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CHAPTER 1

Choreograph Your Instruction With the Cha-Chas Steps

You can sum up brain research, the formative assessment process, and differentiated instruction in four steps: (1) chunk, (2) chew, (3) check, and (4) change. When you dance all four steps daily during all content area instruction and practice, planning instruction gets easier, and the results will amaze you. Before we can swing into our four steps, we must answer the following questions.

• What does neuroscience say about learning?

• What is the formative assessment process?

• What is differentiated instruction?

• Is there research to support differentiated instruction?

• How did we merge neuroscience, the formative assessment process, and differentiated instruction into four steps?

What Does Neuroscience Say About Learning?

Giving students frequent opportunities to quiz themselves or take brief teacher- or computer-designed quizzes to recall information, along with giving them effective feedback, has an effect size of more than 0.80 (more than one and a half years of growth) on student achievement (Adesope, Trevisan, & Sundararajan, 2017; Cranney, Ahn, McKinnon, Morris, & Watts, 2009). Effect size is a number that represents the difference between two groups to show effectiveness. In this case, it shows how effective one agent is on student achievement. Retrieving information from the brain—the memory—about what was learned that day and previous days is more effective than rereading the text, taking notes, or listening to lectures again (Agarwal, Roediger, McDaniel, & McDermott, 2013).

This study also finds that recalling and writing an answer to a flash card question (before flipping over flash card) or equation improves learning more than thinking the student knows the answer and flipping over the card prematurely. Bottom line? Researchers say to educators to pull information out of student brains rather than place more information into their brains and provide feedback to students about their learning (Agarwal et al., 2013). Retrieval represents the chew and feedback represents a check and change in our instructional cha-chas. Both are critical components for memory and learning.

What Is the Formative Assessment Process?

Formative assessment isn’t a one-time thing. It is a process that both teachers and students use throughout their work together; each gives feedback to the other so the teacher can change instruction and improve students’ achievement (Popham, 2013). Since educators always want to improve students’ achievement, they should view all assessments through a formative lens—even the main formative assessment. Figure 1.1 shows the progression from preassessment to summative assessment. If you use the preassessment data collected prior to instruction to determine what to teach, who to teach, and how to teach, then it becomes a type of formative assessment because it informs your upcoming instruction. (Chapter 3 on page 22 talks about preassessment in detail.) Ongoing formative assessments occur throughout a lesson and allow you to correct misconceptions or misunderstandings; provide feedback; and change grouping, pacing, content, and assignments.

These daily, ongoing formative assessments inform your instruction on the spot, the next day, or at a future date. Teachers don’t give summative assessments until after many formative assessments and much feedback. It makes sense that if we catch student errors early, they should do better on future assessments as long as we are assessing the same thing at different times in the unit or quarter. If we catch mistakes early and respond to them (with feedback, reteaching, different pacing, and other differentiation), they will learn it before the summative assessment. Teachers should only grade summative assessments. Many teachers and students mistakenly think the assessment process is complete at that point. If you view summative assessments through a formative lens, you can determine areas for student growth from graded work. Technically, any assessment is formative if it informs the teacher and student of how learning is going and how to change instruction versus just recording it.

We’ll answer these questions in the following sections.

• What are the characteristics of the formative assessment process?

• Is there research to support the formative assessment process?

What Are the Characteristics of the Formative Assessment Process?

The characteristics of the formative assessment process are multifaceted, with specific criteria.

• All instruction centers around the learning target, which is a mini step toward achieving the standard. The learning target is small enough to ensure mastery within approximately one to two days. To achieve a standard, you make a progression of mini learning targets to lead learners to a broad, deeper standard. For example, if the standard is to “determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text,” a possible learning target might be identify the main idea and any supporting details (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010a). The learning target is one step toward mastery of a larger standard. The plan for instruction, the activities for practice, the questions you ask, the assessment method you use, the criteria required for success, and the information you provide for feedback are all based on helping students accomplish the learning target.

Figure 1.1: Assessments drive instruction.

• The focus is on the depth of learning, rather than the grade, which allows you to use a variety of tools and strategies throughout the process. For example, students could practice the learning together, thus using their strengths and supporting their growth opportunities as they approach mastery.

• The assessment informs the student and teacher about where the student is with the learning target (also known as outcome, objective, and standard subskill).

• Formative assessments, whether they are short and sweet or long and deep, are ongoing and woven into every lesson, all day long, with all students. These formative assessments give the teacher feedback on his or her teaching. He or she can see how effective it is based on the student work.

• Examined assessments lead to differentiated instruction. Based on the evidence, teachers adjust instructional activities to accomplish the goal at hand, and students apply metacognition to gauge their level of understanding and tell the teacher what they need next. The teacher can give feedback or lead students into self-assessment on that work so any gaps can be closed.

• Response to these data—the differentiated instruction—should occur seconds, minutes, or days from the initial examination (not weeks or months).

In summary, the formative assessment process is an ongoing, planned (and sometimes spontaneous), daily process. You can more easily implement this process with the students when you thoroughly plan, so you can respond wisely when the unexpected comes. These unexpected challenges happen daily. For example, while teaching mathematics, you notice a common error that four students are making. Because your plan involved several strategies to use during that lesson, you realize you need to teach a specific strategy sooner versus later.

