Jalyn Joslyn Blog

 Chapter 5: Design Complex Tasks      On chapter 5 it talks about high quality performance based assessments. Performance based learning is where the students are required to do something and it can be a range of possibilities as to what that might be. "All performance-based task integrate and apply multiple skills, concepts and strategies, whether it's learning to drive a car or composing a five paragraph essay." (Hess, pg 95) There are seven characteristics to performance based assessments that are common. The first one is 'PBAs have open-ended context', this is when prompts or situations that are given to students are open ended and guided by questions. These situations are not to be answered by one single path, rather the students need to justify the path they took using supporting evidence and reasoning. Next, 'PBAs productively challenge students', this is where the open-ended questions cause the students to test different options and stretch their t...

  Scaffolding or Differentiation? In the book “Rigor by Design, Not chance” and in the article that I found they both discuss Differentiation vs. Scaffolding, the different types of scaffolding and why and how to use it.  According to the book these two things often get mistaken for each other or get mixed up. The way to remember it is that scaffolding provides steps to support the completion of the task whereas differentiation gives the students different options as to what assignment they want to work on. “Scaffolding doesn’t change the rigor of the task, but can reduce the demands on a student's working memory during learning.” (Hess pg 72) In the article I found, Differentiation vs. Scaffolding, they put an emphasis on using the two together, whereas the book focuses mostly on using one or the other. “Differentiation and scaffolding are complementary and can be used seamlessly, so an ideal manner to use these methods is in conjunction with one another.” (Keeling) When usin...

        In the book Rigor by Design Not Chance chapter 2 is about asking probing questions. “Coming up with the right question involves vigorously thinking through the problem, investigating it from vicarious angles, turning closed questions into open-ended ones, and prioritizing which are the most important questions to get at the heart of the matter.” (Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana. The thing that I found to be the most important were Tips for effective questioning.     The chapter gives 4 tips on effective questioning, those tips are, practice using wait and think time, brainstorm without judgment, ask all students to simultaneously respond, rather than just calling on a few and model curiosity by making your thinking visible. The resource that I found on questioning also gives 4 different strategies to try which are to design higher thinking questions, develop a sequence of strategies, increase wait time and respond to answers using ...