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Diagnostic Assessments

Diagnostic assessments are a vital component of my assessment process. Prior to teaching a concept, I administer a baseline or pre-assessment. Analyzing the data from these assessments gives me clearer understanding of what my students already know and are able to do, which guides how I plan instruction. Diagnostic data also allows me to identify students' learning needs so that I can develop differentiated learning experiences. To this end, disaggregating diagnostic data informs student groupings and whether or not students are placed in enrichment or remediation groups in order to support their learning of key content knowledge and skills. Assessing students in this way therefore leads to more productive, efficient use of instruction as it allows me to adjust instruction and plan for enrichment and remediation before instruction even begins. As a result, my students achieve improved learning outcomes. Additionally, by comparing diagnostic assessments to summative assessments, I am able to verify and document student learning over the course of a unit, thereby providing me with an accurate portrayal of student growth. 

Reading
Grammar

Writing Skills:

Another area where diagnostic assessments have proven vital in my class is in writing instruction. Within the first month of school, students compose a baseline informative essay. Since this is the more rigorous of our two modes of writing and since many of my students have never written an informative essay prior to sixth grade, this baseline gives me an accurate portrayal of what my students already know and what they need to know in order to meet our learning goals. Furthermore, this baseline gives me a snapshot of students' writing proficiencies and deficiencies so that I can develop differentiated learning experiences. Some insights this baseline assessment allows me to determine include whether and how students unpacked the prompt, coded and annotated the text, utilized pre-writing strategies, understood essay structure, and edited their drafts. Thus, analyzing baseline data allows me to determine how much writing instruction my students need in each component of the writing process: planning, pre-writing, writing, and revision. It also allows me to determine who to pull for remediation and enrichment in small groups.

 

When grading student writing, I always use the FSA Writing Informative Rubric or the FSA Writing Argumentative Rubric. These rubrics break the text-based writing task into three categories: Purpose, Focus, and Organization (PFO), Evidence and Elaboration (EE), and Conventions (C). These are the same writing rubrics by which the state will score students' text-based writing on students' standardized test. As a result, I am able to initially assess students' writing skills through this diagnostic so that I will be able to later monitor learner progress toward proficient text-based writing, adjusting instruction along the way to meet the needs of my diverse learners. Students are able to use their baseline essay scores to set text-based writing goals, so they, too, can monitor their progress toward text-based writing proficiency. To score on grade level, students must receive the following scores: PFO - 3, EE - 3, and C - 1.

 

Samples of students' writing baseline assessments as well as explanations as to how this assessment guided my instructional decision-making are included below.

Grammar Skills:

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Diagnostic assessments are also used to guide grammar instruction so that students can master the learning goals associated with our language and editing standards. Because my students are incredibly diverse, not only in terms of their abilities but also in terms of their language proficiencies,  administering diagnostic assessments allows me to determine students' knowledge of grammatical concepts prior to teaching those skills. Doing so allows me to assess where exactly I should begin teaching a particular grammar standard, which allows me to maximize instructional time and fosters improved achievement outcomes.

 

In my classroom, I use a variety of methods to pre-assess students grammar skills; sometimes, I preassess students' grammar skills through traditional pencil and paper tasks. Other times, I preassess students' grammar skills using the online adaptive grammar programs, No Red Ink and Quill. Using multiple methods of assessment to preassess students' skills allows me to get a clearer picture of students' prior knowledge and provides me with crucial insight into students' current understandings and misconceptions. Additionally, employing the use of technology in preassessment allows me to more fully engage my learners and more accurately assess their individual needs. Samples of these multiple methods of diagnostic preassessment are included below.

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Traditional Pencil and Paper Tasks:

Sometimes, I preassess students' abilities through their do now assignments. By reviewing students' responses prior to instruction, I am able to provide immediate feedback to influence my students' comprehension of the material and am able to make immediate adjustments to my lesson based upon students' observed strengths and needs.

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Students' knowledge of grammar concepts are addressed through language and editing tasks. By assessing whether or not students understand a grammatical concept prior to instruction, I can make more informed instructional decisions that will facilitate students' abilities to apply their content knowledge to tasks that are aligned to our learning goals. Review the slideshow below to explore student diagnostic samples depicting their foundational knowledge of objective pronouns.

Writing

"Assessment for learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where their learners are in their learning, where they need to go, and how best to get them there."

