Assessment and Differentiated Lesson

Note: According to research conducted by Rasinski and Manzo, third grade students should be
reading somewhere between 86 and 124 words per minute on a third grade fluency probe (with
the median being 110 words per minute). Hasbrouck and Tindal (2006) suggest that third grade
students typically improve their reading rate by 1.1 words per week.

Mrs. Lowe, a third grade teacher, decided to give a series of fluency assessments to students over
the first quarter of the school year in order to determine the current level of her students so that
she could make appropriate instructional decisions throughout the school year. The data from her
oral reading fluency assessments are below:

Student Name Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8
Adele 72 74 74 74 76 74 74 75
Corbin 88 91 91 93 94 94 96 98
Daniela 60 62 63 64 65 66 67 67
Frank 50 49 49 50 51 51 53 51
Maria 68 69 70 71 72 73 73 74
Raquel 92 94 96 96 96 98 99 101
Timothy 38 38 38 37 40 38 40 39
Xander 52 53 54 54 54 53 55 56
Zella 100 100 101 103 102 103 103 104

1. Graph each student’s data in an Excel spreadsheet

2. Create three groups of students based on their assessment scores. Describe why you
grouped the students the way you did.
3. Based on assessment scores, write a justification for why you placed each student into the
group you did, and discuss what types of instruction each group might receive.

After you have reviewed and graphed oral reading fluency data for nine 3rd-grade students. The
following descriptions provide additional information about each of the nine students. Read the
descriptions, review the data provided in reading assessment related to the oral reading scores of
the students, and study the following lesson plan to identify lesson components that may need to
be differentiated for some of these nine students. Complete the Lesson Differentiation Chart to
reflect your best thinking about these students’ needs and the upcoming lesson.
http://www.diffcentral.com/index.html

Adele: She has no disabilities in reading, but does have a learning disability in mathematics. She
typically struggles with new mathematics concepts. English is her primary language. She earns
average grades in reading and below average grades in math.
Corbin: He has no disabilities. English is his primary language, and he earns average grades in
all subject areas.
Daniela: She has no disabilities, but she displays limited English proficiency. Spanish is her
primary language. She earns average grades in all subject areas.
Frank: He has learning disabilities in reading and mathematics. He struggles with reading
decoding, comprehension, and fluency. He currently reads at the first grade level, and has a great
deal of difficulty with subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Maria: She has a learning disability in mathematics. She demonstrates limited English
proficiency, and Spanish is her primary language. She does not like to read, lacks motivation to
complete assignments, and earns poor to failing grades in all areas primarily due to
noncompliance related to assignment completion.
Raquel: She has no disabilities, and English is her primary language. She earns above average
grades in all subject areas.
Timothy: He has emotional and behavioral disabilities. His primary language is English. He
bullies other students, refuses to complete assignments, and earns failing grades. He has a
reading disability, and he currently reads on a 1st-grade level. He say he hates to read, and
doesn’t enjoy math at all.
Xander: He has physical disabilities and uses a wheel chair for mobility. English is his primary
language. He earns average grades in reading and above average grades in math.
Zella: She has no disabilities. English is her primary language. She earns above average grades
in all subjects.

Lesson Plan

Identification of the Class: These nine students are enrolled in an inclusive 3rd- grade
classroom that has a total of 28 students. In addition to the general education teacher, a special
education co-teacher is in the classroom during language arts instruction (reading and writing).

Common Core Standard Addressed in the lesson: Standard 3.0A.8: Solve two-step word
problems using the four operations. Represent these problems using equations with a letter
standing for the unknown quantity. Assess the reasonableness of answers using mental
computation and estimation strategies including rounding.

Lesson Topic: Solving two-step word problems that are written at the 3rd-grade level.

Rationale for Instruction: Word problems represent a natural way to link mathematics to real-
word situations. The word problems can be developed to reflect students’ life experiences (i.e.,
buying things at a store) and help promote generalization of skills learned in school to the
community outside of school. Students in this particular class have learned to solve word
problems that involve one step (e.g., Joey bought 5 candy bars. He gave 1 candy bar to his
brother. How many candy bars does Joey have left?), but they have not learned how to solve
word problems that require two steps to solve (e.g., Joey bought 5 pieces of candy that cost 10
cents a piece. He gave the cashier $1.00. How much change should Joey get back?). Learning to
solve two-step problems will help students be successful with many functional skills and will
serve as a foundation for more advanced mathematics skills.
Lesson Objective: Given 20 minutes of independent work time and 5 written word problems
that require two steps to solve, students will accurately solve at least 4 out of 5 correctly on the
first attempt.

Evaluation/Monitoring: During the independent practice component of the lesson, students will
receive a written worksheet that consists of 5 word problems to solve. After 15 minutes, the
teacher will collect the papers for scoring purposes.

Materials and Equipment: Display equipment (whiteboard and marker, doc camera, or
interactive white board); pre-prepared two-step word problems; poster with the FAST (i.e., Find
the question; Ask yourself what are the important parts of the problem; Scratch out extraneous
information; Think, write, and solve) mnemonic device steps for solving word problems.

