a series of quizzes that had the same format. This may work well for those who choose to be in a higher-level class, but even then it is much better for the students if the assessments include room for differentiated learning. This impacts me as a teacher because I will need to take into account the fact that my students need differentiated assessment as much as they need differentiated instruction in the classroom. I will have to use pre-assessments, formative assessments during the unit, as well as assessments at the end of the unit in order to get a full idea of how each of my students has progressed since the beginning. This is much better than testing them once at the end of the unit to see if they understood what I taught them—when some of them might have already known a bit of the lessons and others none of what I taught them. This will affect my students because it will help them succeed, with me setting the standards and their choosing the way of reaching the standards. Having various assessments available in various formats allows not only me assess my students, but for the students to assess themselves as well.

Bri Douglass
Within this chapter it speaks of creating effective assessments. After reading many chapters in different books I have come to the conclusion that this goal of creating effective assessments is not going to be an easy task. But to make it easier the authors have given an acronym GRASPS, “Include 1. a real world goal, 2. a meaningful role for the student, 3. authentic (or simulated) real-world audience(s), 4. a contextualized situation that involved real-world application, 5. student-generated culminating products and performances, and 6. consensus-driven performance standards (criteria) for judging success” (70). This idea includes real-world connections, which is proven through the MEL model helps students learn. This acronym is easy for teachers to remember as well, for me it is hard to remember a whole book of information but using acronyms are a great way of remembering. While I was reading the explanation of GRASPS I couldn’t help but think about the MEL project we did for Dr. Theresa that includes these aspects of assessment. I will be able to GRASPS in my classroom for different assessments such as group projects. It is especially relevant because one of my essential questions I want to include in units when I become a teacher is how is math used in real-world situations.

Darcie Simmons
In chapter five, it addressed the issue of assessment and the different ways in which to do assessment throughout the classroom. One thing that I learned was that you should always assess before you begin the teaching. That way, you know just what the students in your classroom know about the material that is about to be covered. If you have an idea of what your students know in the classroom, you can avoid spending a lot of time on the stuff they do know, and instead, spend more time on the things that they aren’t so sure about. Another thing that I learned was that if you involve the students being able to chose what they do in order for your to asses them, it makes it more enjoyable for the student. Not only does it make it more interesting for the student, it also allows them to use their own learning styles to show you that they know what is was that you just taught them. In the book I enjoyed how they showed us the “Product and Performance Tic-Tac-Toe Versions’ 1 and 2”. These two figures are something that I might contemplate using in the class. I know that when I was a student and the teacher gave us options about what to do for a final project on a unit, that I enjoyed having the option.

**Jenn Baum**
Chapter 5: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms One of the biggest pieces of advice that I gathered from this chapter was that as a teacher, you should provide your students with several different opportunities to show their understandings, but also provide them with feedback often and as quickly as possible. In order to assess for deep understanding, GRASPS includes some suggested ways to do so. This framework included goals, meaningful roles, realistic audiences, situations, cumulative ‘student-generated’ products, and agreed upon standards (pg 70). In order to fairly assess each student when grading different products, it is important to remember that as long as the intended goals and criteria are met, the response chosen is insignificant. I have learned the most in classes where I have lots of feedback about how well I am doing in the class and how well I understand the material. It is usually in those classes that I tend to learn the material thoroughly even if it does seem ‘easier.’ In my classroom, I want to make sure to provide an environment that enables me to guide students in a productive way towards fully understanding the material that I teach and not wasting time and energy on meaningless assignments that do not apply or connect the content with the outside world. Lastly, I want to make sure to fairly assess students by giving them multiple opportunities to show their understandings.

Ryan Pelletier
I thought the GRASPS frame was a great way to use assessment. I believe all parts of the frame are important, in order for the student to excel. I believe the student should also know what parts of the frame they are performing well in. By doing this the student will be able to apply your simulations to the real world. They will also know their standards. If both you and your student share these expectations, there will be a better understanding of what must be done. This allows your student to always focus on the big ideas, as other things challenge them.

Kelly Steinhagen
This chapter taught me about GRASPS, a highly-effective frame for creating assessments. This involves six concepts that guide the teacher from planning the unit to adjusting it to meet the needs of the students. It is based around three types of assessment which include summative, what has been learned, formative, what is currently being learned, and the pre-assessment, what is previously known. If I use this concept correctly, then I will be able to create a unit that is based on what individual students know prior to the start of the unit as well as adjusting the curriculum in order to meet the needs of either struggling students or those who are not understanding a unit. I also realized that frequent feed-back asssists students in striving to do better and ensuring that they know the big ideas. Frequent assessment, but not just quizes, will help promote what the students need to understand and frequent feed-back will help my class stay on track.

