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All the information, slides, links, and resources for my 2025 teacher convention presentations are included on this website.
I am available to work with school staff groups or leadership groups both in-person and virtually on the topics shown on this website. Contact me at cloke.shelly@gmail.com for prices and availability.
Scaffolded Assessment:
Showing the Learning Progression to Reach all Learners
Learning can be considered as a progression from cognitively simple skills like recall of basic facts to more complex and abstract skills like inferring, analyzing or designing. Another way to look at it is to think of learning as an integration of different cognitive skills since one needs to be able to recall basic facts before analyzing and evaluation them. Either way, being able to identify a student's cognitive skills will give us insight into their learning needs.
The Scaffolded Assessment
Sequenced question design based on a collection of research articles from the Intervention Central Website.
The idea is that students start to answer questions that should easily be achievable and progress to more complex questions in sequence. Since each question set progresses from simple to complex, motivation is more likely to be sustained. A good analogy is running hills--there is ease, followed by challenge to ease and challenge again.
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Scaffolding and Differentiation are not the same!
Scaffolding Deepens Learning!
Cognitive Skills are Not 'New'
Curricular outcomes use verbs to describe how a student will show their learning. Always start with the performance verb!
The Performance Verb Tells Us What Level of Complexity We Will Be Assessing
Science 10 outcomes--what cognitive level are we assessing?
Most common outcome verbs:
describe, identify, explain, analyze, select, apply, use, investigate, and define
Your turn!
What did you notice about how the questions progressed? What changed for each level?
Scaffolded Assessment Practice
Choose a subject below. The first row is an example and the second row shows a Meeting level question. What would you put for the Beginning, Approaching and Excelling levels?
Different Ways to Scaffolded Questions
So what could that look like in assessments?
The Poetry Test below is based on the new ELAL 6 Curriulum.
The Learning Outcome is at the top and the learning progression is shown through each point on the scale.
I used an existing test I had from last year and adjusted the questions to scaffold the learning progression--this way I can see where students are at in their learning. Note this test is copied on larger paper like legal or 11x17 size, so the student's copy is not actually this tiny.
Social Studies Assessment
Download examples or use the template to make your own!
See links below...
Math example: Divisibility (Grade 7)
**Question Guide**
Prompts for Making Scaffolded Questions
English Languange Arts Example (Grade 7)
Reading Comprehension for A Monster Calls novel
**Templates and Examples**
Grade 8 Math Scaffolded Assessment:
A Case Study
Benefits of Scaffolded Assessment
Students
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see what skills they have mastered and where they are already successful rather than just getting questions wrong and feeling unsuccessful
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can get a stronger sense of how they did before the assessment is even graded
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can see where their learning is headed and what they need to master to get to the next level
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can target their improvements and use feedback
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get used to the different types of questions and what they are looking for
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persist in attempting and completing questions
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experience deeper and more complex learning
Teachers
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can see where students are at in the learning progression and see where they can target extra practice or what foundational skills need to be developed
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are better able to show parents where a students is at in their learning
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develop a better understanding of the outcomes and the skills needed to master the outcomes
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have a platform to discuss What is Meeting? with their partner teachers which enriches their understanding of outcomes and achieve more consistency with learning expectations
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can explicitly teach the more complex and abstract cognitive skills
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enjoy easier marking that tell us more--it's more about the quality of data than the quantity
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Summary
1. Scaffolded Practice and Assessments helps us see where students are at in their learning
2. They can be used as pre-assessments, practice or summative assessments
3. Start with the outcome and examine the performance verb. Determine what level of complexity needs to be assessed
4. Design a scaffolded assessment. See above for a template link and a link to the question guide. Decide how you will scaffolded--cognitive complexity, cognitive load, prerequisite skills, etc.
5. Work with grade or subject area partners to have the discussion--what is Meeting? What is Excelling? What is Approaching? Sometimes the discussion is the best part of designing a scaffolded assessment
6. Share your experiences with me! I love to get examples or questions--each time I learn something new and get new ideas! Send to cloke.shelly@gmail.com
Feeling confident? Assess how well you understand scaffolded assessment by doing a scaffolded assessment!
Or maybe you need a break! If you've made it this far, you deserve some memes...
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