Home Current Issue Archives Buy Contact December 2013/January 2014 | Volume 71 | Number 4 Getting Students to Mastery Differentiation: It Starts with Pre-Assessment Emily Pendergrass If teachers want to create flexible groups that address students' needs, they need to pre-assess. A year or so ago, I had the pleasure of working alongside a colleague who by all accounts was a fantastic teacher, Lily Rhodes. As a teacher-researcher from a local university, I was curious to see how this teacher differentiated instruction for her 7th grade science students. To satisfy this curiosity, I observed her teaching and interacting with her students. In addition, we had in-depth discussions about her approach. Lily has taught 7th graders outside a large, southeastern metropolitan area since 1997. Over the years, she has taught science, language arts, and reading on two-, three-, and four-member teaching teams. At the time of my semester-long observations, Lily was teaching science and language arts on a six-member teaching team. Differentiation seemed to be working in Lily's classroom. The students didn't appear to worry about the differences in requirements among their peers, and they willingly worked at a level that challenged them. A classroom snapshot shows how Lily managed this. A Look into Lily's Classroom Before starting a unit in science, Lily had her students take a pre-assessment that required them to circle the parts of the body that belong to the nervous system: "Flip over your quizzes. Circle what it says to circle. Then turn it back over. Go!" When they finished, Lily collected the quizzes. She quickly graded the papers and sorted them into different piles while students watched a short Schoolhouse Rock clip on the nervous system. Lily had written the day's agenda on the board: 1. Warm-up and quiz. 2. Nervous system stations (Anatomy Arcade, Ready or Not, Rhodes Scholars). After the video clip, Lily divided the students into different groups on the basis of what she learned from the quizzes. She sent two boys to the back computer and two girls to the front computer to extend their knowledge of the nervous system in the Anatomy Arcade station. Six students were sent to the front table to work with Lily at the Rhodes Scholars station, and the remaining students broke into pairs to conduct an experiment at the Ready or Not station. Lily clearly stated what everyone should do: For those of you in the Anatomy Arcade, you'll see a tab called "Nervous System." Choose one of the games listed, and play it with BUY THIS ISSUE Read Abstract From: Betsy White <bwhite@reprintoutsource.com> Subject: Re: Copy of Article from Educational Leadership Date: December 4, 2013 10:15:24 AM CST To: "Pendergrass, Emily Sauls" <emily.s.pendergrass@Vanderbilt.Edu>