M6 U2 A3

M6 U2 A3 Pre-Assessment for Differentiation

The Importance of Incorporating Pre-Assessments into Chinese class.

Pre-assessment, sometimes referred to as diagnostic assessments, assesses a student’s strengths, weakness, knowledge, and skills prior to instruction. It can be a great tool to help me identify the needs of my students. I list the importance of incorporating pre-assessment into Chinese class below.

1. Pre-assessments allow me to see if what is being covered in the lesson or unit is already mastered. If all of our students have a topic or skill mastered then I can skip that lesson. If only a couple of students have a problem, then I can individualize our instruction to bring them up to speed. If the majority of students are struggling with the information then I can continue with our lesson.

2. Pre-assessments give my students a preview of what will be expected of them. Setting clear expectations helps students begin to focus on the key topics that will be covered throughout the lesson. This also gives my students the opportunity to set educational goals for the coming weeks.

3. Pre-assessments provide ideas for future lessons. After a pre-test is given, I may find knowledge gaps that I did not expect. With this information, I can make changes to future lessons or even create new lessons to include further instruction and review.

4. Pre-assessments help measure true learning. By comparing pre-assessments and summative assessments, I am able to see what my students actually learned from the lessons that I developed. Now that I have given a pre-assessment, after I’ve given the summative assessment at the end of the unit, I can compare the scores to get an measure of student growth.

Pre-Assessment of Foods and Eating Out Unit

1. I have created a pre-assessment covering “foods and eating out” for 8-11 years old Chinese class. This assessment covers one standard, thus, I have 6 pre-assessment questions aligned to that standard from 5C. As mentioned above, it is good practice so that I may get a more accurate and reliable estimate of the students’ prior knowledge.

2. If you are already logged into your Scrative account you can find this pre-assessment link here.

https://b.socrative.com/teacher/#import-quiz/31980874

3. You can also find this assessment in the table as below.

	Pre-Assessment Questions	Responds
1.	Look at the picture cards pertaining to foods; if you know any of them, please write down the food names in Chinese characters or Pinyin.
2.	Look at the picture cards pertaining to drinks; if you know any of them, please write down the drink names in Chinese characters or Pinyin.
3.	Please use the sentence structure you have learnt “I like...” and “I want...” to make two sentences in Chinese characters or Pinyin.
4.	Do you know any Chinese foods or dishes? If you know, please write down the name in English or in Chinese Pinyin.
5.	Do you know any Chinese table manners? If you know, please list them in English or in Chinese Pinyin.
6.	If you have an opportunity to interview online the Chinese people, what you want to ask him or her? Please list your questions.

Innovative Strategy for Differentiation

As we all know that a “one –size – fits – all” instruction won’t extend the understanding of a student with great knowledge and skill in the same area. So it is important to apply the differentiated instructions, which can meet with students’ different needs. Here are some innovative instructions for differentiation.

1. The basic principles of implementing innovative strategy for differentiation.

➢ Encourage students use background knowledge: Students can use what they already know about the culture, what they know about their own culture, and what they know about the food in general to connect with new Chinese food cultural information. Different students have different background knowledge, so this method meets students’ diverse needs.

➢ Encourage students use imagery: Using imagery can help students in many ways in the study of culture. They can develop mental images of cultural products such as words, art, literature and stories. They can also develop images of daily life. Encourage students to use mental images of the taste and smell of foods is another way students can use imagery as a teaching strategy.

➢ Personalize: This teaching strategy is related to using imagery. The students relate new information to their own lives, experiences, beliefs, and feelings. Making comparisons between their home culture and the Chinese culture can help students personalize the new culture, particularly by making connections between the similarities between the “foreign” and the “familiar” at this personal level, rather than just at an intellectual level. Being able to use this teaching strategy is at the heart of being able to understand the perspectives of another culture.

➢ Encourage students make inferences: Students can make inferences from what they understand and know, to make guesses about what they don’t understand about a culture. They can make “educated” guesses based on their background knowledge of their own culture and the Chinese culture, and then monitor and evaluate to figure out if their guess was right.

2. I plan to use Tiered Activities to help students to achieve the learning goals. Through tiered activities, all my students are able to focus on essential understandings and skills but at different levels of complexity, abstractness, and open-endedness. The following three points are the innovative strategies for differentiation.

3. Differentiating for high level readiness student. - The 5 students who answered most, including the most difficult, of the pre-assessment questions correctly, so I put them in high level readiness group. I plan to use the following strategies to teach them.