Is There Research to Support the Formative Assessment Process?

Educational researchers Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (1998) are instrumental in establishing that the formative assessment process is transformational, asserting that, done properly, it helps students learn markedly better. Their research concludes that student gains from this process are “amongst the largest ever reported for educational interventions” (Black & Wiliam, 1998, p. 61). In fact, the effect sizes were between 0.40 and 0.70. Any effect size greater than 0.40 is significant and will produce achievement gains. Black and Wiliam (1998) find that using assessment can make learning faster. The formative assessment process can literally help students learn twice as fast.

John Hattie (2009), in his book Visible Learning, finds that providing formative evaluation of student learning via interventions produces a 0.90 effect size on achievement. That’s almost a two-year leap. It’s about the:

Power of feedback to teachers on what is happening in their classroom so that they can ascertain, “How am I going?” in achieving the learning intentions they have set for their students, such that they can then decide “Where to next?” for the students. (Hattie, 2009, p. 181)

Hattie (2009) explains that it’s the teacher’s attention to what students are doing, making, saying, or writing—in other words, focusing on mastery evidence—that enables him or her to determine how to respond. He says a teacher’s openness to seeing where students are struggling and to innovating that are what matter most (Hattie, 2009). Achievement raises drastically when teachers take the time to examine daily evidence and respond soon.

Black and Wiliam’s (1998) effect size differs some from Hattie’s (2009). That difference stems from the total participants pooled, as well as the variety and types of research. Hattie pooled hundreds of related research to conclude his effect size. He (2009) explains that “some types of feedback are more powerful than others” (p. 174). Cues or reinforcement are crucial. The form matters also. Video, audio, or instruction feedback by computer work well, as does relating feedback to learning goals. Finally, students have to interpret and act on the feedback (Hattie, 2009).

Since about 1978, many others have conducted research reviews on feedback and other aspects of formative assessment (Fuchs & Fuchs, 1986; Shavelson, 2006). The big takeaway, according to Dylan Wiliam and Siobhán Leahy (2015), is that the less time that passes between collecting and responding to evidence, the bigger the impact. In fact, the research concludes that responding six seconds to ten minutes after examining the evidence has the biggest impact. In other words, checkpoints during the lesson should drive immediate feedback. Leahy and Wiliam’s (2012) research in schools shows that:

When formative assessment practices are integrated into the minute-to-minute and day-by-day classroom activities of teachers, substantial increases in student achievement—of the order of a 70 to 80% increase in the speed of learning—are possible, even when outcomes are measured with externally-mandated standardized tests. (p. 67)

Bottom line: respond to the visible, daily data as soon as possible and ensure your students do, too. Using the formative assessment process daily will highly benefit students, teachers, and the rest of a school. Teachers will have less reteaching and fewer students who struggle.

What Is Differentiated Instruction?

In a nutshell, differentiated instruction is meeting students’ unique, diverse needs so they successfully meet the learning target. Students may not arrive at those goals on the same day and in the same way. This approach is based on a mindset that all students can improve their skills and understanding to achieve the daily learning target and eventually the standard—it just might take more time, different tools, and more teacher support. Rick Wormeli (2018), author of the updated Fair Isn’t Always Equal, says “differentiated instruction is doing what’s fair for students” with best practices, “including giving them the tools to handle anything that is undifferentiated” (p. 3). Wormeli (2018) asserts that differentiation “isn’t individualized instruction, though that may happen from time to time as warranted. It’s whatever works to advance the students. It’s highly effective teaching” (p. 3).

Every teacher we’ve ever worked with has wanted his or her students to succeed. The challenge has always been finding the right tools and strategies to make it happen, and using these tools and strategies strategically and habitually.

Is There Research to Support Differentiation?

Though research doesn’t use the term differentiation specifically, it does strongly support all the pieces that go into differentiation as we define and explain them in this book. For example, we know formative assessment has strong effect sizes, and that responding to student needs is the last step in the process. This is differentiation. To move students forward, you look at their learning (evidence) and make changes. Then, we give feedback, which has a very strong effect size of 0.73 (Hattie, 2009). When you take time to differentiate, you can move all students to “Got it” with their own tools, support, and time.

There are so many ways to differentiate, and we must choose the most powerful evidence-based strategies for efficiency. For example, one differentiation technique is to provide texts at the students’ instructional level, so they can better comprehend it. Another technique is to preteach vocabulary words to English learners (ELs) before beginning a science lab. If your students are struggling to comprehend text and disengaging during reading, you might want to try the strategy reciprocal teaching (chapter 5, page 81), which has an effect size of 0.74 (Hattie, 2009). When teachers base their teaching on students’ prior learning, there is an effect size of 0.85 (Hattie, 2009). Reteaching is part of this response; data from the previous lesson tells you to base a new lesson on what students need.

