formative and summative assessments:
In the heath brothers' book switch, the authors note that "what looks like laziness is often exhaustion" (17). over the course of an 8-hour school day, it is impossible for a student to attend to each of the thousand competing forms of pressure. tasks which are too difficult, unclear, that lack relevance or application, or that are not engaging will fall to the wayside. I see the creation of meaningful, well-differentiated activities as a basic form of respect: I seek to acknowledge their rich and active personal and academic lives by ensuring that the assessments i offer are purposeful, enriching and appropriately challenging. My personal hurdle is to overcome the slow-feedback loop. I also look forward to attempting more of the "bright Spot" strategies: identify what is working right, and cultivate more of it.
HHB Unit 1 Summative: Reflective Writing
HHB Unit 1 Formative: Reading the informational text: "Identity and Violence"
HHB any unit Formative: Quick QFT Activity
Differentiated English 10 Activity-- a lesson in what NOT to do!
In this activity, I created reading groups with different versions/ excerpts about the same topic (Martin Luther's vs Erasmus's views on Free Will). The overall target was "Basic Understanding" of an informational text, and so used a "Basic Understanding" target, and I created 3 groups with DRP-appropriate texts with comprehension questions for each text. The questions were designed to guide students to the finding the author's key ideas.
While all of the students read the texts, answered the questions, and participated in small and large group discussions, I observed that ALL of the students had attained a high level of basic understanding, and they could all articulate Martin Luther's and Erasmus's main points.
HOWEVER, when I sat down to assess the written evidence in the packets, I discovered that only the highest DRP group exceeded the target, while the middle DRP group (mostly) achieved the target, and the lowest DRP group (mostly) did not achieve the target... because I erroneously used the same target for all three groups. For the lowest DRP group, I should have been asking them to IDENTIFY the main ideas. For the middle group, the target should have been to identify main AND supporting ideas. And for the highest DRP group, they should have been able to identify main ideas and supporting ideas as well as explain how they relate to each other.
At any rate, it was a good learning experience for me.
Task Sheet and Scales with Feedback
HHB Unit 1 Formative: Reading the informational text: "Identity and Violence"
HHB any unit Formative: Quick QFT Activity
Differentiated English 10 Activity-- a lesson in what NOT to do!
In this activity, I created reading groups with different versions/ excerpts about the same topic (Martin Luther's vs Erasmus's views on Free Will). The overall target was "Basic Understanding" of an informational text, and so used a "Basic Understanding" target, and I created 3 groups with DRP-appropriate texts with comprehension questions for each text. The questions were designed to guide students to the finding the author's key ideas.
While all of the students read the texts, answered the questions, and participated in small and large group discussions, I observed that ALL of the students had attained a high level of basic understanding, and they could all articulate Martin Luther's and Erasmus's main points.
HOWEVER, when I sat down to assess the written evidence in the packets, I discovered that only the highest DRP group exceeded the target, while the middle DRP group (mostly) achieved the target, and the lowest DRP group (mostly) did not achieve the target... because I erroneously used the same target for all three groups. For the lowest DRP group, I should have been asking them to IDENTIFY the main ideas. For the middle group, the target should have been to identify main AND supporting ideas. And for the highest DRP group, they should have been able to identify main ideas and supporting ideas as well as explain how they relate to each other.
At any rate, it was a good learning experience for me.
Task Sheet and Scales with Feedback