Chapter 3 Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom

This chapter ties in with chapter 5 from ubd/di. I particularly enjoyed the example about the teacher receiving an evaluation that would be tied to his/her salary; that is a great way of explaining it. I think that teachers needs to spend a lot of time going over their expectations for students as far as assessment, this includes: homework, quizzes, tests, in class projects, in class discussions etc. Classes should be structured in a way to provide the most varied and comprehensive grading possible. If all you give are multiple choice quizzes to your group of students and 2 out of 10 bomb them, then you give a take home essay and those two kids ace them, you know what you’re dealing with and how to improve your grading techniques, perhaps for just those two kids or maybe for the whole class. Assessment needs to fit the curriculum, fit the teacher, and fit the students.

Chapter 2: Mastery

This chapter about mastery was somewhat redundant to everything we’re learned about teaching students. Of course we want them to have a mastery of the subject! Why would we want them to only get a cursory view? The speed bump comes in when it’s actually time to teach them. To teach a student so well, and in such a way that you could confidently say they have mastered a subject is quite a boast in my opinion. I think it’s because, for me, there is always more to be learned about something. Do they know the plot, the theme, the symbols, could they connect it with real life situations and ideas? Sure. But there’s always more- they could know the history of the setting and how it impacts the story, the reasons for the author’s omission of details that could be pertainent, different ways each chapter could be view, each character could be viewed. Mastery for me is a false term because there is no such thing as mastery and the best we can do, as teachers, is set up our students with a solid foundation from which to build their knowledge.

Chapter 1: The Differentiated Intruction Mind-set: Rationale and Definition

Differentiated instruction happens, and has happened, in classrooms all over the country for many decades, but now we need to expand our approaches. It’s not enough to simply give a few students extra examples to help complete their homework, we need to also give the best examples we have, or the one-on-one help they need. We need to combine all of our best techniques to ensure that every child has the best possible education acquired while in school. It doesn’t mean giving them a free pass, we still need to challenge them, but we need to pull in more ideas and strategies that will enable us to impact the largest group possible. I have seen DI in my mentor’s classrooms and know it will be a huge part of my own because it is really the only way to teach one curriculum to every unique student we have.

Chapter 5: Consider Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms

This chapter explains the different techniques and views that can positively assess students and their knowledge. After being in the classroom for three weeks, I can definitely say that assessment is important and shouldn’t be handled lightly or in the wrong context. The assessment type needs to match the assumed knowledge and there is never only one way to test students. Simple conversation can provide enough assessment for some kinds of curriculum such as movie analysis. In my classroom, I’ll try to limit my formal assessment such as tests and quizzes, and bank more on informal assessment such as in-class activities and homework.