Responding to student needs further looks like relating to students and conveying competence. When students perceive that their teacher is credible, the effect size on student learning is 0.91 (about two years of growth). Hattie (2009) defines teacher credibility as a teacher’s passion about his or her work, trust, and a teacher’s competence. Finally, we must mention one more effect size: when teachers work collectively to improve student achievement and believe their major role is to evaluate their impact on student learning, there is an effect size of 1.57 (Hattie, 2009). That is about three years of growth. That’s worth it. We would call this team differentiation—using the data from their classrooms to reflect, discuss, and create a response plan for the goal of improving student achievement. All of these effect sizes support the practice of differentiated instruction.

How Did We Merge Neuroscience, the Formative Assessment Process, and Differentiated Instruction Into Four Steps?

We have taken the formative assessment process and added what we’ve learned about neuroscience and differentiation to develop a four-step cycle for successful instruction. Figure 1.2 shows that cycle.

Three critical questions are part of Hattie’s (2009) and Black and Wiliam’s (1998) feedback effects, which form a process for teaching. Each leads to the next.

Figure 1.2: The framed four-step instructional cha-chas cycle.

1. Where am I going? (Planning includes the teacher sharing learning targets and criteria for success toward this learning target; students understand these learning intentions and can use them to give self-feedback.)

2. Where am I right now? (The teacher has taught, or chunked, and students are showing what they know, or chewing. To know where students are right now, the teacher must check for understanding.)

3. How do I close the gap to get to the learning intentions? In other words, how do I get from here to there? (The teacher, via change, helps students see the gap and guides students as they determine the next steps.)

Notice that the steps are a continuous feedback loop, a cycle. In other words, after you change instruction, you might move forward with the next chunk, or you might need to respond differently. It’s all based on what you learn during the check. The cycle can occur several times in one lesson. You could also look at this cycle as a daily one: the last checkpoint in the lesson should tell us how to change the next day’s learning target, and thus, the cycle starts over with the next day’s lesson.

Notice also that all four steps of the instructional cha-chas cycle revolve around the standard or daily learning target. Achieving the daily learning target and reaching the standard are the goals of every lesson. And finally, notice the cha-chas cycle is framed by planning. Of course, we know that no teacher ever steps in front of class without first planning. In fact, we believe that planning is the foundation for quality lessons. Therefore, we framed our four steps to remind you that the cycle is only powerful if you plan for all four pieces. This planning frame is so important that the cycle can be thrown off if planning isn’t thorough. Once you plan, it’s time to instruct using the steps, which the following sections explain in more detail.

Chunk (Instruct)

This is where we look at evidence-based instructional strategies and brain research to determine how to teach the lesson, so students can receive it powerfully for stronger retention. Researched tools from Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock’s (2009) Classroom Strategies That Work book, show us what works, but not all tools will work perfectly for all students. Because students differ in the way they learn, differentiating how we teach the content is very important.

We take the copious content we need to teach in order for students to understand the learning target and start chunking the content into meaningful, smaller, similar, interrelated sections. That helps the brain perceive each section as a coherent group of ideas. The teacher craftily ensures that students are making these chunks meaningful, and therefore, more memorable. You can present the chunks as a short video clip, reading sections, online research, software programs, learning centers, teacher directed, student led, and more.

The first chunk should always introduce the learning target. Students should know what they are supposed to learn, why they are learning it, and how they will know where they are within the learning process each day. Chapter 4 (page 49) talks about chunking in detail and offers approximate time limits and strategies.

Chew (Learn)

During this step, students chew, or process, the chunk to enhance their learning. Sometimes we give them choices in their chews and other times we give one chew directive for the whole class. Let them decide how to think about the content. It’s what the students do with what they just learned—create a website, graph, sort, act out, analyze, synthesize, research—that encourages retention. Chapter 5 (page 81) talks about chewing in detail and offers strategies. Advance to the third step while the students are doing, making, thinking, or writing about their learning.

Check (Evaluate)

Checking for understanding happens while the students are chewing the content. This formative assessment checkpoint allows you to offer regular descriptive, actionable feedback about where the students are in relation to the learning target. Students can also check their own learning. Teach them to self-assess and self-monitor. Chapter 6 (page 117) talks about checking in detail and offers a variety of strategies for checking.

Change (Differentiate)

Let students practice what they learn and revise their work based on feedback from you, other students, or self-reflection. This might be a time to reteach or enrich. This change is differentiated instruction. Teachers differentiate during each cha-chas step in a simpler fashion, and yet, this final step is the major differentiation response. It is during this step that you gather data to determine whether you should make bigger changes, such as your pacing, grouping, or assignments. Realize that this final step in the instructional cha-chas cycle might not be the final one in helping all students go from get it to got it. It’s an ongoing process. Chapter 7 (page 159) talks about changing and offers more purposeful differentiation strategies to help you do so.

In closing, you’re setting up students for success in learning.

Summary

Setting up your classroom dance floor requires you to understand why you make the choices you make. We hope that this chapter has helped you understand the research behind differentiated instruction and the formative assessment process. More importantly, we hope we have made these concepts easy to remember with our instructional cha-chas. Now that you understand why it’s worthwhile to choreograph your instruction with the steps, it’s time to examine how we begin planning for them, starting with the standards.