Differentiated Assessments

It's been just as long since I've posted about my goal, so here's an update on my progress toward developing differentiated assessments in social studies. I've spoken about our Egypt projects which were differentiated by content and product. I fell off the wagon when it came time for our study of ancient India. I gave a standard test for that unit: matching, multiple choice, and essay question.

I tried to get back on track with China. Every student wrote an expository essay, but it was differentiated based on interest. Students chose a topic, such as The Great Wall, Confucius, or gunpowder. Using books from the public library and Internet sources, students formulated a main idea about that topic and selected three supporting details to expand on it. This was difficult for several kids, and I helped those students formulate main and write the introductions of their papers.

You can probably see that I've taken the easiest path to differentiation. It's simple to differentiate content based on student interest. All I had to do was contact the public library, get all the books they had on ancient China, and let the kids go! I provided note taking forms, outlining sheets, and an overall structure for the paper. Students did what I wanted- read nonfiction texts about China and wrote an expository essay. The key was that they went through the process of writing an essay on something they enjoyed reading about. I didn't have to fight with kids during the research sessions in class. They were into their topics and the finished products reflect that.

For ancient Greece, the kids are all working on creating a new kind of cereal based on a character from Greek mythology. Again, the content is differentiated based on student interest. Each student chose a god, goddess, hero, or monster. They are taking a myth containing that character and retelling it on the back of the cereal box. Then they get to have fun coming up with a name for the cereal and a cover design. Students will share their retellings in class to add an oral speaking component. These are due in class on Friday, so we'll see how they turn out. The kids seemed pretty psyched about the idea when I introduced it last week.

This is a goal that I definitely need to continue to develop each year. Differentiating by tapping into students' interests is a low-level form of differentiation because it requires the least amount of teacher preparation. I know their are high-prep ways of differentiating content, processes, and products. I'd like to incorporate some of those high-prep strategies in my social studies curriculum next year.