Differentiation: It Starts with Pre-Assessment

Differentiation: It Starts with Pre-Assessment

When my elementary Spanish students make connections to the prior lesson with what they are reading, their comprehension increases. Helping students make those connections before, during, and after learning gives me the chance to identify and adjust my goals better.

Probably the best way to find out if my student make connections with the prior knowledge is to pre-assess before starting a new lesson. Pre-assessment plays a critical role in the teacher’s ability to differentiate instruction. It helps to make instructional decisions about student strengths and needs, to determine flexible grouping patterns, to determine which students are ready for advance instruction.

Some of the pre-assessment I use in elementary Spanish are:

Flash cards They are simple, versatile, and fun. They are very good for visual learners, especially if they are colorful. You can pre-assess concepts as well as vocabulary.

Informal surveys

Surveys can reinforce and verify data from daily,weekly reports of student learning. They very useful to work on data about the progress of whole classrooms and programs.

Venn diagrams

Using Venn Diagrams to assess what the students need and want to know. Mesures the level of understanding of the students placing them in the diagram.

Inventory check lists

Students can make lists about the things they know about certain topic. This gives the teacher the chance to plan lessons better.

Conference with students

This is a wonderful way to get a firsthand info about the students

Pop corn sharing

In a circle all student need to participate like popcorn, no one is skipped, they have to share their ideas with the group.

Tiered lesson for three groups:

In a foreign language class you are always going to have different level of students. Pre-assessing the knowledge of the students is the best tool a teacher can use to teach differentiated groups. Pre-assessment allowed me to have flexible grouping, learning centers, tiered assignments, adjusting question for every level. In the lesson about Christopher Columbus I had three different groups of students.

• The first group of students who had some knowledge about explorers, who discovered America would get the chance to work on a project where they would be able to go to the elementary library to use the computers to do research on their own based on certain outline that I would give them. The summative assessment for this group would be a class presentation with posters of Christopher Columbus trips.

. • The second group of students will have to read in class some magazines or books available, the text book, and work with the textbook worksheets. After the students finish with the reading assignment they will draw a poster with map of the trip that lead Columbus to America.

. • The third group will be able to work with the teacher in a more informal environment. Seated on the rug while the teacher will tell the whole story while showing colorful books of maps and routes that Columbus took to come to America. There will be coloring drawing of the explorer and his ships.

This type of tiered classes make the learning process more interesting. It helps students achieve goals without feeling left out which ultimately is going to lead them to be successful. I firmly believe that every student needs to be challenged according to their abilities. Tiered lessons give students the respect they deserve for being different.

In the second part of the assignment (Reanaissance teacher work samples) I couldn't find a Foreign Language sample, so I chose a science sample for 1st grade. http://www.xmind.net/m/PXBU