Assessing and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom

We know as adults that we attain mastery at different rates because of our interests, readiness, and preferred learning styles. So we try to offer students differentiation in content, process, and product according to those proclivities. But when it comes right down to it--to the test and the report card--how does one make it work in an effective and ethical manner?

Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Assessment and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom by Rick Wormeli is an important tool in the answering of that question. It assumes familiarity with differentiation, though the first (and shortest) of the 3 sections does review “Differentiation and Mastery” in 30 pages. The bulk of the book is about assessment (ch. 4-10) and grading (ch. 11-20). (To get that background, I highly recommend How to Differentiate in Academically Diverse Classrooms by Carol Ann Tomlinson, 2017—I facilitated an optional book discussion on it last year, and our entire faculty is reading it this year.)

This book I picked up because a friend (our small school's elementary principal) was ordering it for herself, and I said, “Get me one, too.” (I figured in my role as curriculum coordinator, it would be a good conversation piece. Learning point: read with friends. It will push you beyond your comfort zone, and give you comfort while you go.)

The middle section on assessment is where I am right now in my development as a differentiating teacher. At the end of the book, author Rick Wormeli gives the reader five suggestions for getting traction on the content of his book. I can commit to at least 1, 3, and 5:

• “Really get to know your students, and look at your lessons in light of that knowledge. Do they respond to what you know about your students” (279). I’ll start by revising my beginning of the year survey to include a few more of the “Sample Individual Characteristics of Students to Consider When Planning Instruction” in Figure 7.1 (79-80).
• “Read two or more other books on grading besides this one to find elements that speak to you and your classroom situation” (280). Out of the 16 listed, 2 by Susan Brookhart caught my attention: How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students (2017) and How to Assess Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Your Classroom (2016). (Though I may not get to them until next summer!)
• “Choose any three elements of assessment and grading in the differentiated class described in this book and try them out in the next two months. Be sure to give them your full focus and to ask students to help you reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d do differently the next time you try it” (280). I’ll have to extend the time span given that it is currently summer, but I definitely want to commit to a few things:

Descriptive Feedback and Student Self-Assessment (Ch. 5): Wormeli issues the following challenge:  Ask a colleague to walk into your classroom and interview your students by asking two questions:

• What are you supposed to be learning here?
• Where are you right now in relation to that goal? (51)

I’ve been thinking of that ever since I read Formative Classroom Walkthroughs several years ago. I think I’ll take the plunge and ask my peer coaching partner next year to go ahead and ask students that during the observation. So I’d best be sure that I build my lessons so students can answer.

Tiering Assessments (Ch. 8): Tiering has always been the most daunting tool in the differentiation toolkit for me. But I will here commit to tiering the major 1st quarter essay.  I’m also intrigued by education researcher Frank Williams’ Taxonomy of Creative thinking (given that I’m concurrently reading Creating Innovators and last year participated in a book discussion on Making Thinking Visible—how do Williams’ 8 levels of creative thinking interface with the list of thinking elements currently posted in my classroom?) The first 4 are cognitive: fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. The last 4 are cognitive: risk taking, complexity, curiosity, imagination (97).

Rubrics (Ch. 9): I have several rubrics (writing, discussion, presentation). I want to explore how I can simplify these to make them more use-friendly. I was really excited about Wormeli’s not just permission but advice: “Don’t write out every level of descriptors for most assessments” (117), but focus on the “exemplary” descriptor because it’s the default target for students, and easy to assess for the teacher. 

I have come to a deeper understanding of assessing and grading in a differentiated classroom as a result of reading this book. I’m more equipped to take the steps I’m prepared to take, more open to and prepared for discussion of standards-based grading, and more cognizant that neither can be adequately “policy-ified.” Simply mandating that all assessments can be retaken as often as requested ends up with students playing both ends against the teacher’s middle. Some students will wait to study until after they take the first test. Others will wait until the end of the grading period. Students will be de-incentivized to understand. There must first be deep cultural change: the final assessment (or a version of it) made available from the beginning with everyone intrinsically motivated to attain mastery throughout the unit.

I expect I will return to this important book for several iterations of my grading policy. For now, I am happy to be further along my journey than I was 2 weeks ago, before I read it.

What is “fair” in your classes—for assessment and grades?

(This is the second book on my summer professional development reading list. See here for the complete list and here for the first book.)