Preparing to Differentiate: Student Readiness Transcript
Chapter 1: Introduction
Bird's-Eye
Transcript:
This is a module on preparing to differentiate according to student readiness. This module is part of a series dedicated to the topic of differentiation.
If you are new to this topic, access the “Basics of Differentiation,” an introductory express module that explores foundational mindsets, beliefs, and terms.
Modules in the “Preparing to Differentiate” group will teach you how to gather pertinent information about your students before implementing a strategy.
Modules in the “strategy” group will teach you how to differentiate instruction based on information you gather from the “Preparing to Differentiate” modules.
Click on each module icon for a description. Click “Proceed” when you are ready to continue.
Most teachers would agree that it is important for every student in a classroom to be learning. In fact, this is one of the most fundamental tasks of a teacher.
Let’s begin learning about student readiness by taking a look at a teacher named Mrs. Krause. Mrs. Krause is entering her second year of teaching. Before the school year begins, she takes a look at her roster. She has four students with IEPs, and they all have learning disabilities in reading and writing. There are two students who have been recently identified as gifted. Two other students are continuing to develop their proficiency in English. In an effort to get even more information about her class, Mrs. Krause reviews her students’ state and district assessment scores. This is what she discovers.
This diversity in ability is not new to Mrs. Krause. She faced a similar situation last year and struggled to meet the needs of students with such a wide range of ability levels. For each unit that she taught, she was never sure what background knowledge each student possessed. This was very problematic since it led to many behavioral issues in the classroom. Some students would find the lessons (and work) too easy and therefore got bored. Other students found the work far too challenging and got very frustrated. Mrs. Krause wants to avoid making the same mistakes again this year.
This situation is familiar to new and experienced educators alike. Many teachers are inclined to jump right and in and start using strategies to differentiate. However, using strategies without more specific information about what individual students do and do not know is foolhardy and may be a waste of time and energy.
Before selecting any strategy, Mrs. Krause should find out more about the knowledge, skills, and conceptual understandings that each student brings into the classroom.
That is the purpose of this module. You will learn how to prepare for differentiating instruction by identifying the learning outcomes for a unit of study. Then you will learn how to measure student readiness against those learning outcomes by creating or modifying a pre-assessment.
The term student readiness is not one that most people would be familiar with, but it is somewhat self-explanatory. In the words of Dr. Kathy Puckett, student readiness is “what students are mentally prepared to do or learn next” (Puckett, 2013, Ch.1, Key Terms). What is this student’s level of readiness for this particular learning objective? What is his “entry point” for this particular unit of learning?
Vygotsky
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Student readiness is closely aligned to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, which highlights the difference between what an individual can do independently and what he or she can do with the guidance of a knowledgeable mentor.
Measuring or diagnosing a student’s level of readiness can help you plan and implement the supports that he or she will need in order to master a learning objective. If you know where they are in reference to where they need to go, you can help create a strategic plan to differentiate by content, process or product.
Let’s pause and make a connection to your own experience.
Which of the following activities seems to be the most analogous to measuring for student readiness: retirement planning, a car tune-up, or wellness check?
So how do you measure student readiness? The first step is to identify the unit of study that you’re going to differentiate. We will be using the term “unit” throughout this module. By this we mean, a group of related standards that will be taught together over a defined period of time.
After deciding on the unit of study you will identify the learning outcomes of that unit, which are the specific state or district standards that will be learned within the unit. Learning outcomes encompass three major elements: essential knowledge, essential skills, and conceptual understandings (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006).
Essential Knowledge
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Let’s examine what essential knowledge means. What knowledge is fundamental to the unit? What vocabulary, terms, or ideas are essential to this unit of study? For example, in a unit on fractions, the definition of a fraction,
denominator, and numerator could all be examples of essential knowledge (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006).
Essential Skills
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The second element is essential skills. What processes or skills do you want your students to master in this unit? For example, in a unit on expository text, one essential skill is being able to summarize a piece of text. Keep in mind that a complex skill may be comprised of one or more simpler skills. For example, within the skill of summarizing, students may need to know how to identify a main idea and supporting details. In order to identify essential knowledge and skills for a unit, the teacher must task-analyze or “unpack” the learning outcomes (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006).
The third and final component is establishing conceptual understandings (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006). How are the learning outcomes from this unit important, essential, or applicable to the real world? What is the enduring understanding of this unit of study?
For example, a conceptual understanding from a math unit could be: data can be presented in a variety of ways that highlight or emphasize certain aspects for different audiences.
Other questions that may help you tease out conceptual understandings from your unit are…
Check for Understanding
Question 1
Transcript:
Let’s take a moment to check your understanding. Read each statement. Decide if it would be considered essential knowledge, a skill, or a conceptual understanding, then check the corresponding box.
Once you’ve established a clear vision of the learning outcomes for a unit, you can use a pre-assessment to measure student readiness. One purpose of diagnostics or pre-assessments is to measure the pre-requisite skills needed for an upcoming unit. For example, a diagnostic for a long-division unit might contain questions about estimation, addition, subtraction and simple multiplication. This is because all of these skills are pre-requisites for doing long-division.
However, in order to differentiate effectively, we must not only know their proficiency with pre-requisite skills, but also what levels of mastery they have in regards to the learning outcomes of the unit. This is important to recognize because our students’ abilities will range from low levels of readiness to pre-existing skill mastery. It’s possible that some students will have already mastered some of the skills in your unit before entering your classroom (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006).
If no sufficient pre-assessment exists, you can modify an existing one or create a new one. A good pre-assessment for the unit should have enough questions to thoroughly examine a student’s readiness in all three areas: essential knowledge, essential skills, and conceptual understandings. However, the pre-assessment should be short enough for students to comfortably complete it and for teachers to score it. The teacher should also identify which questions on the pre-assessment correspond to each element of readiness.
It is important to keep in mind that students who are developing proficiency in English may need an alternative method for demonstrating to you what they do and do not know about concepts and skills in your unit.
Conclusion
Transcript:
Differentiating instruction for a diverse group of students with a range of abilities can be daunting. However, it is essential to meet all of our students where they are in terms of knowledge, skills, and understandings.
