FIAE+B2+Chapter+3

]

[[toc]

Abstract
Chapter three of //Fair Isn't Always Equal// talks about the three different assessments teachers should attempt to utilize within a classroom. The three different assessments Wormeli goes over are: pre -assessments, formative assessments and summative assessments. Wormeli suggests that if a teacher is to be successful with the assessment process, they should begin with the pre -assessment. The pre -assessment is used at the beginning of a new unit to measure each students understanding of the lesson at hand. Teachers then move on to the formative assessments (quizzes, journal entries etc.) which are given periodically throughout the unit to help chronicle a students understanding of the subject at hand. Through these formative assessments, teachers will be able to deem it necessary or not to reconstruct their instruction style. The summative assessment will be given to students at the completion of a unit to see what the students have learned throughout the lessons time frame.

[|Synthesis Tim]
Chapter three was a chapter in which everyone agreed with Wormeli's assessment process and seemed to believe that the process would be a necessary tool within their classrooms one day. Most of us seemed to agree that the [|formative assessment] was the most important of the three assessments. Being able to periodically check up on a students learning and understanding of a lesson seemed critical to us all. Also, the teacher being able to use these assessments to help decide on whether or not they should rethink their instruction style seemed important. [|Pre-assessments] was also a fairly popular topic. Pre -assessments would give a teacher the chance to get on the same page as the students at the beginning of the semester in regards to the student's knowledge of the subject. Everyone thought telling a student what was to come from the unit would have a beneficial impact on their learning. If the students knew beforehand what they were supposed to gain from a unit, then they would be able to recognize earlier if they were struggling with the lesson. Also, teaching content with a purpose instead of just for the sake of teaching was important. The ability to differentiate between content and fluff is very key.

Kirsten
"Too often, educational tests, grades, and report cards are treated by teachers as autopsies when they should be viewed as physicals" (O'Connor 2002, p. 20, //Fair isn't Always Equal//). This quote struck me like a brick wall. I knew how I had felt when I received a grade in high school, how I felt like it completely made me and if I did badly, I was bad, but if I did good, I was //good//. Sort of like an autopsy. What killed me? A sudden and unexpected D+. In order to change this mindset of studying a dead body (a student post-test) to looking at a healthy person in the progress of living (a student during the school year), Wormeli makes a few suggestions. One, that we start at the end and utilize the backwards design when creating units, lessons, and assessments. Wormeli takes a focus on assessments, explaining that there are three kinds we should utilize. First, we ought to start by making up our summative assessment to be given at the end of a unit. From that information, we need to create a pre-assessment which gives us an idea of where our students are at with a certain subject, and then formative assessments which are meant to be given over the course of a unit to track a student's understanding of the material. Wormeli also covers authentic assessment, repeating much of what was covered in the UbD/DI book, explaining that the assessments need to relate to the students' schoolwork. He also discussed adjusting assignments for students with special needs, explaining that far too many teachers provide those students with fluff work rather than real, substantive activities that both meet the necessary criteria and are on their level.

Jordan
In this chapter, Wormeli discusses how and when an assessment should be designed, how to determine students’ readiness, and lastly how to design an appropriate and meaningful lesson. He suggests that before the unit starts, the unit test should already be made so that students have a “clear picture of the expectations” (21) and know what to expect to be on the test. To determine students’ readiness, a pre-assessment, or a unit test before the unit, should be given to measure how much each student already understands in the new unit. Thirdly, as lessons develop, there needs to be formative assessments so that students have a way to measure their understanding of topic. As a student, few teachers felt it necessary to perform pre-assessments and many did not have the unit exam made until the night before. I feel that they may have had an idea of what they wanted their students to learn, but it would have been beneficial as a student to know from day one what was expected to be on the test. The techniques and reasoning that Wormeli suggests are reasonable and are logical in producing a well-planned learning experience. By exposing my students to the information early on and giving them consistent feedback through an array of assessments, I feel that I will be able to measure authentic mastery of content when assessing my students.