Advance Organizer: Yesterday we memorized the steps of FAST, and we learned that FAST
can be used to help us solve word problems. Today we are going to use FAST to solve two-step
word problems. This is going to help us solve challenging word problems without making
mistakes. Who can tell me why we need to learn to solve word problems? (Elicit student
responses such as, it will help us use math outside of school, it will help us get good math grades,
it will help us pass important math tests, and it will help us with future math skills that we need
to master.) Those are excellent reasons. Now let’s review the steps of FAST. The teacher
proceeds with asking the students what each letter stands for and the students say the step in
unison. This review continues until it appears that students can recite the steps in FAST without
hesitation.

Demonstration: (Teacher uses display equipment to show a word problem that requires two
steps to solve.) I see that I have a word problem to solve, so I’m going to use FAST to help.
The “F” stands for Find the question, so first I need to read the problem and figure out the
question. The problem says, “Bill has $5.00 in the form of a five dollar bill. He wants to buy
two books. One book costs $2.50 and the other book costs $1.50. It is going to cost Bill $1.75 to
ride the bus home. If Bill pays for these books with his five dollar bill ($5.00), how much
change will he get back?” The problem ends with a question mark, and this is a good cue to
what the question is. I see that this problem is asking how much change Bill will get back.
Now I go to the “A” step in FAST, Ask yourself what are the important parts of the problem. I
think it’s important to know how much money Bill gives to the cashier, so I’ll underline 5.00.
It’s also important to know how much money Bill is going to spend on the two books he wants,
so I’ll underline $2.50 and $1.50. Next, I go to the “S” step in FAST, Scratch out extraneous
information. I’m going to look at the problem again to see if there is information that I do not
need to know. I a sentence that says it will cost Bill $1.75 to ride the bus home. Does that have
anything to do with how much change Bill will get when he purchases his books? (Elicit the
response, “no.”) That’s correct. Thus, I’m going to cross out that sentence. Why do you think
it’s important to cross out information we don’t need to solve the problem? (Elicit the response,
“So we don’t make a mistake and use the wrong number.”) That’s an excellent reason. Also, we
don’t have to reread anything that is crossed out. That means we might be able to solve the
problem quicker. Next, I go to the “T” step in FAST, Think, write, and solve. I’m going to
think about how much Bill will spend for the two books. One book costs 2.50 and one book
costs 1.50, so what do I need to do to find out how much these books cost together? (Elicit the
response, “Add 2.50 plus 1.50.”) That’s correct, so I’ll write and solve that problem.
(Demonstrate how to write and solve the problem using the display equipment.) Thus, I see that
2.50 plus 1.50 equals 4.00. I now know how much money Bill is going to spend, but have I
answered the problem question? (Elicit the response, “No. The question asks how much change
he will get back if he pays with a five dollar bill.) Exactly! How do I find out how much change
he will get back when he pays for the two books? (Elicit the response, “Subtract the cost of the
books from the amount he pays the cashier.”) OK. Good remembering how to solve this type of
money problem! I need to think, write, and solve again to obtain my final answer.
(Demonstrate how to write and solve the problem using the display equipment.) I now know that
Bill will get $1.00 in change. (Repeat this type of demonstration using another word problem
that requires two steps to solve.)

Guided Practice: Now let’s work this word problem together. (Display new word problem.)
What do we do first? (Elicit the response, “Find the question.”) That’s correct. (Call on
student to read the question and identify the question.) What do we do second? (Elicit the
response, “Ask yourself what are the important parts of the problem.”) Excellent remembering.
Who thinks they know the important parts of the problem? (Call on students to identify the
important parts of the problem, and remind them to underline these parts.) What do we do third?
(Elicit the response, “Scratch out extraneous information.) Excellent remembering the “S” step
in FAST! Who thinks they found extraneous information? (Call on student(s) to identify
information to cross out in the problem.) What do we do now? (Elicit the response, “Think,
write, and solve.”) That’s exactly right. We think about what problem to write and solve. If the
answer to that problem answers our question, we are done. If, however, we still can’t answer
our question, then we think, write, and solve another problem. Do that now. If you need help,
raise your hand and either Ms. Jones or I will come and assist. (After students have solved the
problem, discuss the solution and why two problems were needed to answer the problem
question. Repeat this same procedure with two additional word problems. Gradually reduce the
number of prompts provided to the students, so they gain greater independence in solving two-
step work problems.)

Independent Practice: (Distribute worksheets that include five word problems similar to those
used during the demonstration and guided practice components of this lesson. Ask students to
complete these problems on their own. Remind them to use FAST to help. Allow 20 minutes for
completion of these problems, and then collect the papers for scoring.

Closure/Post-Organizer: Today you learned how to solve two-step word problems using
FAST. You are doing an excellent job remembering these steps. Tomorrow we will continue
working on word problems that require solving two problems to find the answer. Pretty soon,
you will be experts with these problems. I’m very proud of the good thinking you did today!
 Lesson Differentiation Chart

Note: You may add or delete rows as needed. You may continue this chart on additional pages if
you need additional space to type in your responses.

Student Name Lesson Component that Why Differentiation Ways to Differentiate

may Need Differentiation may be Needed (Use this Component of the
Student Data and Lesson
Descriptions)
Student Name Lesson Component that Why Differentiation Ways to Differentiate
may Need Differentiation may be Needed (Use this Component of the
Student Data and Lesson
Descriptions)