Strategies for Differentiation with Pre-Assessment

Strategies for Differentiation with Pre-Assessment


I've been thinking a lot about assessments lately and how I can use them to help my students.
There are so many kinds of assessments, but the one I want to talk about today is the pre-assessment and what we, as teachers, can do with it.
My standard is related to students finding information in multiple texts quickly and accurately. In preparation, I created a pretest for my upcoming unit. If you look below, you can see the screencap of some of my questions, which focus mostly on the tools I want to share with the students; close reading, skimming, and scanning.

Want to test your knowledge? Take my quiz.

I have the assessment to help me know who gets it and who doesn't. Now what do I do with the information? Well, I've got a plan...

 Above is a mind map with my plans for the pre-assessment information. There are 3 types of students I'm primarily thinking about (the ones who got most to all answers correct, the ones who got many correct, and those who got few to no answers correct), and below I'm going to talk about what I plan to do to help them. *Note: the extension strategies in this differentiation will require me to create an app where students can create or find articles on the same subject, then close read them to find answers to questions.*

The students who answered most questions correctly.

These students need to extend their knowledge into deeper depths of knowledge. I will pair these students with students who have limited knowledge or learning issues. This pairing will enhance that student's thinking because they will have to use the knowledge they have gained in new ways if they want to accurately explain and model their thinking. In addition to this, students will be asked to consider another story they have read with similar information and compare and contrast the two. The students will then be asked to use the app to create two articles about the same subject and present them to the class to be close read as a small or whole group. These extended activities, as well as discussions with their partner, will work as formative assessments and self assessments that the student and I can use to assess their learning.

The students who have some knowledge

These students really need practice to solidify the knowledge they already have. I will give them practice close reading, scanning, and skimming. Then students will be paired within the group to discuss how they felt these techniques might help them find answers. To extend their learning even more, I will then ask them to use the app to find their own articles (two or more articles on the same subject) and close read them in pairs, then show the group how close reading helped them find the answers. These differentiations should help these students get more practice with the skills I'm trying to teach, and, in addition, it should help them explore and explain their understanding of those skills.

The students who appear to have limited knowledge 

These students will not only be students who have never encountered the standards, but also ELL and special needs students as well. For these students, I will take some time to model the strategies we will be using. These students will then be paired with a student who understands the standard. In addition, I will give the student a bookmark that can remind them of the rules of close reading, skimming, and scanning. To extend their knowledge, I will have them use the app to close read articles, skim, and scan, then have their choices evaluated. These activities will give the students multiple chances to learn the teacher and student modeled skills, it will allow them a constant reminder of how to complete the skill, and it will allow them to practice in a way that will give them immediate feedback.

What do you think about my pre-assessment and the identified strategies for differentiation? Do you use pre-assessments? How do you feel about them?