Damian Cooper

Redefining Fair: How to Plan, Assess, and Grade for Excellence in Mixed-ability Classrooms Damian Cooper

In Redefining Fair, the author confronts the resistance and obstacles schools experience when implementing differentiation and shows how to overcome them. Learn how to define proficiency accurately and differentiate to help all students achieve it. With a focus on mixed-ability classes, the author outlines instructional practices that engage, empower, and motivate students. Using stories, strategies, case histories, and sample documents, he explains how to implement equitable instruction, assessment, grading, and reporting practices for diverse 21st century learners.

The book explores the vital role of differentiation in ensuring student success as schools set goals of proficiency for all and discusses ways to create a culture of excellence in the classroom by focusing on student understanding rather than on outcomes achieved through memorization. The author takes on the "mythology of measurement" and draws a distinction between assessment designed to improve learning through feedback and assessment designed to measure learning through grades. The book concludes with recommendations on how educators may improve their reporting and examines the types of information a report card should contain to communicate an accurate, succinct, and easily understood summary of learning and behavior to students and parents.

Benefits

* Provides examples of ways to respond to resistance to new assessment methods

* Models instructional practices that engage, empower, and motivate students

* Shows how to collect data through a variety of preassessments and diagnostic assessments to determine students' needs, readiness to learn, and learning preferences

* Examines guidelines to ensure report cards clearly convey essential information to parents and students

* Demonstrates an array of grading methods for mixed-ability classes and assessment and differentiation strategies that maximize learning for all students

* Explores strategies to facilitate the development of critical-thinking and problem-solving skills students need to navigate the vast amounts of information they encounter in the digital world