UDL and Assessment for

Learning

Instructional Design, Assessment Data Analysis, and How

NOT to lose your mind doing it all.

Lisa Carey and Liz Berquist

All assessments must begin with a GOAL

How we reach our goal is

flexible. This allows for

learner variability, which

neuroscience tells us is the

reality of our classrooms.

Content standards

What do students actually have to

know – independent of what they

can write, read, perform, etc... This

is knowledge they need to have

before they can apply it.

Methods standards

What do students have to do? This

focuses on specific tasks such as writing,

solving an algebraic equation, reading,

performing a piece of music, etc.

Consider the type of Standard

What is an “Assessment?”

“ Learning expertise cannot be measured simply by evaluating competencies

and outcomes at a single point in time because learning is a process of

continual change and growth” – Dr. David Rose, CAST

- “A ‘snap shot’ in time, is only that, a data point in a fleeting moment.”

-Dr. Mark Mahone, Kennedy Krieger Institute

- “We must ‘triangulate’ our data sources in order to hone in on our student’s

abilities, mastery, and progress.”

- Dr. Ron Thomas, Towson University

Assessments are…

A means of evaluating if a student has achieved the

outlined goal at a level of mastery.

NOVICE EXPERT

Formative Assessment Assessing for the purpose of informing future instructional design.

Formative v. Summative

The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be

used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning.

More specifically, formative assessments:

• help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work

• help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately

The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by

comparing it against some standard or benchmark.

Examples of summative assessments include:

a midterm exam

a final project

a paper

a senior recital

UDL Options in Formative Assessment: Base your assessment on the purpose of your learning objective

AND you’re the strengths of your students.

• Exit Ticket

• Interview

• Peer Interview

• Demonstration/Performance

• Diagram

• Writing

• Mapping / Planning / Organizing

Grade, Sort, and Plan: Leave class with your plan for addressing the data from your

previous lesson. What will you do NEXT week/class?

• Quickly evaluate your formative assessment

• Sort into three piles/groups: Get’s it, Kinda Get’s it, Doesn’t Get it. (set criteria for each group before sorting)

• Based on your piles determine your plan

• Reteach to the whole group?

• Reteach to part of the group?

• Extension for part of the group?

• Peer tutoring?

• Online tools to target the few students who didn’t get it? What options do we have at TU?

And how do we use our formative assessment

data? Anyone? Anyone?

Feedback! Telling students how they did, where they are, where they need to go, and how

to get there is the “formative” part of formative assessment.

• Have students assess their own learning

• Have students compare their own assessment to your assessment

• Make them answer: “do our assessments match? Why/Why not?”

• Collaboratively make a plan for mastery:

• “Okay Marcus, you understood plotting points on the graph when all numbers were

positive, but didn’t quite get it when I added in negative numbers. How can we work

together to make sure you understand this concept?”

And Now, As Promised, Not Losing Your

Mind!

• Give yourself a standard procedure that allows for flexibility, but allows you to quickly conceptualize your planning with formative assessment options in mind

• Develop a “work smart not hard” UDL assessment tool box. Ex. Promethean Boards OR cell phones let you use active votes for student response and then exports them to an excel file.

• CATs provide numerous options (see web links)

• Think about what learning will look and sound like for each of your lessons, put this into a check list intersected with your class list and use this to conduct formative assessments. Ex. Students will highlight examples in the text, discuss x topic, create a digital graphic organizer…checks that students do this as you walk around the room.

http://www.ncicdp.org/documents/Assessment Strategies.pdf

http://tlc.provost.gwu.edu/classroom-assessment-techniques

YOUR TASK

• Check out the CAT links!

• Which do you like? Why? Can you use “as is” or would you modify based

on your knowledge of the UDL framework?

• Post your ideas on our assessment

blog page (UDL Connect):

Design with the End in Mind? Design with NO end in mind. It’s a cycle. Plan, Teach, Assess, Grade, Sort, Plan, Teach,

Assess, Grade, Sort, Plan, Teach, Assess, Grade, Sort, Plan….