Brittany
Presenting the students with a pre-assessment or a goal of the unit will cause the students to be more focused because they know what they are working toward. During a unit, administering check-up assessments help the students see where they stand as far as knowledge of the material goes. Assessing in different formats allows for a more holistic view of the comprehension of the subject. Knowledge level is very important to keep in mind for each individual student because the goal is for every student to progress throughout a unit. Teachers need to use the assessments as guides to instruct students to the appropriate level and amount of work. Even if a student does not have full comprehension of the basic material, it is important to push him or her to move forward and the basics will settle in later. The idea of check-up assessments in different formats will appear in my lesson plans when I am a teacher. I feel that these forms of assessments serve as a “bench mark” for the student and teacher that can be used to direct the rest of the lesson in the best manner.

Sarah
Chapter Three covered proper methods of assessment and evaluation within a differentiated classroom. Similar to Chapter Five of the UbDDI book, this chapter established three types of assessments to be the key to gauging a student’s progression through the learning process. First there is a pre-assessment (to test prior skills relating to the new topic), then the formative assessment (to determine mid-lesson if a student is learning what it necessary) and finally the summative assessment (to check the comprehension of the topic as a whole). The most crucial suggestion to note from this reading is the reconstruction of instruction style based on the results of the formative assessments. If students seem to be performing poorly, acknowledging the problem and being proactive about it are essential to a successful classroom. Based on this reading, I intend to administer all three types of assessments and I believe my appropriate reactivity to such results will enable the students to gain significant mastery of the concepts they are presented with.

Jennie
In Chapter three, Wormeli talks about different kinds of assessment. He emphasizes that its not in the best interest of the students to just have some kind of a final assessment and that's it. His plan is to do three different types of assessment throughout the unit: pre-assessments, Formative assessments, and Summative assessments. The pre-assessment is to see what the students know before the unit starts and that way the teachers can better direct their lessons towards what the students don't know. The formative assessments are things to make sure that the students are understanding the material. The summative assessment is to see what the students have learned throughout the unit. I like the way that this is set up. If we know exactly what our students know and what they don't know then we can gear our lessons to what they don't know and not bore them with things that they already know.

Ryan
In chapter three of //Fair isn’t Always Equal// there was a lot of discussion about assessments in the differentiated classroom. One aspect of chapter three that really stands out is how important it is to come up with essential and enduring skills that you are trying to assess and is every component of the objective accounted for in the assessment. Once this is answered then it is important to decide if a pre-assessment should be given. This is just a test that lets you know where students are. Another decision that needs to be made is whether or not you want to give formative assessments, which are like quizzes that help prepare students for the final summative assessment. This is what chapter three is about. This information will prepare me to start thinking as a teacher. This knowledge will impact me as a teacher to design lessons and help me decide how I will assess my students.

Corinne
Chapter three poses an interesting idea right off. It proposes the idea of giving students questions in the beginning of the unit that they should know in the end, and that causes the students to pay attention when an answer relating to those questions comes up. I have had teachers do this, and when the topics given in the questions did come up in class, all the students did notice and immediately payed closer attention. I was also impacted by the statement in this text that students like substance and not "fluff". This I can also relate to because I remember those teachers who just gave the class busy work that nobody got anything out of. As a result no one was motivated to do the work or had any respect for the teacher. As much as students complain about having to do work, they excel when a task that slightly challenges them is placed before them, and if they can find meaning and purpose in their assignments.

Leah
Like stated in previous chapters, clarity is the key to powerful lesson plans, but also to assessments. Keeping the goals in mind for ones self important, but it is also vital to make sure students understand what should be they are to learn by the end of a lesson or unit. To help us as teachers know where to start a lesson from, we must first know what our students know or think they know. Pre-assessments provide some insight as to where are students stand. When we know where we stand with our students we can make the lessons, and therefore make the formative assessments that will guide them and make sure they are on the course to understanding the material and meeting the goals that they will be tested over in the summative assessment. I recall, in high school, a few teachers who would test our prior knowledge on a subject before starting a lesson. Sometimes the "pre-assessment" would be a simple discussion of the topic; other times it would be an actual paper test. Either way I feel like I remembered more from those lessons that from the lessons given when the teacher had a very minimal idea of what we already knew. This chapter reminds me of a saying that Dr. T told us in class "tell them what you are going to teach them (the goals), teach them, tell them what you taught them." I will be keeping this quote in mind when making forming lessons.

