Fair Isn't Always Equal

Fair Isn't Always Equal

Assessing & Grading in the Differentiated Classroom

by Rick Wormeli

Wormeli, R (2006). Fair Isn't Always Equal. Portland, MA: Stenhouse Publishers.

(Wormeli, 2006)

We will begin reading and journaling the first few Chapters the week of April 13th so everyone has time to order the book and get through Easter Weekend.

** This journal will be a way for all of us to create a set of notes to refer back to once we are done with the book group. Check out http://learningtocollaborate.blogspot.com/ and see the "Book Journals of Interest" section to see how this may end up looking.

**If there are people that want to look into using other forms of media, such as SlideShare, wikis, or a blog... feel free to share your ideas here. Thoughts?

Section I- Defferentiation and Mastery

Chapter 1: The Differentiated Instruction Mind-set: Rationale and Definition

Differentiation is doing what's fair for students. It's a collection of best practices strategically employed to maximize students' learning at every turn, including giving them the tools to handle anything that is undifferentiated. etc.

Reflections:

Don't like the word "fair." Fair is something happens at the fairgrounds once a year in August. The rest of the definition is right on. -Melinda Miller 4/12/09 9:00 PM
Teachers could make an anchor chart for "What to do when I'm stuck and the teacher is not available?" Most teachers have a "What to do when I am finished anchor chart but this takes it one step further. -Melinda Miller 4/12/09 9:06 PM
Differentiation is done "as needed" and not all the time. I think that needs to be clarified for teachers when the discussion of "differentiation" comes up. Most differentiate more than they realize.
"No one cares what we teach....It's what our students learn after their time with us that matters."
I want to use the paragraph at the end of this chapter as my beginning of the year letter I put on teacher's desks on fancy border paper with a little trinket "story bit" Any suggestions on the trinket? Okay, I better quit and give someone else a chance:) Hey Bryan:)
- How about giving them a rainbow? The idea of the teacher as the weather is so true. Are you bringing sunshine or storms? With a rainbow, it's not about being perfectly bright and sunny all the time. It's about looking for the good even in the storm. - Kelly Hines
- This paragraph would be excellent for staff appreciation week as well.
Wormeli describes highly effective teaching as strategically implemented best practices that provide students the tools to be successful learners. He attributes student motivation, engagement, and success to differentiated instruction that builds self-awareness "enabling students to become their own advocates" (p.5). My personal experience with this supports his belief. His statement, "differentiated instruction is good teaching" (p.9), should be the approach all professionals take in embracing the diverse learners of today. -Barbara McCormick 4/14/09 8:16 PM
It is true that when we first learn about DI, We vocus on principals, structures such as scaffolding, tiering, respectful tasks, felxible grouping , learner profiles, readiness, and anchor lessons. It is important to remember that you may already have some powerful scaffolding in place: providing graphic organizers for text based learning; more time to learn, tests read, text scribed. @tee62 Theresa
Ultimate level of differentiated instruction: Your learners know themselves so well that they tell you what they need to learn! @tee62 Theresa
I appreciated the reminder that 'differentiation does not mean making it easier for students', but instead should focus on the 'appropriate level of challenge that allows the student thrive' I think that's important message for parents and those with 'old school' teaching theories/practices. Christyn Holmes 4/14
I think Wormelli makes an excellent point that successful differentiation also equips students with the tools they need to be productive in non-differentiated situations. If we aren't conscious of this now, they will face greater challenges in these moments. - Kelly Hines 4/14
Love this "In fact, what we teach is irrelevant. It's what our students learn after their time with us that matters." Amen. Amen. Amen. Don't we all know these people? I don't know why they didn't get it. I taught it. I taught it all day until I was blue in the face. Well... - Kelly Hines 4/14

