Difficulty #6: appropriate differentiation
consistent formative assessments:
Within the FIM process, every-other Friday students are given an 8-question Progress Monitoring Test (PMT) to make sure they’re progressing through the material at an appropriate rate. As students work their way through various units of instruction, their scores on PMTs increase, leading to excitement and increased student efficacy. Teachers frequently receive data so they can appropriately group students and differentiate instruction as needed. Students become metacognitive about their scores – they plot their own data on graphs and tables to keep track of their strengths and their areas that need improvement. Students can compare their personal data with class average data which leads to rich data discussions. The class sets goals and class average data is displayed publicly to promote an attitude of togetherness in the classroom. Teachers use the incoming formative assessment data to help form small groups for remediation and to keep a close eye on the overall progression of their students.
Upgrading Math Class Series:
Introduction
Difficulty #1 – Information Retention
Difficulty #2 – Targeted Intervention
Difficulty #3 – Providing Social-Emotional Learning
Difficulty #4 – Safe Learning Environments
Difficulty #5 – Effective Teacher Training
Difficulty #6 – Appropriate Differentiation
Data Deep Dive #1
Data Deep Dive #2
Data Deep Dive #3
