From self-assessment to a differentiated instruction -
How the teacher Suzana Ramadani managed to provide the students with a good sense for studyng

Suzana Ramadani is a biology teacher in PS Naim Frasheri in Tetovo. She became part of the Primary Education Project since the very beginning and that enabled her to use all the methods and techniques that she had learned during the trainings in different and creative ways.

The KWL self-assessment approach (Know - Want to Know - Learned) is frequently used in her teaching practice. It helps her to determine which students should be part of the remedial or the extended teaching, in a way that will not make the students feel labelled or frustrated.

Before they started studying the unit Food and gas transfer for 7 grade students, she asked the students a question: “What do you know about food and gas transfer?”. They written their answers on pieces of paper and stuck them on a flip chart. In that way the teacher learned about their previous knowledge on the topic and according to that she prepared the topic.   

At the end of the unit, she asked the students to answer the following questions “What did I learn? and “What else do I want to know?”. They stuck their answers once again on the flip chart. In both cases, students’ answers were anonymous which offered them a greater liberty while answering the questions.

After the teacher had a look at the students’ answers, she divided them into two groups – ones who have the need for additional studying and others that can work on added and broader topics.

During the next class she spoke well of the students for what they have learned so far and told them that as a result from the interest that they have shown toward a certain topic, she has decided to divide them into two groups. She was reading the questions out loud while asking the students “Who wanted to know more about this?”. That way she identified the students from the two different groups. She also told them which group will be working after the school hours. Within the group for remedial teaching, the students were usually working on issues that they didn’t fully understand during the regular class, while within the group for extended teaching the students were broadening and getting deeper into the content of the curriculum.

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