I'm struck by the passage on p. 4 that talks about "students for whom teachers have differentiated learn well...they understand themselves as learners." This seems key to their success in school and beyond, especially if we want them to get beyond the notion of just "doing school" for 8 hours a day. - Ann Etchison 4/15
The last paragraph in this chapter is powerful. If all teachers would just come to that conclusion. I don't hire a teacher if I don't believe that they are anything different than that paragraph. -Bryan Campbell 4/16/09
I like the idea that differentiation is not individualized instruction, but is what is needed to help maximize learning, which should include giving them tools to handle the things that are undifferentiated.-Joe D'Amato 4/16/09
He made a great point in stating that students will do well on undifferentiated tests if they have learned the materials taught in class, and that they will learn best through differentiated instruction. It is a belief that by accommodating to learning needs we are diminishing their ability to do well on the "assessments".-Joe D'Amat0 4/16/09
Some people may disagree with the idea that Undifferentiated classes are easier (my way or the high way), because students can disengage if they do not get it. Some may think differentiated is easier, but his contention is that differentiated equal engaged learning, which makes it more challenging. Page 8 really puts things into perspective, what we teach is irrelevant, it is what they learn that matters most.-Joe D'Amato 4/16/09
I appreciate the time Wormeli takes to explain crutch in the differentiated sense. DI is not pandering to students. In fact, it's important to not differentiate to the point that we are not challenging students in certain areas when we think we don't match our instruction with their learning style. Instead, the DI teacher gives the "appropriate challenge that enables students to thrive" (p. 4)-Bill Carozza 4/18/09.

Chapter 2: Mastery

Definitions
- "Spontaneous applications"(p.12) gives an educator a new perspective on the transfer of learning to building depth of knowledge. As parents, we do this with our children at an early age as they learn to use kitchen utensils for eating, shooting peas, or opening a jar. Who would have thought that you could apply such an average skill to so many new situations? For students to truly understand they must be able to apply skills to new situations at appropriate times throughout their lives.-Barbara McCormick 4/14/09 8:17 PM
- The idea of definitely mastery in "public-friendly" terms is essential. We love our education jargon and often use it as a way to perpetuate ambiguity. Defining these expectations in their rawest forms will only benefit our students. - Kelly Hines
- Adding to Kelly's thoughts, mastery is much more than knowing, and moves to higher levels-if the material is truly mastered.-Joe D'Amato
- I also thought his definition of literate is very usable. Literate means we can access, ananlyze, evaluate and create the subject. He related it well to the facets of learning as described in UBD. This is where teaching goes beyond presenting a lot of information and taking the most important concepts and driving them home, far beyond the factual level. That is where I want my students to be!-Joe D'Amato
Acceptable Evidence of Mastery
- Great question, "What's essential and enduring in the lesson?" (p.14)-Barbara McCormick 4/14/09 8:18 PM
- I have to admit that I am a bit concerned about the idea that our educational objectives are usually open for interpretation of the core components and main ideas. If you take the idea of the grade 12 history example given in this section, teachers from around Virginia can approach and teach this objective very differently. If we are going to require standardized testing of state-wide learning objectives, should they be "interpretable"? - Kelly Hines 4/14
- The VA Government standard cited illustrates the complexity of this notion of acceptable evidence of mastery, and while I don't disagree that a high quality response would include some of the bulleted items listed on p. 16, I'm not necessarily convinced that tracing those events over time demonstrates true understanding (it might...but it might not). I might be more interested in whether students could apply some of the concepts like direct and indirect democracies, social contracts, natural rights to something current and real to them---the way a high school student government works, for example. But then that gets back to Kelly's question of the interpretation of objectives and how flexible we want this concept to be. Does differentiated instruction imply a wider berth of demonstrating mastery? Clearly I must read on! ---Ann Etchison, 4/15
- I think the crux of the concept of measuring mastery is how well the assessments "show" how well the essential understanding or question is understood. If the objective is clear the assessment should delve into those objectives to the appropriate level. His longitude and latitiude example worked well with that.-Joe D'Amato 4/16
- I had to look up the word "obfuscate"" in the 2nd paragraph. Obfuscate: render unclear, unintelligable. I have not ever used this word before. "If were trying to evaluate the appropriateness of an assessment, therfore, we must always examine how it illumninates or obfuscates those essential understanding and questions." tee62 Theresa; 4/19

