Differentiation Units

The Unit "We're All in It Together" looks interesting to me.  It is a social studies unit that builds on students existing knowledge about communities.  

    the students will know: places within a community, roles within a community and community vocabulary. 

The students will understand that people have needs and wants that are met by the dif. roles in a community, dif. roles provide for a community in dif. ways, Each role is important, without certain roles the community will suffer, All roles rely on each other, people have a responsibilty to cooperate in order for the community to run effectively. 

The students will be able to, explain components of a community, compare, contrast and evaluate community roles, draw conclusions, work cooperatively and independently, write a letter, write directions, use a phone book, analyze a problem, identify and describe own role in community, write/speak persuasively, role-pay. 

I also liked the unit on geometry where it encourages hands on experiences rather that just the "worksheet approach"  

The students will know: the attributes of all lines, types of angles, circle and circle parts, congruent and symmetrical shapes, distinguishing characteristics of polyhedrons, dif. rules for grouping polygons and polyhedrons. 

The students will understand: shortest distance btwn 2 points is a straight line, geometry and symmetry found in nature, structure to everything, using geometric terms is one way to describe structure of our environment, geometry is important in careers, relationship btwn shape of an object and its use. 

The students will be able to: Describe, draw, compare and classify geometric objects, communicate with geometric terms, gather, analyze and apply geometric info in problem solving, work cooperatively in pairs and small groups, establish a project plan and follow it. 

I like that they give examples of many different topics in all these units. I think that this can be a  great resource for us to see examples of units that are differentiated already.  

Reading for October 21st

There were a lot of great ideas in this reading with organizing information and good ideas for differentiating material.   I really liked the idea of creating Menu's with information.  Its a lot like having contracts but it portrays it in a creative way.   The main course where you have to do all of the assignments, you can pick and choose the side dishes and the desert is optional.  If I were to do this I would have appetizers that are like warm up activities that introduce the topic.  I would also make it necessary to complete one of the desserts instead of it being optional.  

I sometimes have a hard time compiling information that I have read so I think that the graphic organizers that they have would have helped me out a lot.  It's easier if you start doing something like a graphic organizer in the beginning of your school career because it helps you actively think and comprehend while reading.   Its hard to begin those habits now that I am older, even though in the long run it would be very useful.  

I also liked the examples of how they organized the objectives.  It makes it easy to see and understand.   I would much rather put the objectives in these formats rather than just listing them on a page.  I think by doing this it will clarify what we need to teach so we can see where we need to go and need to be at the end of a unit.  

Reading for October 14th

From what I understand Tiering is when you take an activity or lesson and adjust different aspects of it to meet all of your students levels.   It isn't giving more work to the more advanced kids and less work to the slower kids.  It is giving different versions of the activity. In a math class for instance you could do the same question or a similar question to students but change the numbers for each level.   

I think that Tiering is just good teaching.  Most teachers adjust their lessons for different levels in their class anyway.   I don't think that it is too hard either if we do it right.  We don't have to come up for 5 different lesson plans.  We start with one goal and main idea and make adjustments to that activity to make it work for each level.  I think it will take a lot of practice but once we are used to the idea it will probably be easier than we think.  

I think that these examples are all tiered activities.  The Think-Tac-Toe is tiered by having two different versions with some overlap.  The 1st version seemed easier to me but it was hard to tell.  Each of the activities involves work and I think it caters well to children's different interests.  I know that I like having different options when I do projects or activities, so I know that children like having options too.  People seem to work harder on things that they have chosen to do so this is a great idea.   The RAFT examples were tiered as well but everyone in the class received the same paper.  The only thing I worry about is, what if higher level students choose to do a lower tiered activity?  What if it isn't challenging enough for them but they want to do it anyway?  If we give students the option are they always going to choose the one that is right for them at that time?  I hope that they would be able to make the right decision on what they are capable of, but you never know.  

I believe that all of these examples in the book are tierable and that almost every activity can be tiered in some fashion.  With the Math Tickets the teacher is able to put the assignments that she wants students to do on a card and they are able to finish it within a specific amount of time during the week.  She is able to check up on their work during the Teacher Feature and help the student as needed.  THey are also able to pick out the pieces that shows their best understanding and the teacher also has control because she gets to pick out a piece at random too.  The students all know exactly what they need to accomplish on their ticket and the contract rules are clearly stated so their are no surprises at the end.  