~Assessment Reform Group (2002)

As these student samples indicate, many of my students have a foundational understanding of connotation and word choice. Many of my students incorrectly summarized the passage as they applied inferences to the passage that were irrelevant or inaccurate since they did not read/ analyze the passage objectively. Almost all students struggled with writing deep analyses that explained how the author's specific word choice revealed tone. While this assessment adequately scaffolds questions from easy to difficult, the amount of space provided to students for their short answer questions is limited, which could potentially contribute to students' shallow analyses. Moving forward, I used the insights gleaned from this assessment's data to guide instruction by reviewing how my students' demonstrated prerequisite skills compared to the learning goals associated with this standard. In so doing, I ensured that future instruction was aligned to the desired learning outcomes and was tailored to my students' individual needs. For this particular assessment, I reviewed the types of connotation, explicitly taught and modeled how how connotation and word choice revealed tone, and provided several formative assessment opportunities for students to practice and develop this skill prior to administration of the summative assessment. In addition, I worked with students specifically on elaboration strategies that would allow them move beyond text-driven analyses toward idea-driven analyses that would allow them to achieve the specific learning goals and objectives called for by this standard. 

In order for a diagnostic assessment to be beneficial, the data derived from the assessment must be disaggregated to guide instructional planning so that instruction meets the needs of the diverse learners within the class. Based upon this class's NWEA MAP data, I modified my long-term plan to include more analysis of literary and informative texts. Given the very low RIT scores, I know that most of my class falls significantly below grade level, as the average RIT score, 203, correlates to a Level 1 on the FSA, where Level 3 is grade level proficient. (For NWEA MAP to FSA conversions, click here.) This means that many of my students lack the foundational reading skills needed to be on grade level. As a result, I spent more time explicitly teaching foundational reading skills through analysis of literary and informational texts to ensure students achieve grade level mastery by the end of the school year. 

Sample Student NWEA MAP Baseline Assessment Data

In addition to analyzing the NWEA MAP baseline assessment to make class-wide instructional innovations, I also use this data to purposefully plan for small group enrichment and/or remediation. Not only does this baseline assessment tell me at which grade level students are reading (see Lexile to grade level conversion here), but it also tells me how proficient students are within each sub-category of reading skills. Consequently, I will be able to push students toward greater literacy by modifying reading assignments to ensure assignments are both appropriately rigorous and aligned to learning goals. For example, five students in this particular class are reading above grade level, but, generally speaking, their weakest area is in literary analysis. To better meet their academic needs, and to be responsive to the baseline data, I would pull these students to work specifically on literary analysis tasks to push them toward that high range of proficiency to ensure mastery by the end of the year.

While the NWEA MAP provides me with crucial information in terms of how to group students at the beginning of the year and in terms of what foundational skills I need to build first, it is not the sole method of reading skills pre-assessment used in my classroom. Because I plan instruction using the backwards design model, I plan with the end in mind - with the specific skills my students need to have mastered by the end of the unit and school year. As a result, administering pretests before I deliver any instruction shows me where students are on the road to mastery. As a result, I can use instructional time to build upon students' strengths and areas of growth; this allows me to formatively assess to determine how students are progressing towards mastery rather than formatively assessing to determine what students' strengths and areas of growth are. This allows for me to more efficiently utilize and maximize instructional time.

 

One area in which I diagnostically assessed students' reading skills is with determining tone. Student samples of this diagnostic assessments are included below.

Student Sample 1

Student Sample 2

Student Sample 3

Student Sample 4

Student Sample 1 Back

Student Sample 1 Front

The student in sample 1 struggles with this standard, particularly with objectively summarizing the passage and determining and analyzing the author's tone. This student made the (inaccurate) inference that the death of a parent would be sad, which he/she applied when determining the tone, thus leading to incorrect responses. Approximately 13% of students made this or similar errors. So, moving forward, I will utilize this misconception to guide planning and instruction. By providing students with explicit feedback that addresses this misconception, students will be able to more successfully determine and analyze tone in subsequent formative and summative assessments.

The student in sample 2 also struggled with objectively summarizing the passage, but correctly identified the passage's tone. While this student began a strong analysis as to how certain words and phrases can impact tone, the analysis needed to be extended in order to demonstrate an adequate understanding and mastery of this standard. Approximately 67% of students in this class struggled with including sufficient explanations. For these students, I would focus on elaboration techniques to help them extend short answer responses so they could reach greater depths of analysis in their writing and thereby sufficiently attain the learning goals associated with this standard. 

