Differentiated Graphic Organizer

This graphic organizer was created to help students follow the sequence of a particular mathematics lab, where they explore what happens when you roll round things.

Original, undifferentated GO, as it might be given to students to fill in as they watch the demonstration:

Possible descriptions that the students might fill in:

The graphic organizer differentiated for level 1 or 2 students, so that they don't have to worry about taking notes, and can watch the demonstration, and prepare to perform the experiment themselves:

Assignment for J-M

This assignment was a differentiated assignment for a student from Burundi, who speaks French.  He is probably WIDA level 2 or 3, and his previous math education is probably to about the 5th grade level. 
The instructions were written in both English and in French.  He didn't seem to understand the written French, and looked to the English writing instead.  From that, I figured that he is not literate in his L1.  Besides the accommodation of writing instructions in both languages, I changed the level of the math.  This assignment is about what I would expect a 7th grader to be able to do.
This assignment allowed me to diagnose a lot about what J-M was able to do, in math, in French, and in English.

Daron Kennett's ACCESS powerpoint

This powerpoint came from Daron Kennett.


This powerpoint describes the ACCESS test, and how students are tested in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.  WIDA is going towards WIDA 2.0, a computer-based adaptive assessment, which should be operational in 2016.  This test is in use in a bunch of states, although strangely, not the ones with the biggest ELL populations (California, Texas, Florida, New York, Arizona) and not in Arkansas, which was one of the first 3.

WIDA's can-do descriptors

WIDA's can-do descriptors for grades 9-12

These descriptions of what an English language learner can do at various proficiency levels is fabulous, not least because describing capabilities rather than limitations is so useful.  It is broken down by the five levels of proficiency, and also the four categories of English--reading, writing, speaking, and listening.  It helps a teacher to figure out where a particular student might be, by giving the teacher concrete things to look out for.  It also gives a teacher an idea of how to differentiate an assignment to match what a student might be able to do.

Walkie Charles's Powerpoint

Here's a link to Professor Charles's powerpoint.

It describes how DA allowed Professor Charles to change the way that Arnold was able to learn his heritage language, Yugtun, but it also describes how the process of DA allowed Arnold to change the way that Professor Charles assessed him.  In particular, the process of interventionist DA was not working very well with Arnold, so Professor Charles was steered into using a more interactionist version of DA.  This feedback loop, where the student and the teacher are teaching each other is the power of dynamic assessment, and is the reason why we aren't in any danger of making teachers obsolete.

My Dynamic Assessment activity

The activity guide describes the purpose of this activity.  I just want to mention that one of my main hopes for the dynamic assessment was that students would approach the math test with a much lower affective filter, and that seems to have happened.  The examinees were generally positive about the experience.  The other hope was that the students in the class would get a more realistic understanding of the way that Dynamic Assessment can work, and the feedback I got, especially from Michael, suggests that the activity was helpful to my colleagues in understanding the process of DA.


My Activity guide:

I will be having students practice dynamic assessment. There seem to be two styles of DA, one of which is more scripted, and one of which is more interactive. I will break the class into groups of 3, with one assessor, one assessee, and one observer. That should be 4 groups. Two of the groups will do a scripted assessment, and two will do an interactive assessment. I have prepared a script for the scripted assessors, which I’ll include.

The assessor will give the assessee a problem of adding fractions. The assessee will do their best to add the fractions, and the assessor will decide how to react to the assessee. In the scripted assessment, they will follow the script I’ve prepared. In the interactive assessment, the assessor and the assessee will negotiate how the assessment will progress. I’ve prepared Sarah for being an interactive assessor, by talking through several possible things that could happen, and how she might react to it. I’ll try to talk someone else through the process.

The observer will be looking for several things, including

· Does this process make the student less apprehensive of math tests?

· How much preparation does the tester have, and how much should he/she have?

· Does the process reveal more about what the student knows than a standard math test would?

After the test, we will have a brief discussion about what went well and what didn’t work well, and how we could make it better. The observers will lead off the discussion, but everyone can chime in.

The rationale is to get the teachers some experience with Dynamic Assessment, so that they can get some idea about how it is different from a standard math test. The affective dimension of this test is a huge part of the reason for doing it, and the teachers will have an experience to ground their understanding of the feelings.

The discussion afterwards will explore the advantages and disadvantages of the two styles of DA, and will also give the teachers a chance to process their feelings, and make it all more real.

The interventionist version of the Dynamic Assessment:

Mathematics Dynamic Assessment

Mathematics Dynamic Assessment

This article describes how dynamic assessment was used to support mathematics instruction for students who are at risk of failure.  It is most interesting to me because it deals directly with mathematics, and also because it translates the ideas of DA into terms familiar to people who use Response to Intervention and Curriculum Based Measurement.  Since DA is probably less well known than these other programs, it can help me to explain what I'm trying to do.