Determining What's Important to Master
- Being open to conversations about what is considered essential is the first step in collaboratively working towards a guaranteed and viable curriculum. -Barbara McCormick 4/14/09 8:18 PM
- I often find that my idea of what is important for a student's deeper understanding is opposed to what I've found they need to be able to regurgitate for "the test." How do I marry these? While I see bigger pictures and main ideas and connections that thread throughout curriculum areas, many MC tests are so focused on fact recall. - Kelly Hines 4/14
- As an elementary teacher, I can already see the intense need for commitment for teaching to mastery starting from kindergarten. When a child comes to me and cannot add fluently, it creates a situation that is very difficult to overcome for the child and the teacher. I can only imagine the challenges and frustrations that teachers in middle and high schools face. It often feels that we are teaching our own curriculum plus the years behind us. So how do we remedy this? - Kelly Hines 4/14
- Our district is in the beginning of curriculum mapping and "unpacking" the standards is a hughe piece. We have been spending a great deal of time agreeing on the standards and performance indicators by subject per grade level. Our next steps will be to align them vertically, and then maybe we can unpack. All of these things speak directly to Wormeli's text on Determining What's Important. The whole concept will force people to share, and compromise-which can be very personal and pose some speedbumps. I also like the idea of doing it at least annually, keeps the "curriculum" alive.-Joe D'Amato
- Sharing is a big issue for teachers, at least in my experience. Teachers are in silos. I love when people share...we have started our curriculum mapping and I've noticed that people aren't really interested in recording what they are doing. They also aren't interested in what others are doing...I'd love to see this text used for our summer reading. - Dennis Arms 4/19/2009 7:55 p.m.
- Sharing of ideas and material requires time and a common belief that curriculum is a best if it is differentiated for many learners needs. I have seen the best teams working on this are those that understand the objective, have uses good teaching to model, guide, release the objective; have shared with colleagues and made adjusteds to the lessons; assessed frequently...and communicated with peers about learners results. These grade teams have the best results helping students achiec learning goals. tee62-theresa; 4/19
- I am a big proponent of pacing guides. This is a non threatening way to help teachers stay focused on many content areas throughout the year. The pacing guides also help teachers to have common subjects to talk about as the year progresses. Sharing frustrations and celebrations about the unit while your teaching it at the same time is helpful. tee62-theresa; 4/19

Section II- Assessment

Chapter 3: Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom

Introduction
- The idea that too often assessment are an autopsie rather than a physical. Great analogy. The dated practice of giving assessments as an end needs to go and be replaced with a new mindset.-eduguy101-J. D'Amato 5/4
Begin with the End in Mind
- "Nothing in the post-school world is kept a secret, so we shouldn't play games with students, coyly declaring that we maintain the right to choose anythign we want fromt he chapter text when they ask what's on the test." (p22) This is a very good point to why it is so important for students to know what the end expecations are. -PrincipalJ- Jessica 4/25
- If the focus is on student achievement, removing the surprises by giving the assessment for them to refer to at the beginning is okay. We, as administrators, need to make sure that teachers understand that it is okay so long as they change the assessment up to avoid memorization. "Students are likely to do the homework if they have a clear picture of the finished product" (p.22) I would like to add that we should tell them that the homework will be on the test.-J. D'Amato
EEK a.k.a KUD
- Choosing what is on the assessment must be those things that are essential for all students. The idea of prioritizing standards and ranking them, for the purposes of teaching and assessing are directly linked to the foundational ideas of curriculum mapping. It is easy to get caught teaching tons of "stuff" or teaching what we like versus what is necessary.-J.D'Amato
- The big idea on pg. 25 is that altering essential learning for the struggling learnign is a detour to help them get on the road, while the advance students also need the essentials but may not need to do all the same work as everyone else.-J. D'Amato
Determining Students' Readiness
- Take preassessments from the summative assessments, which hold the content and skills needed. The bulleted list on pg. 26 is a nice reference to some guiding points for the preassessments.-J. D'Amato
Designing the Assessments
- This section comes back to the ideas from Understanding by Design, where we design the summative assessment first, and then design everything else from it.-J. D'Amato
The Wisdom of Formative Assessments
- "The most powerful single innovation that enhances achievement is feedback." ~Marzano Use formative assessments and feedback along the way as frequent checkpoints--this is where students learn the most. PrincipalJ - Jessica 4/25
- The Marzano quote is great. It think that the questions on pg. 28 hold a lot of power if we are acutally assessing the right way "Whats one thing you changed in the last two weeks, instructionally, because of something you observed while assessing students?". Very powerrful reflection.-J. D'Amato
Take Action as a Result of What We Learn
- If we pre-assess do we truly use the results to modify instruction and currriculum? A question we must ask ourselves as we implement the use of multiple assessments. - B. McCormick
Varied and "Over Time" Assessment
- In order for assessment to be valid, it must be varied and done over time. PrinicpalJ-Jessica 4/25
- There are more shifts of thinking in here. Allowing students to redo work for full creidt based on the idea that in the "real" world people get multiple redos prior to deadlines. This is truly preparing them for adulthood!-J. D'Amato 5/4
- "clear and consistent evidence." pg.32 Are we looking at the whole child's development or one assessment? - B. McCormick
Authentic Assessment
- More reflective questions can come out of this. "Is your assessment close to how this will apply to the real world application?" "Is your assessment authentic to the way they are learning the material?"-J. D'Amato
Be Substantive- Avoid "Fluff"
- Solid examples are given. It would be great to have a rubric to apply to assignments to help teach us to really delve into them and get rid of fluff.-J. D'Amato 5/4
Assessment Guided, Differentiated Lesson Planning Sequence
- The steps on pages 35 & 36 are a great device to emply as we move to creating better assessments and lessons on that focus on the assessments.-J. D'Amato 5/4
- It capitalizes on "reflective practices" being at the core of developing refined lessons. I like the mention of sharing with colleagues to provide external review of the lessons. This takes building a collaborative non-threatening environment to truly take place. - B. McCormick
Summary and Further Thinking
- "Differentiating teachers keep everything visible so that students can hit the target and assessment is the pivotal instructional tool." p. 42 Can today's educators grasp this concept for tomorrow's future? - B. McCormick