The student in sample 3, a special education student, clearly struggles with tone and with elaboration of responses. He/she misidentified the tone of the passage, even though he/she had initially selected words depicting positive connotations. This sample represents approximately 2% of students. For these students, I would cater future instruction to include making connections between connotation and word choice and how both connotation and word choice impact the author's tone. Also, I would provide accommodations, such as a tone list or sentence frames, to support these students' mastery of this standard.

The student in sample 4 has a solid foundational grasp of summarizing, connotation, and word choice; however, he/she struggles with analyzing how word choice reveals the author's tone. About 8% of students responded similarly on this diagnostic assessment. Much like many of the other student samples, this student tends to summarize what the words literally say rather than extending his/her response to greater levels of analysis. As a result, I know that elaboration will need to be explicitly taught through whole group instruction.

Based on the results of this diagnostic assessment, I know that this student has a very limited prior knowledge of 6th grade grammar skills. However, in analyzing the different strands of this assessment, it is clear that this student has a foundational knowledge of affixes, word families and connotation since he/she got almost all of those questions correct. Furthermore, I will need to review parts of speech prior to explicitly teaching the specific types of pronouns as he/she circled a verb as a pronoun twice during this assessment.  By doing so, I will be supporting students' subsequent learning of more complex grammar skills, such as pronoun-antecedent agreement, where foundational knowledge of the parts of speech is crucial to students' attainment of the learning goals associated with those language standards.

Student Sample 2 Back

Student Sample 2 Front

This student also has a limited foundational knowledge of 6th grade grammar skills. Even though this student skipped a few questions and missed most of the questions, he/she also got almost all of the questions regarding affixes and word parts correct. After looking at all of the assessment data, I can glean that that particular skill will perhaps need little more than review class-wide. For all of the questions requiring students to identify incorrect pronouns, this student chose nouns for both questions. Because several students within this class are incorrectly identifying pronouns and parts of speech, I will need to reteach or remediate these skills in order for students to achieve mastery with our pronoun standards by the end of the year. 

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Diagnostic Assessments Using Technology:

In addition to traditional pencil and paper diagnostic assessments, I also use the online tools available through No Red Ink and Quill to pre-assess students' knowledge of grammar skills. Not only do these resources allow me to assess students' strengths, weaknesses, and current skills before I teach them, but I am also able to differentiate these diagnostic assessments to cater to the individual needs of my learners. These online resources analyze students' diagnostic data and offer suggestions for instruction at both the individual and class levels, thereby contributing to the efficiency of future instruction. Moreover, because these online programs are adaptive, I am able to more accurately assess and address individual learner needs. Navigate the slideshow below to explore how I employ technology to support assessment practice  by more fully addressing learners' unique needs.

ELL Student Diagnostic Writing Sample

This student, an ELL, has very limited prior understanding of essay composition. Despite an obvious linguistic barrier, this student used transitions well and has some semblance as to how to construct sentences properly. Moving forward, however, I will need to work with him/her on using more appropriate grade level transitions. As an accommodation, I would provide a transition list or word bank containing definitions and pictures of the transition words, depending upon the students' English proficiency and linguistic needs. Additionally, this student 'copy and pasted' ideas from the three sources together to create his/her own sentences. While he/she likely did this because of his/her limited English skills, I will need to spend time working with him/her on how to generate ideas in English and cite text evidence from the sources. As he/she gains English proficiency, I will need to work with him/her on paragraph development and pre-writing strategies to ensure his/her writing is appropriately connected to the audience, task, and purpose. To accommodate the linguistic needs of this student (and my other language learners), I provide sentence frames and graphic organizers on subsequent writing tasks to help students organize their thoughts in English.

Student Diagnostic Writing Sample Page 1

Student Diagnostic Writing Sample Page 2

Student Diagnostic Writing Sample - Prewriting

Sample Class NWEA MAP Baseline Assessment Data

Compared to Student 1, this student has a broader foundational knowledge of the essay writing task. Since this student scored a 5 on the FSA Informative Writing Rubric, this writing sample is indicative of the average student in my classes. He/she wrote a multi-paragraph response that was somewhat related to the prompt. Judging from the content of this student's essay, he/she did not fully understand stereotyping, which affected his/her essay content. While I have limited control over the passage sets and prompt given to students for their diagnostic assessment, I would not have chosen this prompt as students cold writing prompt. Many of my students lacked the background knowledge and/or reading comprehension skills to understand the complexity of stereotypes without additional scaffolding. As a result, I would have instead used this prompt with explicit teaching to facilitate students' understanding of this complex topic. 

