| While a good test should assess how well | | | | Teachers can provide more targeted areas of |
| students may have processed targeted learning | | | | practice in a variety of engaging learning contexts, |
| skills, the only way to ensure students are | | | | such as pair or group work, that are also |
| engaged and on-task is by mapping those original | | | | favorable to the classroom dynamics. For |
| skills against the student progress. | | | | example, if a student is still struggling with |
| Mapping provides teachers with concrete evidence | | | | decodable skills, teachers can provide students |
| as they assess how to improve students' learning | | | | with decodable texts, work on reading targeted |
| and ultimately, teacher's instruction. This process | | | | vocabulary and sound blends in isolation and within |
| involves first mapping problematic areas of | | | | word contexts. All this can be done using a |
| student learning and then using that targeted | | | | cooperative learning technique such as jigsaw |
| information to engage their students more | | | | learning, providing students can handle this type of |
| effectively. | | | | group work. |
| Teachers Map Problematic Areas of Student | | | | Implications for Differentiated Instruction |
| Learning | | | | Students acquire various reading skills at different |
| After marking the test, teachers should begin to | | | | rates. When students are experiencing difficulty, |
| notice those specific skill sets that caused | | | | teachers should emphasize effort that will help |
| students difficulty. In reading for example, this | | | | students complete the activity more successfully. |
| could be deeper comprehension, decoding and | | | | If a task is too difficult, no learning can take place. |
| word recognition. In areas of early reading skills | | | | In bridging word-text skills for example, teachers |
| for example, teachers can consider the following | | | | can appeal to various learning groups in terms of |
| questions: | | | | using the same reading comprehension skills but |
| * What phonic skills can the student use? | | | | with different learning tasks. For example, a lower |
| * Is the student able to decode multisyllabic | | | | performing group scans a text for names of |
| words? | | | | people and places. They should remember to look |
| * Can the student read words that have prefixes | | | | for words beginning with capital letters. They can |
| and/or suffixes? | | | | then classify them according to groups of |
| * How did the students' word recognition | | | | "names" and "people." The middle group lists |
| compare with their comprehension? | | | | names of people, places and numbers and what |
| * How did the students' word recognition | | | | they refer to and the stronger group underlines |
| compare with their comprehension? | | | | five unknown words. They guess the meanings |
| * Is the student ready to read material on a | | | | and confirm their answers in the dictionary. |
| mainstream level? | | | | In engaging learners more effectively, teachers |
| Teachers can then use new targeted assessment | | | | should consider mapping problematic areas of |
| goals to reflect classroom learning and | | | | student difficulty to ensure complete integrity and |
| assessment. | | | | accountability in learning tasks, as they prepare |
| Diversifying Instruction Using a Variety of Learning | | | | their students for the next test. |
| Contexts | | | | |