CHAT ARCHIVE FROM APRIL 18TH, 2009 REGARDING CHAP. 1 and 2

Please enter your twitter info so we can follow each other.

Twitter ID	"Real" name :)	Where and/or what you do.
@mmiller7571	Melinda Miller	Principal, Willard MO
@bonniecferguson	Bonnie Ferguson	Teacher, Canton GA
@PrincipalJ	Jessica Johnson	Principal, Junuau WI
@eduguy101	Joe D'Amato	Principal, Depew NY
@caroy	Charlie A. roy	Principal, Peoria IL
@petergladden	Peter Gladden	Dir. of School Technology, St. Louis
@e_shep	Ed Shepherd	AP, Roanoke, VA
@barbaram	Barbara McLaughlin	Academic ICT Consultant, Ottawa, ON
@bmccormick65	Barb McCormick	Principal, KC, MO
@pmiller16	Peter Miller	AP, Sparta, NJ
@akchristyn	Christyn Holmes	Curriculum Admin Denver, Co
@wcarozza	Bill Carozza	Principal, Hopkinton, NH
@tee62	Theresa Reagan	Principal, Hudsonville, MI
@bcampbell70	Bryan Campbell	APrincipal, Lebanon, MO
@JudyHarris05	Judy Harris	Principal, Steamboat Springs, CO
@fitzG	Michael Fitzgerald	Principal, Darien, IL
@jenorr	Jennifer Orr	Teacher, Annandale VA
@paulawhite	Paula White	Gifted Resource Teacher, Abemarle County, VA
@dolleen	Dolleen Wiltgen	Teacher, 4th Grade Math/Science, Canton, GA
@ann1622	Ann Etchison	VA ASCD (@vascd) Exec. Director Charlottesville, VA
@kellyhines	Kelly Hines	4th grade teacher, Washington, NC
@jackiekocurek	Jackie Kocurek	Elementary Principal, Hillsboro, MO
@twilliamson15	Todd Williamson	Broad Creek Middle School, Newport, NC
@armsd	Dennis Arms	Technology Integration Coach, Haverford, PA
@terri_science	Terri Johnson	Instructional Coach, St. Joseph, MO
@billbird	Bill Birdlebough	Teacher, Roanoke VA