Differentiation Through Assessment: The DAP Tool

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Differentiation Through Assessment The DAP Tool

• National Association for Gifted Children 2006
• Julia Roberts and Tracy Inman
• The Center for Gifted Studies
• Western Kentucky University
• julia.roberts_at_wku.edu
• tracy.inman_at_wku.edu

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Teachers Can Differentiate...

• CONTENT
• What do you want the students to know?
• PROCESS
• What do you want the students to do cognitively
  with what they know?
• PRODUCT
• How can students demonstrate what theyve
  learned?
• ASSESSMENT
• How do you assess what has been learned?

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Differentiating Assessment

• Many educators hesitate holding students
  accountable at varying levels, perhaps unsure of
  their ability to be consistent and equitable. The
  DAP Tool is an instrument that greatly encourages
  appropriate differentiation of assessment.

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Developing and Assessing Product Tool (DAP Tool)

• Assessment is all about learning the
  professional educator looks for evidence of
  continuous progress. Evidence that this
  continuous progress occurs is multifaceted.

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Components of DAP Tool

• Content
• Presentation
• Creativity
• Reflection

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Content

• The meat of the product, the content, must be
  accurate and organized. And in order to preserve
  your sanity, the language must be general enough
  so that the product can be applied in all content
  areas. The student is responsible for being
  content specific.
• Is the content accurate?
• Is the content well organized?

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Presentation

• This component will be more unique in wording
  than the other three because the descriptors will
  be specific to the product itself. When
  developing multi-level rubrics for the same
  product, language becomes much more sophisticated
  in this section. The main question for this area
  follows
• Are product specific components included in the
  presentation?

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Creativity

• Creativity, that personal spark or insight that
  inspires the student, surfaces in both the
  content (distinct viewpoint) and presentation
  (unique approach). Its originality. Its what
  distinguishes one diorama of a rainforest biome
  from another diorama of a rainforest biome. The
  following two questions form the basis of the
  creativity component
• How does that personal insight relate to the
  content?
• How does that personal spark relate to the
  presentation?

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Reflection

• This component, highly personal in nature,
  consists of the students reflecting on her
  learning. Reflections include what she has
  learned, how she has learned, and how beneficial
  the learning experience was. The following two
  questions with support for their answers form
  the basis of the reflection component
• What did you learn about the content as you
  completed this product?
• What did you learn about yourself as a learner by
  creating this product?

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Developing and Assessing Product Tool (DAP Tool)
Rating Scale

• 6 EXPERT LEVEL level expected from a
  professional in the content area
• 5 ADVANCED LEVEL level exceeds expectations of
  the standard
• 4 PROFICIENT LEVEL level expected for meeting
  the standard
• 3 PROGRESSING LEVEL level demonstrates
  movement toward the standard
• 2 NOVICE LEVEL level demonstrates initial
  awareness and knowledge of standard
• 1 NON-PERFORMING LEVEL level indicates no
  effort made to reach the standard

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DAP Tool Levels 1, 2, and 3

• Kindergartners can create posters just as seniors
  in high school can create posters. Should the
  scoring guide be the same for both? Isnt a
  poster a poster?
• Although the criteria may be the same in the
  rubrics, the level of sophistication should vary
  greatly!

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Levels Become More Sophisticated

• More specific wording at different levels of
  sophistication guides the young person as she
  works on the product, and it also provides the
  guidelines for your assessing the product when it
  is completed.
• Because of your preassessment, you know that
  expectations need to be different for some
  students. This is where multiple DAP Tools for
  the same product come into play. The main
  variation will be the upping of expectations,
  greater sophistication of wording.