"Assessment is today's means of modifying tomorrow's instructions"
Carol Ann Tomlinson
In this blog we are going to talk about the Need for Pre-Assessment for Differentiation in my future High School Biology Classroom regarding the Cell Structure and Energy Unit.
In order for differentiation to be effective, assessment must be an ongoing part of teaching and learning. Pre-assessment is especially critical to be able to determine the student's level of readiness to proceed with the new unit of study.
Related to Karen Hume (Start Where They Are, 2008, p. 134) says Pre-Assessment has four main purposes:
- Helping to determine which content, skills and strategies that students needed to teach so they can meet the goals
- Clearing up any misconceptions or partial understanding that students start with
- Telling how to group students so they can learn well
- Telling which types of activities will best support various learners
Many pre-assessments techniques have been used to address each objective for this unit and decide which formative/summative assessments and differentiated instructions to be used to track students progress
Objective #1: Compare and contrast plant & animal cells and different cellular structures and their functions
- Pre-Assessment: Short quiz will be used by Quizlet for some vocabularies and definition in this unit using flash card and matching sections and some short answer questions and TRUE/FALSE to check their prior knowledge and Pop corn sharing to allow all students to have a voice and share their ideas
- Format Assessment: Using Quizlet by answering the short answer question, and share their answers during discussion sharing their answers
Objective #2: Describe the structure and function of the cell membrane and explain its role in controlling the physiological processes by which materials are transported across it.
- Pre-Assessment: Using Quizlet the matching part and pop corn sharing
- Format Assessment: Students will answer the matching part to figure out the cell membrane function and some processes.
Objective # 3: Identify the reactants, products and basic functions of photosynthesis and cellular respiration
- Pre-Assessment: Using Quizlet and word splash pre-assessment
- Format Assessment: Using Quizlet by doing the flash card part, and for the word splash content vocabulary will be placed on a board, chart, large paper. Students are asked to use the words in a sentence, paragraph drawing or diagram.
Based on the pre-assessment techniques that have been used for this unit and using Quizlet I was able to divide students into three groups: Here is my Lucichart for Pre-assessment for differentiation that shows the following:
Group #1. Five students who answered most, including the most difficult, of the pre-assessment questions correctly.
They know most of the information and has a strong knowledge base about the different types of cells, structures, functions and processes. what they need is to apply knowledge in other ways and extended learning.
- Innovate differentiation strategy and activities:
a. Using open-ended questions to stimulate the exploration of concepts and ideas and facilitate creative critical and critical thinking processes.
b. Provide advanced materials about the cell structure & Energy unit textbooks and other resources from higher grade levels or even from the college level to provide appropriate challenge.
c. Project-based learning using long term project to obtain deeper knowledge and develop research skills.
a. Using open-ended questions to stimulate the exploration of concepts and ideas and facilitate creative critical and critical thinking processes.
b. Provide advanced materials about the cell structure & Energy unit textbooks and other resources from higher grade levels or even from the college level to provide appropriate challenge.
c. Project-based learning using long term project to obtain deeper knowledge and develop research skills.
- Assessment for tracking students:
a. Self-evaluation; students should learn to evaluate their won progress by having a checklist for example
b. Questioning session
c. Conferences; which requires questions that focus on students works and ideas and it helps to understand students' point of view
d. Exit tickets
For the summative assessment I would like to give them Free-response written test
a. Self-evaluation; students should learn to evaluate their won progress by having a checklist for example
b. Questioning session
c. Conferences; which requires questions that focus on students works and ideas and it helps to understand students' point of view
d. Exit tickets
For the summative assessment I would like to give them Free-response written test
Group #2. Twelve students who have some knowledge about the topic as shown in their score, but need to develop higher order thinking skills.
They know some of the information and has had some related learning experience. what they need also is new learning experiences.
- Innovative differentiation strategy and activities:
a. Modeling for students using " I do, we do, you do it"
b. Using hands on activities and demonstration to teach academic vocabulary
c. Using many medium to convey information like videos, online games.
d. Having flexible group work so that they learn from a broad range range of peers.
a. Modeling for students using " I do, we do, you do it"
b. Using hands on activities and demonstration to teach academic vocabulary
c. Using many medium to convey information like videos, online games.
d. Having flexible group work so that they learn from a broad range range of peers.
- Assessments for tracking students:
a. Conferences
b. Think-pair-share
c. Notebook/portfolio check; like having a simple open-notebook quiz over materials students should have in the notebook on some lesson of this unit.
d. Peer evaluation; when students evaluate other members.
e. Exit ticket
a. Conferences
b. Think-pair-share
c. Notebook/portfolio check; like having a simple open-notebook quiz over materials students should have in the notebook on some lesson of this unit.
d. Peer evaluation; when students evaluate other members.
e. Exit ticket
Group #3. Five students who appear to have limited knowledge about the topic. They have gaps in learning, what they need is to learn the needed background and skills related to some terms in this unit.
- Innovative differentiation strategy and activities:
a. Using "I Do, we Do, you Do it" -
b. Provide audio, visual, or concept-mapping supports while introducing new concepts.
c. Using graphic organizer/Charts to access the key content
d. Create word wall that display high frequency words for the lesson “Key vocabulary” or Interactive Review games that covering the key concepts and vocabulary from the unit.
a. Using "I Do, we Do, you Do it" -
b. Provide audio, visual, or concept-mapping supports while introducing new concepts.
c. Using graphic organizer/Charts to access the key content
d. Create word wall that display high frequency words for the lesson “Key vocabulary” or Interactive Review games that covering the key concepts and vocabulary from the unit.
- Assessments for tracking students:
a. Conferences
b. Think-pair-share
c. Peer evaluation
d. Thumbs up/ Thumbs down
a. Conferences
b. Think-pair-share
c. Peer evaluation
d. Thumbs up/ Thumbs down
References:
1. Biology High School Assessment. Retrieved from http://www.aacps.org/Testing/biology.pdf on February 1, 2017.
2. Pre-Assessment techniques. Retrieved from
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/senecavalleyhs/academics/staffdev/ira-preassesstech.pdf on February 1, 2017.
3. Differentiated assessment for middle and high school classroom. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.sa/books?id=ebXfAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=pre-assessment+for+high+school&source=bl&ots=_57YI3C_Cg&sig=834yH4I3gHU3nsPLtECZ0-BozFU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiwnpyM7e7RAhWDOxoKHWPTDtcQ6AEIPTAG#v=onepage&q=pre-assessment%20for%20high%20school&f=false on February 1, 2017.
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