Finally Figuring Out How To Scaffold Properly.

 Up until recently, our school district has not had any decent software with adaptive capabilities.  I've been trying to figure out where the holes in their learning is which has made it really really hard to differentiate or scaffold learning.

Our benchmarking program only gives general lists of what students need so I've had to go looking for something that is free that will test students, give me more detailed information.

So far, I've found two programs which will provide me with the detailed information I need for one class.  I had students take a pretest for measurement and data in that class and I was surprised at the results.  Two out of ten students performed at a fifth grade level, while most were down at either a first or second grade level.  These are ninth grade students!

The program sent me individual results for each student down to the point of telling me exactly which standard they began at after the assessment.  I can use this information to create packets for each child.  When I say packets, it might include a video, a game, or a website along with some worksheets.  This way for half the period, students can work on closing the holes in their foundational knowledge while the other half of the period, we will have a regular lesson with direct instruction for topics I need to cover.

In addition, the program also has some adaptive lessons so students take a pretest and they can work through the program at their level.  The unfortunate thing is since its their free version, I cannot assign as many lessons as I'd like to so I'm waiting to see if that is a per day limit or a per topic limit.  In the meantime, I signed up for another free program which appears to allow me to assign more lessons using the adaptive features.

I figure that between the two programs I'll get the necessary information I need so I can have them work on the computer to close knowledge gaps and also provide other activities both digital and hard copy so they get the scaffolding they need.

Its been very hard to get the data I've needed because my district has been quite slow at providing the type of software I've needed to provide the detailed information.  They bought something several years ago but never got it installed so it was worthless.  Eventually, they purchased MAP but they didn't buy the extra features so I couldn't get the indepth analysis for each student.  Instead, I got a kind of generic listing but none of it told me much.

I'll keep you posted on how this works out.  By later today, I should find out if they are cancelling the in-service scheduled for Friday.  If it is, I'll let you know what I'm going to plan to cover class so I don't have to teach much and so students will get to practice the current topic. 

Have a great day.