Assessment for Differentiation in a Classroom
Differentiation refers to the process educators use when making decisions to adapt lessons or teaching strategies to better promote their students. An educator’s primary job is to ensure that students receive the “best possible learning experiences” (Tomlinson and Moon, 2013, p. 9) that provide substantial academic growth. Educators are in a constant position of being a child’s main influence which puts them in an important position to lead students in meaningful ways, manage processes and routines, and ensure students constantly feel valued and respected within their learning environment. A student’s learning environment strongly reflects their academic growth, therefore learning environments and lessons including students’ diverse needs, cultures, and interests need to be thoughtfully planned out. The environment should be viewed as a place where all members work together and have equal learning opportunities, and provide ongoing feedback and support through meaningful curriculum connections for the students.
Creating positive connections is essential for students to view and trust an educator as their “dependable partner” (Tomlinson and Moon, 2013, p. 4) throughout their academic growth and achievement. Students should feel emotionally connected within their environment as a safe place for students to learn and make mistakes, but to also remain present and be themselves. To create an emotional connection with a student, the educator must get to know and learn about the students’ beliefs, cultural or ethnic background, interests, and learning profile. Educators must provide opportunities for students to work with their abilities and interests, and interact with peers with similar interests to feel more connected. Engagement and motivation within students’ learning and processes will result in further academic growth once students feel they are valued, respected and important within the classroom environment. It is known that educators are a key “factor in whether a child is inspired or tortured, humanized or dehumanized, hurt or healed” (Tomlinson and Moon, 2013, p. 3), and in what they take away from the overall experiences. With that being said, it is crucial to remain mindful and culturally appropriate when providing experiences for students but is necessary to obtain academic growth and a sense of being for each student.
The curriculum relates to “what teachers teach or what students should learn” (Tomlinson and Moon, 2013, p. 9), whereas instruction refers to how an educator will teach and how or what the students are going to experience. Educators should acknowledge the diverse learning styles their students will have, but also reflect and acknowledge the various cultural and ethnic backgrounds the students will bring with them into the classroom by implementing them into lessons and different teaching techniques. How educators choose to instruct their students will hold significance over how their students will process or view the information they have been presented with. As Tomlinson and Moon stated, “instruction is more powerful than curriculum” (Tomlinson and Moon, 2013, p. 9), therefore instruction must be thoughtfully planned before starting a lesson. Each student has various and differing needs that need to be thought deeply about before teaching new content to students as each student will have different abilities and interests, and will learn in a variety of ways that need to be met throughout experiences to ensure students are engaged and actively participating within their learning processes. Creating opportunities for students to assist with the creation of an assessment tool will “empower” (Volante, 2006, p. 136) them, “keep them actively engaged” (Volante, 2006, p. 136), and help students develop a “shared responsibility for learning” (Leahy and Lyon., et al, 2005, p. 23), but will also assist with helping the students to identify the “clear learning targets” (Volante, 2006, p. 137) for their assessment, ensuring students are aware of what is expected.
Assessments are used to obtain information about a student’s learning towards particular skills, concepts or learning outcomes. When approaching assessment educators must distinguish how to provide “active and visible support” (Tomlinson and Moon, p. 4) for students through various formative and summative assessments. Creating formative assessments that reflect student interests and abilities throughout lessons will allow the educator to monitor and gather information about the students learning and obtain a “regular and evolving sense” (Tomlinson and Moon, 2013, p. 8) of what the next steps could be to further support the students learning without disrupting the whole class. Providing ongoing feedback and support aid in helping students understand their areas of proficiency and areas needing work, which is necessary to promote a growth mindset for students. Formative assessment enables students to participate in a trial and error exploration without the weight of a grading scale in the back of their minds, allowing them to engage more deeply within the content and their learning while the educator “adapts instruction” (Leahy and Lyon., et al, 2005, p. 23) for student needs. For assessments to be effective in learning, they must provide students with ongoing “feedback that needs to cause thinking” (Leahy and Lyon., et al, 2005, p. 24) beyond what the students already know. Summative assessment often restricts the students’ ability to perform the best they can but is used to “measure and evaluate” (Tomlinson and Moon, 2013, p. 19) their learning at the end of a lesson relating to a particular outcome.
The environment in which students learn has a tremendous impact on the way a student will learn, making it crucial for educators to thoroughly and thoughtfully plan lessons, instructional methods, and assessments for students to take part in to promote academic and learning growth in each student. Taking into consideration the potential personal, social, and physical configurations that could occur within the classroom is necessary to provide a holistic and comfortable environment that “shapes how they experience learning” (Tomlinson and Moon, 2013, p. 5), and for each student to have a positive learning experience outcome within that particular environment. Throughout the term a student should be able to positively “see themselves, their lives, their talents, and their aspirations” (Tomlinson and Moon, 2013, p. 10) throughout the curriculum they have learned. Learning experiences must be aligned with curricular outcomes and show a true connection to students’ personal lives.
Works Cited
Leahy, S., Lyon, C., Thompson, M. & William, D. (2005). Classroom assessment: Minute by minute, day by day. Educational Leadership, 63(3), 19-24
Tomlinson, C. & Moon, T. (2013). Assessment and student success in a differentiated classroom. ASCD: Alexandria: VA. (Chapter 1: Differentiation – An Overview: pp. 1-16).
Tomlinson, C. & Moon, T. (2013). Assessment and student success in a differentiated classroom. ASCD: Alexandria: VA. (Chapter 2: Assessment & Differentiation – A Framework for Understanding: pp. 17-26).
Volante, L. (2006). Principles for effective classroom assessment. Brock Education, 15(2), 134-147
