TASK 2: Catering for Diversity

Example One: Summative assessment

Context/description
The image below was provided to students in a Year 5 gifted and talented class on
29th October 2015 as part of a mathematics and visual arts lesson. The image was cut
into small portions and students were given one piece each (this can be seen in
image two). They were given an A4 piece of paper and asked to scale their portion to
thirty times the size. Following this, the pieces would all be put together like a puzzle
to form a replica of the original image.
The task was individual, however required the students to collaborate to produce a
final product. The learners in this class were extremely diverse. They were gifted and
talented in various areas. Some were very successful in mathematics, others in
literacy, some in the sporting arena and visual art. The class included many students
who did not have strong mathematic skills and included two students whose
mathematical abilities were far superior to the standards expected of students in Year
5. The nature of the task allowed the pre service teacher to pre select images to suit
the ability of the students. Some pieces were more mathematically challenging than
others and selected for the students who excelled at mathematics.
(Valentine, M, 2016).

Explanation
The students were made aware via feed forward (Australian Institute for
Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL], 2014, 5.1) that to be successful in
this activity required precision in scaling, an activity they had had sufficient
learning experience with prior to summative assessment (McMillan, 2011).
They were also advised that producing an accurate end result required the
cooperation of their peers. This encouraged students to work together, find
peers whose piece of the puzzle was beside theirs, sit together, provide
feedback to one another and cross check their work. Here students were able
to self assess (Readman & Allen, 2013).
Informal formative feedback was provided to students during micro teaching.
Verbal feedback was provided on accurate work by comments such as
Notice how your sketch takes up the whole A4 page? It shouldnt, that means
something is not quite right about your strategy. Explain the formula that you
used? When the student answered by talking the steps out loud he realised
where his mistake was and felt good about discovering the error himself. This
feedback encouraged metacognition (Readman & Allen, 2013). Feedback
(AITSL, 2014, 5.2) via the teacher was critical as the nature and success of
the task required student accuracy for a successful final product.
The final artwork was the assessment itself. The surprise element of what it
would look like had the students engaged and excited (Readman & Allen,
2013). Once placed together it was evident which pieces were correctly
scaled. It was placed on the back wall of the room. Upon student pick up at
the end of the day parents were invited into the classroom to view the artwork
and it was added to the class blog (AITSL, 2014, 5.5).