➢ 问题专家组——Problem-based learning strategy

➢ Beware that high level readiness student may be at risk. Because certain areas of academic work may come too effortlessly to them, so they don’t develop their skills, and also don’t listen to my instructions carefully during the class.

➢ I apply problem-based learning strategy to engage high level readiness students. Since the comparison is the standard of the unit, I present high level readiness students with unclear, complex problem. Then students must seek additional information, define the problem, locate and appropriately use valid resources, make decision about solutions, pose a solution, communicate that solution to others. For example, in the lesson of showing and telling your recipes, I directly present high level readiness students with the problem(question): “ Do you know how to create a Chinese recipes?” Then students must solve the problem by themselves. In another word, the strategy calls upon varied learning strengths, allows use of a range of resources, and provides an opportunity to address student interests, learning profile, and high level readiness.

4. Differentiating for middle level readiness student. - The 12 students who have some knowledge about the topic as shown in their score, but need to develop higher order thinking skills.

➢ 美食探索组—Group investigation strategy

➢ This strategy carefully guides students through investigation of the topic of foods and eating out. I help them with planning the investigation, carry out the investigation, presenting findings and evaluating outcomes both individually and as a group. This strategy develop students’ high order thinking skills, and deepen their understanding of the topic. It also focuses on student interest. For example, when they learn Chinese table manners lesson, they need to investigate Chinese table manners throughout different ways, compare it to their country table manners and get the conclusions.

5. Differentiating for low level readiness student. - The 5 students who appear to have limited knowledge about the topic.

➢ 密集训练营- Intensive instruction strategy

➢ This strategy uses different ways to expose students in academic contents of the unit. In order to enhance student level, I apply intensive instructions; then they are able to be a teacher to reteach the academic contents to others. By doing though, students may master the academic contents.

Appropriateness of Assessments for Tracking Learning

1. Different assessments for tracking learning

The following assessments are formative assessments for tracking learning

➢ Hand signals

After mini lesson, I will apply hand signals to check whether students understand or not what I have instructed. If they understand, they need to thumbs up. If they don’t understand, they need to thumbs down. If they have question, they need to hands up.

➢ I learned statements

The I learned statement for assessing learning is a quick and efficient way to get sense of my students’ grasp of a lesson or activity. Here is how the process works. At the conclusion of a class period, with five minutes or so left, ask each student to write down on a sheet of paper, “I learnt such and such ...” in today’s activity or lesson.

➢ Clear and unclear windows

The clear and unclear windows assessments technique is very simple and straightforward. At the end of an assignment or of a significant chunk of learning that may have taken place over several years, I ask students to draw a vertical line on a sheet of paper and to title one half of the paper clear and the other half unclear. On the half titled clear, a student is asked to list those things he /she understands. On the other half, the students list those things that are not clear or that are poorly understood.

➢ Percolating

The percolating assessment strategy promotes student problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Here is how percolating works. I pose a problem or question, and tell the class I don’t want to an immediate answer. I want students to take some time before answering, and I want them do some research and reflection along the way. This assessment connects the context of ideas, skills, knowledge with reflective thought.

➢ I can teach

The I can teach assessment puts student into the dual role of learner and teacher. The learner who becomes a teacher will take his or her own understanding to deeper levels readiness of the unit.

➢ Authentic application

The authentic application assessment involves students in authentic world, applied their abilities to an actual outcome. For example, in the unit of foods and eating out, students need to create recipes, interview Chinese teachers or Chinese people.

The following assessments are summative assessments for tracking learning

➢ Make a presentation

➢ Write a essay

2. Appropriate assessments to track student learning with the purpose of improving the learning of each group of students.

➢ Appropriate assessments for high level readiness student. - The 5 students who answered most, including the most difficult, of the pre-assessment questions correctly.I plan to use the following assessments to evaluate them.

Hand signals; I learned statements; Percolating; Authentic application; Make a presentation; Write a essay.

➢ Appropriate assessments for middle level readiness student. - The 12 students who have some knowledge about the topic as shown in their score, but need to develop higher order thinking skills.I plan to use the following assessments to evaluate them.

Hand signals; I learned statements; Clear and unclear windows; Percolating; Authentic application;

Make a presentation; Write a essay

➢ Appropriate assessments for high level readiness student. - The 5 students who appear to have limited knowledge about the topic.I plan to use the following assessments to evaluate them.

Hand signals; I learned statements ; Clear and unclear windows; Percolating; I can teach; Authentic application; Make a presentation; Write a essay.

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