For today’s assignment, I needed to create a pre-assessment for my unit on “tu/Ud + commands” in Spanish. Following the assessment, I then needed to create a mind map of differentiated strategies and assessments to move students at a range of levels effectively through the unit.
I started off by using the site Kahoot to create the quiz. I thought the system would be really straightforward – an individual assessment for each kid independently – but actually the site gamifies a pre-assessment quiz by allowing kids to compete against each other for both correct answers and speed in responding to the questions. I see both advantages and disadvantages with using this site to administer a pre-assessment.
Advantages:
- The site definitely looks really cool to students. I was able to insert a silly picture of a cat – which my son loved – and as the quiz progressed, there were lots of fun visuals with the feedback provided for right/wrong answers. It’s super interactive and fun.
- When I started working with the site, my son immediately came over and said, “Kahoot! I know Kahoot!” He expressed enthusiasm about it which demonstrates both positive name recognition and also positive previous experiences using the site – that’s great!. He immediately asked for the code so he could take the quiz.
Disadvantages:
- All of the answers to the questions I inserted needed to be in the form of “choose one of these answers” – I didn’t see an option for students to provide more open-ended responses. I suppose this is good bc it limits me to assessing things that are right/wrong assess-able, but I did feel myself wanting to provide students with the opportunity to express an idea in at least one of the questions.
- Also, the system provides immediate scores directly to students through the interface about how they are doing on the quiz in relation to their peers. While it was fun for my son to take my sample quiz (he the only test taker), I’m not sure how it would feel to get immediate and on-going feedback if you start to realize that you are answering some/all questions incorrectly and you see how you stack up (not well) against your peers. I didn’t see an option NOT to use this function, but it may just come from my really limited use of Kahoot so far…
Here is a link to the assessment: Kahoot at pin #7154460 (NOTE to my instructor: I shared this assessment with you via your gmail address.)
For there, I reviewed a couple of articles on best practices of differentiating instruction to meet needs to students across multiple levels in the classroom. I was really inspired by – and learned a great deal from – the article on ASCD’s website called “Differentiation: It Starts with Pre-Assessment” which highlighted the work of a science teacher named Lily to differentiate a unit on the nervous system for her students. The article outlines how Lily had her students take an in-class (paper) assessment, which she immediately collected, graded, and then used as the basis for – again immediately! – dividing kids into groups based on ability level. It was clear, as the article articulated her approach with each group, that she was incredibly intentional not only about meeting each student where he/she was and addressing their particular needs, but also about ensuring that students felt “just right” in the group they were in, and didn’t pick up on any “leveling” going on in the classroom (which is what I worried about in Kahoot). Each group simply began working on their tasks, and likely knew that they were engaged in the same general content as peers (re: the nervous system) without it somehow being negatively accentuated that they were operating in any sort of challenged ability group. I loved that. Reading her examples helped me to think much more creatively and tangibly about how to differentiate for students within my own unit on tu/Ud and commands. It’s clear, from engaging in this exercise, how powerful specific examples from other teachers who are operating with a high level of excellence and expectation can then be when applied to one’s own practice.
I created a mind map of differentiated approaches that will directly follow the pre-assessment in my tu/UD + commands unit. It’s so valuable to apply this exercise – and so many of the other exercises we’ve completed over the past few weeks – to a single unit. It’s clear how much richer that unit, and my own thinking about it, are becoming as a result of going in – deeper and deeper – week over week. Thanks!
My mind map is linked here: https://coggle.it/diagram/Wo2RmxVlgwABAqS1/t/differentiating-and-in-the-tu-ud-%2B-commands-unit-in-spanish/a52bb8752af64477ea3722e4e881dffd5aac0183618b9a186e1da2ab4c99dd9c
References:
- 5. Pre-assessment Ideas – Differentiation & LR Information for SAS Teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2018, from https://sites.google.com/site/lrtsas/differentiation/5-preassessment-ideas
- A. (n.d.). Differentiation: It Starts with Pre-Assessment. Retrieved February 21, 2018, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/dec13/vol71/num04/Differentiation@_It_Starts_with_Pre-Assessment.aspx
- (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.bing.com/images
trees do bend 