Differentiated Assessment
Differentiated Assessment
Introduction
Differentiated instructions are teaching approaches that operate on the ideology that the learners in a classroom are diverse. Diversity in this scenario means that the pupils differ, in terms of intelligences and ability to comprehended learning instructions. Teachers are usually faced with the dilemma of how to manage the students in their class. It makes no sense having a lesson plan for each of the students. Similarly, using a middle ground when teaching the students is also ineffective as it ignores the needs of gifted children (Baska, & Bass, 2004).
Schools that deal with gifted and talented children must strive to adopt effective instructional strategies. It is the effective instructional strategies that will help the gifted children reach their full potential. Instructors can differentiate instructions with individual students or a group of students such as those that are gifted. Differentiation of instructions means that instructors provide students with interrelated activities based on different students needs.
Instructional Strategies for Gifted Students
There are several references related to assessment and feedback. The instructional strategy of questioning is the first method that instructors can use. Instructors can utilize questioning to come up with challenging queries that encourage higher cognitive thinking skills. Explicit modeling is the second strategy that can be used on gifted pupils. Ordinarily, gifted students employ higher order thinking skills. It is the responsibility of the instructors to help students become familiar with their thinking strategies.
Cooperative learning is the third strategy that can be used on gifted pupils. Cooperative learning involves working in groups so as to bring out each other’s potential (Keck, & Kinney, 2005). Feedback is the fourth strategy that aims to enhance the student’s achievement. Feedback strategy focuses on the progress that a student makes in relation to a topic, or a course that he is undertaking. Alternative assessment is the fifth strategy which involves adopting modified activities for the gifted children so as to avoid repetition.
Pre Assessment Strategy
Pre-assessment strategies are vital ass they help instructors to gauge how much their students knew about a topic. Pre assessments are vital in making a decision about a student’s strengths and needs. The instructors will capitalize on the student’s strength while helping him succeed in areas that he was weak. Pre assessment strategies enable the instructor to plan for further learning. The instructor’s pre assesses students and learn their level of academic achievement (Roberts, & Inman, 2007).
It is by learning this level, that the instructor determines the way forward in terms of learning. One example of Pre assessment strategy that instructors can adopt is the pre-assessment charts. There are various types of pre asse4ssemnt charts that instructors can use. There is a KWL chart, a knowledge rating chart and prior knowledge questionnaire. These segments will look at the KWL chart.
KWL Chart for Pre Assessment
A KWL chart is a pre or post assessment tool to determine how much a student’s knows about a subject. K represents what do I know; W represents what I want to know, and L represents what did I learn. For the purposes of pre assessment, instructors utilize the KWL to determine what students know. The teacher poses a series of question regarding a topic. It is the responses that students provide that the instructor will use to gauge the extent of knowledge that his students have.
A KWL chart thus helps the instructors to determine the level of comprehension of his students (Brown, 2004). It also helps the teacher avoid repetition which can be boring for the gifted children who understood the concept long ago. The KWL chart enables teachers to adjust their lesson plans with regards to the student’s prior knowledge about a topic. When dealing with gifted children, the teacher will focus on only the areas that students failed to mention in what to I know.
Post Assessment
Post assessment strategies are implemented at the end of a learning lesson. Instructors must gauge what their students have learned at the end of a lesson. Determining what students have learned will be done by determining what they did not know at the start of topic. One strategies for post assessment is through testing.
Testing
Testing can be formally or informally done. Informal testing requires that the teacher randomly asks questions related to the topic covered. The instructor will them use the responses gathered to determine how much the students have understood the concepts taught. Formal testing involves setting continuous assessments or quick essay assignments. Questions of the assessment test to the essay will focus on the topic taught. Emphasis will be on the new ideas that the students have been taught (Roberts, & Inman, 2007). Testing is a reliable post assessment as it helps instructors to determine the student’s strong and weak areas. It also helps the instructors sharpen their critical thinking abilities and integration of concepts taught into their own words.
Recommendations
Differentiated assessment helps teacher reach out to all students. Subsequently the teacher can meet the varying needs of each of the students. Differentiated assessment enables teachers to determine the student’s strength and weaknesses (Keck, & Kinney, 2005). The differentiated assessment then helps the teachers to establish a reliable curriculum and adopt effective instructional strategies which focus on student’s needs. Overall, the student makes progress in terms of academic growth and performance. Differentiated assessments also enhance student satisfaction as they are able to learn new content.
Reference
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