Module 3 Forum Posts Focus On The Learner I have had an increasing amount of students on Individualized Education Plans (IEPs)

and 504 lans (for medical disa!ilit") over the ast fe# "ears$ and as such$ have had multi le o ortunities to differentiate instruction% I thin& that if I #ere to have to !rea& do#n the strateg" I've settled on of late$ it #ould come do#n to time and encouragement% (hile I'm not sure that #hat I've !een doing in m" class is #hat this cha ter of the !oo& advocates$ I thin& I've !een doing something close to it #ithout realizing it% (ith more and more individual student demands as regarding the re)uired modifications for assignments to sa" nothing of the higher*achieving students$ I've often resorted to giving assignments that are relativel" unstructured and instead focus on &e" learnings and a!ilities that I'm ho ing to have students demonstrate #ithin the assignment% I have found that #ith sufficient time to underta&e these t" es of assignments (the" often ta&e the entire class eriod$ #hich roves to !e difficult in regards to a num!er of other details #e have to consider as teachers)$ almost all students can reach the goals I set for them$ or that the" set for themselves% +dd into that a health" dose of ersonal attention and encouragement and non*threatening sim le interventions to correct ma,or errors$ and the )ualit" has !een great% The ro!lem I seem to !e facing no# is that our collective cultural o!session #ith -actiona!le data. (a%&%a% ra# num!ers on a nice gra h) seems to often relegate these sorts of more realistic assessments and activities to secondar" status in favor of #ritten e/ams% +n"one else have this ro!lem #here "ou #or&0 I a reciated this cha ter !ecause it rovided me #ith a good frame#or& for thin&ing a!out differentiation in a language*s ecific environment% +ssessment +s is a arentl" the case #ith several other osters$ I have had mi/ed results through the use of ru!rics as grading mechanisms% In fact$ one of our current de artmental goals this "ear at our school is to create more common assessments$ and #e're attem ting to create a standards* !ased ru!ric that can !e a lied to rett" much an"thing% It's going slo#l"$ mostl" due to differences in our collective teaching st"les% The advice in this cha ter #ill most certainl" hel our rocess$ and I thin& that the roo!ri/ site #ill rove useful% I loo& for#ard to sharing this #ith m" colleagues% I #ould$ ho#ever$ li&e to go off the rails a !it to as& this )uestion$ #hich al#a"s o s u in m" mind #henever I come across literature on assessment1 (hat is a grade these da"s0 (hat ur ose do the" actuall" serve0 2rades have !een so man" things throughout the "ears that it's hard to have a uniform conce t of #hat the grade actuall" is% 3ifferent schools$ districts$ and states have different scales even though all students are allegedl" #or&ing to#ards the same lacements in the same universities% I #onder #hat #ould ha en if an" teacher these da"s tried to actuall" grade their classes on a !ell curve0 If an" of us had that rofessor at universit"$ #e all remem!er that rofessor -fondl"%. (ith all these letters and num!ers fl"ing around$ it seems li&e an" focus on content and understanding goes out the #indo#% 4o# man" of us have students cram for voca!ular" tests onl" to forget ever"% single% #ord% on them the ne/t da"0 I almost #onder if the greater good might !e served !" a universal ass5fail s"stem #ith

content*s ecific standards that had to !e met0 It seems li&e #e might !e headed that #a" soon an"#a"$ at least here in the grand 6ol state of Io#a% +n"!od" else frustrated #ith the am!iguit" of #hat a grade is actuall" for0 7ure$ #e can sa" that not all assessments are grades or that not all grades are assessments$ !ut in our current educational realit"$ it seems that grades are not reall" an indicator of master"$ !ut rather of com liance% Planning For Instruction This #as an interesting cha ter% I'm glad to have a technical term for I8E and I8F9 +s seems to !e the case as I read through this te/t$ I'm finding that I'm doing some of the things it tal&s a!out at least art*#a"$ ,ust not necessaril" &no#ing #hat to call them% I a reciate the focus that this has added in that regard% I'm curious$ though$ a!out the conce t of -:ac&#ard 3esign. lanning% I initiall" loo&ed at this in relation to an often unsuccessful lesson I teach on 7 anish demonstratives (e/citing stuff$ that9)% I o&ed through the flo#chart in cha ter ;0 on differentiated instruction #ith :ac&#ard 3esign and tried to thin& of some ideas that #a"% I came u #ith a fe# interesting results that seemed to #or& for a fe# &ids during the revie# hase (unfortunatel"$ I hadn't read this !efore I taught the lesson initiall" < I'll get another chance here in =ovem!er)% Though I reall" didn't go through ever" last ste % I !ring this u !ecause it too& me a decent amount of time to do this$ and I'm #ondering if an"one else has concerns in this regard% It seems li&e there are a lot of reall" good suggestions in this cha ter$ !ut the time involved in their im lementation seems reall" rohi!itive% I've !een &ind of e/tracting nuggets out of the larger ideas and im lementing them a la Fran&enstein in m" lanning% +n"one else in this !oat0