Megan Wallace
I learned that it is important to have a variety of ways to assess the students. Students are strong in different areas so they need to be tested in different ways. I also learned that pre-assessment is just as important as the ending assessment. If I as the teacher don’t know what my students already know, how am I to accurately determine what they have learned? As a social studies teacher there are many ways that I can test my students on what they have learned in my class. I can always do the traditional paper tests. I can also do projects, both individual and group, and presentations. These are only a few of the options that I have available to me.

Taylor Kemp
This chapter is about effective assessments. These are very important in a classroom's overall effectiveness. There are many ways to have effective assessments. Authentic work and Inauthentic work are two things to consider. Authentic work is on the side of open ended responses, self generated answers, compared to inauthentic work which is more of a fill in the black, matching, type of test that does not have a high need for thought. Something that is good in formative assessments is having feedback from the students to see what they are thinking, also having reflections after assessments is a key tool. How this would impact me and my classroom is that I will be sure to have more authentic work then inauthentic. This goes had in had with mastery of a subject.

Justin Stewart
Giving students multiple types of assessment options is key to finding students mastery of the subject. Allowing them to do the certain type of assessment can encourage students to succeed by giving them options to do what they want. Keeping students motivated during assessments will keep a happier class. I want to be flexible in the ways that my students learn, so it is important that I vary the ways that I teach and the ways that I assess the students’ mastery of the subject. By using the tic-tac-toe method, students will be allowed to choose certain projects and assessments that they find interesting and worthwhile. By giving feedback on the projects, my students will be able to adapt and grow stronger based on the helpful feedback I give.

Lyzz Stevenson
**Chapter 5 **: Effective assessments are key to becoming a good teacher. Assessing student work will not only tell you that you are teaching the needed content but the you are doing it in a way that students learn, remember and fits their learning style. In the chapter some specific examples were given of ways to assess students along with good assessment tips (snapshot of learning, give feedback often inauthentic and authentic work, etc.). This is important so you can mark students learning, give specific feedback so students know that they are doing well, or what they need to improve on. This will hopefully encourage students to become better self-evaluators as well.

Erin
I learned from Chapter 5: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms many different approaches how to assess my students to see if they understand that material. I learned the difference between authentic and inauthentic work, and I need to keep my students engaged so they can be interested in learning. I agree 100 percent with what was in this chapter. From personal experience, I enjoyed projects more when I got to choose the topic or how I wanted to do the project. When I enjoyed the projects, I never forgot the material. In my classroom, I understand that the material will be boring for some because math is not the most interesting subject. I really thought the tic-tac-toe approach was interesting. I like the idea of having students do something written, create a visual, and an oral presentation. I want to create project ideas that will get more students interested in math.

Linda McLaughlin
//Chapter Five: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms// This chapter really focused on the different aspects of assessments. Some of the principles that I learned about include: considering assessments as photo albums vs. snapshots; making sure the assessments match up with the goals; the GRASPS Frame; and I learned about how important it is to assess my students //before// I start teaching my lesson. I was really impacted by the idea of assessing my students before I start my lessons. This makes complete sense to me, but it isn’t something that I’ve always experienced in my academic education. This is going to impact my classroom, because this is going to be a technique that I use with my learners. This way, I can see what level my students are already at, and then build on it. It will save me from teaching what they already know, and boring them. This will help me keep my students engaged. Assessments are such an essential tool to teaching, and I plan to utilize them to the best of my ability.

Kaitlyn Haase
Chapter 5: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms Chapter 5 correlates well with chapter 3 of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//. This chapter however touched on a few different concepts. I found the explanations of inauthentic work versus authentic work very useful. It was interesting to view the examples given, because looking back at my K-12 experience I was asked to do more inauthentic work than authentic work. In my classroom, I would like to make it a goal to have my students mostly, if not all, authentic work. Another concept that I learned from in this chapter is GRASPS. This is an acronym is an assessment frame built to help teachers assess students in effective ways. The acronym itself stands for: 1. A real-world **goal**, 2. A meaningful **role** for student, 3. Authentic (or simulated) real-world **audience**(s), 4. A contextualized **situation** that involve real-world application, 5. Student-generated culminating **products** and performances, and 6. Consensus-driven performance **standards** (criteria) for judging success . By implementing GRASPS in my classroom I would hope to be able to assess my students fairly based on learner readiness.

Olivia
This chapter discussed the differentiated assessments and how there are ways to create assessments to affectively to reach all learning styles in the classroom. Assessing students in different learning styles can help me understands my students on a more individual way, and it will help me in teaching them. The method of GRASPS was explained in this chapter, which showed me that there are many ways to assess students. Assessing students gives them the opportunity to show me their strengths. Students will do self-assessments as well. By using these methods, I will be able to see how they are progressing, or how they are not progressing in the classroom. This chapter will impact me as a teacher because I will want to assess my students to better help the students of my classroom. If I have a student who is having difficulties with the information, I can be there to help him, and myself, better understand what we need to change to accommodate his needs.