Ryan Snowman
This chapter reinforces the idea that you have to start with clear understandings and essential questions. If those are not clear, then your assessment will not be clear either. Wormeli also emphasizes the idea of pre – assessment (indication of where student is developmentally in relation to the content material), formative assessment (provide helpful feedback throughout the whole learning process) and summative assessment (reflect on the understanding and essential questions). Good assessment also means that it is authentic, meaning that it relates to how students will use it in real world situations, and it must be developmentally appropriate. By using pre, formative and summative assessment in my classroom, as well as keeping it authentic and reliable, I think it will make me a better assessor, and in turn, help my students become masters at the material.

Drew
In chapter III, the main idea is that we do not commit to a final assessment and the end of a unit and call it finished. Instead, it emphasizes that we use multiple assessments throughout the unit. This includes a pre-assessment before the unit, a formative assessment midway through the unit to give information on student progress, and finally a summative assessment in order to see the whole picture of what a student took or didn’t take from a unit. This idea seems very useful and practical to use because of its ease in implementation. The pre-assessment would also provide useful and insightful information on where a student stands on the information before you jump into a unit. I find that it would be easier to do a pre-assessment before considering what is important for the students to know. If they already know it, why teach it? If they barely know it, reinforce it. If they don’t know it, work with them to a full understanding. The formative assessment would also provide a teacher great information on if they are using differentiation correctly to meet the needs of all students. I find this to be a great idea. Rather than waiting and finding out that students are not understanding come time for a summative assessment, you can work to improve your use of differentiation before there is no time left and your classroom is filled with very discouraged students. This idea is very practical and extremely reasonable.

Cara
A teacher should base their instruction on the students in the classroom. I think it is a really good idea to give a pre-assessment before each unit because it will let a teacher know what all of the students understand. Formative assessments seem like they would be good as well. Honestly, I liked getting "pop quizzes" in classes that were not graded; the teacher just wanted to know where our understanding was with the material. Telling the students what you would like them to learn before beginning a unit is a good idea because then both the teacher and the students are on the same page. Also, a student is more likely to know whether they are struggling if they understand WHAT they are supposed to get out on the unit.

Tim
Chapter three of FAIE goes over the steps to creating a successful assessment process in the differentiated classroom. The chapter begins by stating the importance of assessment and its role in the everyday classroom. It continues on to go over how to formulate a good assessment, first by starting with a short pre-assessment that was developed from the end of the unit lesson. This is followed by a formative assessment used as checkpoints for the students throughout the lesson and finishes with the summative assessments which are given to the students at the very end of the lesson. The chapter also highlights that the assessment should be based off of the essential questions the teacher has created in order to help engage the lesson. The chapter ends with a 12-step plan for creating a differentiated lesson. This chapter will affect my classroom because, I now have a greater idea of how to assess students and their learning’s in a successful manner. Personally it will affect me because I myself have a better idea of how to create a well planned differentiated lesson while being able to assess the students throughout the course of a lesson.

Scott
It's important to remember to differentiate with a purpose, not simply to say that we did it. When differentiating, it is always important to establish what your goals are first. Do not get bogged down in making sure that students know facts, in differentiated classrooms, the focus is on essential and enduring knowledge. There needs to be three different types of assessments, the pre-assessment, the formative assessment, and the summative assessment, all are needed. Be sure not to over assess your students, it will just be useless. In the best cases, assessment should actually add to the learning. It is not acceptable to ask a student whether they know a topic.

Mykayla
In order to determine if a student has mastered a certain topic, a teacher must assess the students. However, one test at the end of a unit is not the best way to evaluate a student’s knowledge about a lesson. With only one test, a teacher cannot see what area of the content needs to be worked on more thoroughly or not. Pre-assessments, quizzes, tests, projects, and final exams are the best ways to get an idea for how your students are doing. I would have never thought pre-assessments were useful until I saw what a teacher could gain from them. However, pre-assessments would enable me to see what my students know before I even start teaching a unit. With this information I could clearly establish what I need to focus my lesson on, instead of teaching content that my students already know.

Rachel
Chapter 3, just like chapter 2, lines up with chapter 5 in Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design. This chapter divides the task of assessment into three styles. What I liked about this book is that it put the process of assessment in terms that were easier to understand. It also brought up the idea of testing students often, which I think is an excellent idea because it helps me as a teacher to make sure that my students are on track. I have been in classes before where I felt lost throughout the whole lesson and when it came time to take the test, I still had no idea what I was looking at. By regularly testing students, I can avoid this in my classroom.