Animals in Danger

A habitat is an animals natural home in the environment, they need this to survive. This is
where they eat, sleep, and find shelter.
Ways humans harm animal habitats is by:

Building new roads

Building new homes
Building new stores or malls
Not picking up after yourself
Not walking on the path
Taking rocks, sticks, or picking flowers
You have been asked to help save these animals.
- You can answer the below questions by making a poster, writing a story or creating a
puppet show.
- In pairs, pick an animal that lives in Alberta
- You may use the books and laptops in the classroom to explore your animal. Use the
checklist below to guide your research.

Questions Answered Not Answered

1. What is your animals basic needs? (food, shelter, etc.)

2. What type of habitat does your animal live in? (mountains,

prairies, wetlands, forests, etc.)

3. How would a change in your animals environment affect its

life?

4. Why should your animals habitat be saved?

5. What can we do to help save your animals habitat?

 Reflection

Redesigning the Animals in Danger assignment for a grade three class guided me to focus on
their reading level and the language they are familiar with. Based on my class of Patrick, Wyatt, Molly,
Gianna, and Kate, I found myself rewriting most of the assignment to meet each of their needs.

Patrick and Wyatt were the two students that I identified to need differentiation. Patrick is an ELL
student who has a hard time reading instruction than hearing it. Based on this, I would ensure to orally
present the assignment before handing out the instruction sheet. I also ensured that there were three
options given to present the information. Patrick enjoys hands on learning so I thought he would enjoy
doing a puppet show that allowed him to create the animals and environment and verbally express his
knowledge of the context. Patrick will therefore not be penalized by his lack of writing skills in the
English language.

Wyatt was another student that I felt need differentiation since he works best in pairs and through
hands on activities. I requested the students to work in pairs in order to help Wyatt since he often
forgets steps or is unclear what to do next when he works by himself. By providing him with a partner, I
am hoping that he will have more guidance. Wyatt would most likely choose to do a puppet show or
make a poster since both are hands on and tailor to his interests.

Within my class, there were some students who did not need differentiation. These include Gianna,
Molly, and Kate. The three girls are quite crafty and learn best visually, or by doing hands on activities
and would be great partners to Wyatt or Patrick. Kate enjoys when the learning content is put in story
form so I added the story writing option for her since she also likes reading and writing. Molly would do
well with either making a poster or creating a puppet show since she is more of a hands-on learner.
Gianna would suit either of the three options since she learns best both visually and kinaesthetically.

Some formative assessments that would need to take place prior to this performance task would be an
accurate understanding of the basic needs of an animal, various forms of habitats across Alberta, and
the role animals have in our world. This understanding can be assessed through group discussion, exit
slips (using the traffic light analogy), and the participation and interaction of games. Davies (2011)
suggests that this would ensure reliability since the students would be presented with various forms of
formative assessments that would produce repeated results at different times. This would also ensure
validity since the results of the assessments would match the quality levels expected (Davies, 2011).

When redesigning this task for the entire class, I needed to ensure fairness while maintaining construct
validity. I did this by referring to the grade three Program of Studies and noting the intended learning
outcomes. As Griffioen notes in his Validity and Reliability Summary Sheet (2017), construct validity is
how accurately a given task meets the intended learning outcomes. This remains a priority and is the
first step when redesigning an assignment to meet the needs of all students, whether they need
differentiation or not.

Redesigning the Animals in Danger assignment served as a great learning tool for me. It
helped me become aware of the language used at a grade three level. Learning how to
acknowledge who needs differentiation and who doesnt will be an important skill when
teaching. More importantly, understanding how to redesign an assignment while also ensuring
reliability, fairness, validity, and more specifically: construct validity will help me become a
more sound teacher.