DI Resources Continued

Redefining Fair - how to Plan, Assess, and Grade for Excellence in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, by Damian Cooper (ISBN 978-1-935542-14-8)

A large focus of this text consists of assessment. Cooper discusses the necessity to keep the end-learning product in mind in trying to be proactive in planning for each individual student. In other words, in order to provide appropriate evaluation of individual students we need to fully understand what engages them as learners and determine the culminating evaluation accordingly. Cooper also demonstrates the on-going process to develop assessment in a mixed-ability classroom using multiple teaching scenarios. The concept of assessment for learning versus assessment of learning continually surfaces throughout the text. Ultimately, from my interpretation, we should use assessment for learning to improve our assessment of learning. Basically, how a student learns is as important to what a student learns when creating assessment pieces.

The end of the text centres around reporting to parents. Cooper thoroughly discusses five significant areas when reporting DI results in a mixed-ability classroom with regards to parental concerns:

1) What has my child learned?
2) How well has my child demonstrated his or her learning?
3) What has my child not learned?
4) How can I help with what has not been learned?
5) How well behaved is my child?

In all Cooper has numerous examples and materials within the text to help teachers design and implement DI in a mixed-ability classroom.