Case studies: Designing Differentiated Assessments

Assessment Title: A day in the life of a nounours

Grade Level: 1-5

Subject Area: English as a foreign language: topical vocabulary

Skills or Content Knowledge: What information or ideas will be evaluated with this formative assessment? In other words, what data are you aiming to gather?

• Students will take a nounours (stuffed animal) and create a journal of it “doing activities” that are related to the vocabulary in the unit/term (times, present continuous, hobbies, work, navigating the city, etc.)

Assessment Description/Link: What activity or technology (app, tool, etc.) will students use to demonstrate their knowledge or skills? In other words, how will students provide data?

• Students will create a written or video journal for a portfolio in either the student’s voice or the nounours’ voice depending upon the relevant vocabulary and grammar.

Modifications & Adjustments: How will you administer this formative assessment in an online, hybrid, and physical learning environment? How will you make this accessible to students with language barriers and those with special needs?

• The flexibility of the journal format allows easy accessibility. It can be done on paper either handwritten or typed, recorded video, recorded audio, photo collage with written or spoken commentary, etc.

• No change is necessary for students with language barriers. They must try to do what they can in English, attempt to look up vocabulary they don’t know, and anything else they can use another language.

Data Collection: How will you gather and record data from this formative assessment? How will you use the data to inform instruction?

• When done as an ongoing activity th[4] [5] roughout the term/year, the regular supply of feedback will help the teacher make adjustments to activities throughout the period and monitor the general improvement of the target vocabulary and grammar usage

Student-Centered Learning: How will this formative assessment promote a student-centered learning environment in your classroom?

• Students learn the material, students use the material in near real-life situations, and the near-real-time feedback will allow the teacher to quickly make adjustments to their lessons to focus on student needs.

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Student 1: ELL Learner

Name: Khadija

Level: Juniors 3

Details: Student is native Arabic and French speaker who has an early CEFR A2 level in English. Her class has recently completed the lesson on Prepositions of Place using Ezzy (the nounours that used to belong to my cat Ezra) as the model. The upcoming lesson is on hobbies and activities and students will make a journal of their nounours doing activities over the weekend. She needs extra help so she will be allowed to take Ezzy home for this activity (students fell in love with Ezzy and everyone wants to take her home) so that she will focus on doing the activity.

Khadija needs extra help with the material because she is having difficulties with the material itself. This is similar to a an Algebra student needing extra help with learning the quadratic equation but not need accommodations for the entire subject of math.

Accommodations: No accommodations are needed for Khadija as an ELL. The lesson is designed for students learning English as a foreign language.

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Student 2: Has a degenerative genetic disease causing debilitating pain in the hands while destroying the joint linings.

Name: Asmae

Level: Juniors 3

Details: Student is a native Arabic and French speaker who has an early CEFR A2 level in English. Her class has recently completed the lesson on Prepositions of Place using Ezzy (the nounours that used to belong to my cat Ezra) as the model. The upcoming lesson is on hobbies and activities and students will make a written journal of their nounours doing activities over the weekend.

Accommodations: Asmae has extreme difficulty physically writing but otherwise is an excellent student. She will be given the option of submitting her journal in any format (video, audio, dictated, etc.) to show mastery of prepositions of place and hobbies and activities as well as demonstrating or practicing organizing and transmitting thoughts in a clear manner for oral or written communication. She can use any format she wishes, is allowed to make it herself or dictate it to someone else, and she may work with a partner if she wishes on a video journal as long as both are visible talking on screen because comfort while communicating makes it easier to form and transmit words and working out what format she will use for the journal forces her to think creatively about how to handle the individualized aspects of her disability, making her more independent in the future. Discussions with her will focus on open ended questions to get her thinking critically and creatively about how she can approach the task and allowance will be given if something changes.