Learning Where Your Students Stand: Diagnostic Assessment

Last week I discussed differentiated instruction and why it is a crucial element in every classroom. Every student is unique and therefore learns in different ways in comparison to other classmates and the teacher. It is important that teachers address each individual student's needs, and develop a lesson in a way that allows each person a fair opportunity to grasp the content. Unfortunately, this is not always the case as teachers are restricted in time and may not be able to cater to all thirty people in their classroom before moving on to the next lesson. As a result, students who are are doing well in class continuously advance while the students who are struggling to keep up continue to decline. Eventually, there is a gap between the students in the former and latter group that continues to grow and grow the older they get. 

www.ontariomathedresources.ca

As teachers, our duty is to be concsious that there is a learning gap present in all classrooms, and actively work to close the gap. In order to realize where the gap is, teachers need to conduct a diagnostic assessment to understand student's prior knowledge. One avenue which teachers can use to address what areas students need help with, is provided by the government of Ontario and referred to as "gap closing". Gap closing resources are designed for students who need additional support in mathematics. For each topic in the resource, there is a diagnostic and a set of intervention materials that will help teachers uncover typical problems students have with a specific topic. The resource can be found by clicking here, and there are nine modules that cover a wide arrange of mathematical topics. 

After reviewing the student booklet and the teacher resource associated with each module, I can clearly see how this is a diagnostic assessment. It covers various areas throughout the grade levels that would showcase where students are struggling. Although this is great, I do not see where the actual "gap closing" would take place. All the questions in the booklet followed a written test format. In my head this seemed quite ironic because this is probably the number one reason why the students are falling behind. We learn in teacher education how all students are different and learn differently, so I was under the assumption that therefore the diagnostic assessment would allow different avenues for students to demonstrate their knowledge. 

Instead, the booklet looked like a written test or just a series of worksheets no different than how they probably learnt. There was evidence of some sort of open questions, but even as a future math educator I could see how these tasks would be difficult for students to complete. When I first heard of gap closing, it was with a colleague of mine who discussed how she used this booklet at her job with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board as a "Tutor in the Classroom". She expressed how her duty was to use these booklets in order to close the gap, but it did not seem to work with many of the students she was working with.

So then how do we close the gap? Well although there may not be a clear-cut answer, the best path to take is to provide different avenues for students to showcase their math knowledge. Instead of getting students just to write out the answers or respond to a series of worksheets in a booklet, students can have oral conversations with teachers, construct mind maps and other informal techniques that still engage the student and allow teachers to assess what they have learnt. If teachers are expected to instruct students in different ways, then teachers need to accept various different forms of student work so that there is equity in the classroom.                                                                                                        

Most students have anxiety when they feel like they are being evaluated and tested. Considering this is a diagnostic assessment and the teacher is just trying to figure out where the student stands before the lesson takes place, the teacher should consider using informal techniques in assessing student knowledge. There are mathematical games students can play, quizzes students can take such as Kahoot, completing interactive mathematical website activites such as Khan Academy, and many more options that teachers can use. 

Research by John Holloway showcases that teachers who use assessment that supports learning and provides useful information to both teachers and students, in addition to technology that influences the mathematics taught, are the biggest factors in improving equity in the classroom and aid in closing the gap. Using the same sort of formal testing and written evaluations to close the gap is not an efficient method in providing an equitable mathematics classroom. It is my hope that in the near future there will be other forms of assessing students prior knowledge, and if you are aware of other methods please leave a comment so I can enhance my future classroom and help students who are in need. It is my goal to create an equitable classroom and close the gap as much as I can. 

References:

Picture 1: ontariomathedresource.ca 

Picture 2: metrokids.com

Picture 3: http://elementary-math-and-science-differentiation.wikia.com/wiki/Lesson_Plan_Outline_for_Differentiation

Holloway, John H. "Research Link/ Closing the Minority Achievement Gap in Math." Improving Achievement in Math and Science 51, no. 5 (February 2004): 84-86