 

Additionally, analyzing students' diagnostic writing assessments indicates that grammar skills will need to be reinforced. Specifically, I will need to focus instruction on pronoun-antecedent agreement and varying sentence structure. By anonymously using students' writing samples to complement grammar instruction, students' learning will become embedded in more authentic contexts, which will ensure deeper mastery of the content.

 

Finally,  this essay is mostly comprised of the student's original ideas with an attempt at citations. Because the writing rubric emphasizes idea-driven writing over text-driven writing, I will need to ensure that subsequent instruction focuses on citing evidence that supports students' original ideas. This will ensure that students' essays are more than mere summaries of the passage set, which will allow them to score proficiently on the rubric, thereby meeting our rigorous learning goals. When working with my students on idea-driven writing, I will also need to ensure that I review the difference between formal and informal writing  so that student writing adequately caters to the assigned purpose, audience and task.

Unlike Student 1, this student used prewriting strategies to help him/her accomplish the text-based writing task. While students' planning is not scored on their text-based writing portion of their standardized test, successful essay planning is crucial to writing proficient essays. Less than half of my students, in both my regular and advanced classes, used a prewriting strategy to plan their informative essays. The average text-based writing score for this diagnostic assessment was a 4.8 on this diagnostic assessment, which is significantly below grade level.  To ensure that students can meet the learning goal for future writing assessments and on their standardized test, I will need to explicitly teach students how to plan essays, establishing how and why doing so is crucial for success on their culminating writing tasks. Initially, I will provide students with graphic organizers, such as concept maps for brainstorming and an outline for essay structure, to assist them in developing their text-based writing skills.  

Appropriately pre-assessing students' writing skills allows me to tailor subsequent writing instruction to address my learners' strengths and weaknesses. It allows me to pinpoint what my learners know and can successfully do; this, in turn, allows me to determine how and where to scaffold instruction and how to modify and accommodate for my learners' unique needs. As students continue writing throughout the year, they and I are able to compare their subsequent writing scores to monitor their progress toward meeting our learning goals.

Analyzing data from this assessment allowed me to determine that, for the majority of classes, I need to review prepositions and prepositional phrases. For a small pocket of students in each class, I needed to review all of the parts of speech, since not being able to properly identify verbs from nouns, pronouns, etc. were significantly impeding students' abilities to identify the types of objective pronouns, thus inhibiting their ability to achieve the learning goals associated with this standard. As a result, I worked with these students in small groups to support their mastery of this skill.

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Since reading and writing are the major focus on my standards, grammar instruction typically occurs during do nows, homework assignments, and in the context of reading and writing tasks. In order to determine the order in which grammar concepts and skills are reinforced based upon my learners' needs, I preassess the grammar skills contained within my language and editing standards through a traditional pencil and paper diagnostic assessment.

Whether they are administered to preassess reading, writing, or grammar skills, diagnostic assessments play a vital role in my ability to monitor learner progress. Throughout the assessment progress, I am able to compare how students are progressing during and after instruction to how students performed prior to learning the concepts and skills being assessed. This allows me to make instructional decisions that will help ensure that students are making adequate progress toward our learning goals and allows me to verify and document how and where students' learning has occurred. Moreover, analyzing data from proper diagnostic assessments allows me to decide how to adjust instruction to more effectively guide learners in the attainment of a skill. After concepts and skills have been diagnostically assessed, I conduct a variety of formative assessments while students are explicitly learning those concepts and skills to ensure attainment of our learning goals.

Reading Skills:

One area where I have utilized diagnostic assessments to guide instructional planning is with reading skills. At the beginning of the school year, students are given an initial baseline assessment through NWEA MAP to determine their current reading levels and their proficiency in the areas of informational text, literature, and vocabulary acquisition. Data gleaned from this diagnostic assessment helps determine what skills are prioritized throughout the first quarter and whether/ how my long-term plan needs to be adjusted to meet the needs of my new group of learners. Knowing students' reading levels at the onset helps me know how far I need to differentiate instruction to bridge learning gaps and thus foster academic achievement. This assessment also functions as our standardized benchmark exam, so it is re-administered three times over the course of the school year, helping determine students' progress toward their Florida Standards Assessment. 

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