Redefining Fair: How to Plan, Assess, and Grade for Exellence in Mixed-Ability Classrooms - Softcover

Cooper, Damian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1935542141 ISBN 13: 9781935542148

Publisher: Solution Tree, 2011

Synopsis

Differentiation is a necessary response both to the changing demography of schools and to our understanding of how students learn. But the differentiation of instruction and assessment are often blocked by outdated beliefs regarding fairness. In Redefining Fair, Damian Cooper draws from his extensive experience in the field to answer to the most common questions teachers have about putting differentiation into action, and offers instructional solutions that are comprehensive, practical, clear, and effective. The book's ten chapters include strategies and examples of assessment methods that will improve student learning and enable all students to realize their potential. Chapter 1 explains the role of differentiation in ensuring student success as schools set goals of proficiency for all students. Chapter 2 explores the difference between "fairness" and "sameness" and suggests ways to respond to resistance to new assessment methods. Chapter 3 examines the required knowledge and skills included in today's curriculum, addresses the challenges that curriculum overload presents, and suggests strategies for managing and planning a curriculum that focuses on essential skills. Chapter 4 contains examples of ways to collect data through a variety of preassessments and diagnostic assessments to determine students' needs, readiness to learn, and learning preferences. Chapter 5 examines ways to create a culture of excellence in your classroom by focusing on student understanding rather than outcomes achieved through memorization. Chapter 6 discusses the "mythology of measurement" and the distinction between assessment designed to improve learning through feedback and assessment designed to measure learning through grades. Chapter 7 focuses on effective instructional practices including differentiation and scaffolding that engage and empower students. Chapter 8 provides examples for designing flexible and responsive differentiated assessments for all students that reflect eviden

About this title

Review:

"Damian Cooper writes about differentiated or responsive teaching from three important qualifications. he has done what he asks his readers to do; he has studied the classrooms of many other teachers, so that his sense of classroom reality is broad and deep; and he understands that excellent teaching is not a set of strategies but the determination to do what it takes to make the classroom work those who have little choice but to spend their days in its boundaries. For all those reasons, both Cooper's advice and reasoning are valuable." -- Carol Ann Tomlinson "William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor in Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Policy, University of Virginia"

About this edition

• Publisher: Solution Tree
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1935542141
• ISBN 13: 9781935542148
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 200