ThinkDots are also a great tool that is fun and allows students to be on different levels while still learning.   In the math example each version is a little different but a lot of it is also the same.  You can group like students and they can feed off of each other to answer the questions.  This can also be done individually as a study guide or assessment.  

Overall I think that Tiering is definitely a great tool that can and will make us successful teachers.  If we can tier a lesson to meet the readiness levels of all our students than all of them will succeed.  We need to challenge our students enough but also give them work that they are ready for and know they can finish and learn from it.  

Reading for October 6th

When students believe they can do a specific task then they are more likely to persist at it and succeed.  This is a great point because I believe that too many students don't believe in themselves so in turn they don't always do well.  It is the self fulfilling prophecy, if we say we can't do it than it won't happen.  As teachers we need to motivate our students and give them challenging work that will help them learn, but at the same time scaffold them and let them have success so they know they can do hard things.   As we "raise the ceiling"  for our students we also need to "raise the support system".  This means that as we challenge our students we need to give them the support that they need.  We can't assign something different and challenging and then just leave our students high and dry... what will they think of us then?  They will get frustrated and they will most likely fail.  

"We cannot teach the breadth of the entire world and at the same time achieve any depth of understanding".   There is definitely a lot more to teaching than checking things off a list.  My husband and I were talking and he said, "Teaching is not talking, and learning is not listening."   Teaching is not just getting up in front of the class and talking, it's more facilitating, being a model, and providing experiences for our students.   Just because I am listening to someone talk does not mean that I am learning anything.  I think that students have to be actively involved with the lesson or activity to really learn the material.  

One thing that i wonder is how do we let our students know what the objectives are.  For every task do we print out the standards and let the students see them?  Should we write the objectives on the board every single time?  I know its good to see an endpoint and a goal but sometimes i think that might be a little bit overwhelming for students to realize that they have to know all of that at the end of the lesson or unit.  

How do I make the curriculum irresistible to young minds??  I want to make my students want to learn so bad but I can see it taking over my life.  Finding and implementing creative lessons isn't always the easiest thing to do.   I desperately hope that I have a good team when I start teaching and that we will be able to bounce ideas off each other.  I think that other teachers can make a huge impact in your teaching career... I know that I will be depending on them a lot because I will feel so inadequate and not prepared!  

I think it would be fun to find lots of cartoons and use them to teach parts of history, science, english, and tons of other things.  Every child and teacher deserves a few good laughs during the day and cartoons can definitely help with that.  It's also important to aim high with our students.  If we believe that they can do something and help them believe in themselves then they will succeed.  The "keeper of the book"  is also a great tool that will save the teacher time and is even a good assessment for that person.  They have to know what's going on in order to put it in the book.  I know that if I had to be the keeper of the book than I would be paying attention and know what I had to write down in it.  It may be good too not to let that person know they were the keeper until after the lesson was already taught in order to keep everyone on their toes.  

Reading for September 30th

Something that stood out to me in this reading was the importance of having a good classroom environment.   It's not just having a "cutesy" room and being creative and making it look nice but it's about having the students make the classroom their own.  I think its so important to involve my students in creating the classroom.  I want to show their work so it has a purpose.  I have done so many projects throughout my schooling and once it was graded it just gets thrown out because nobody really cares anymore.  When kids see their work displayed it makes them feel important and I think it really empowers them to have pride in their work.  

I also want to have humor in my class but I think that sometimes teachers go too far with it and make kids feel stupid.   In the chapter it talks about how humor should be used to make us better, not to make us hurt.  Positive humor is the key and I think that it is necessary.  Kids love to laugh and love to tell jokes so I believe that as a teacher we need to make time for our students to laugh and let loose once in awhile.  

I LOVE the idea of windshield checks.  It is sooo creative and it makes sense.  I can see kids really going with it and being honest with their answer.   It's also nice because we all know that windshields can be cleaned.  It's alright if their is mud on it now but we can fix that... we can go over it again and wipe away the mud.  We can always go through the car wash and get it all cleared away and start from scratch.  This is something that I want to implement in my classroom... the poster on the wall would be real cute too I bet...

I also think that it is important to involve students in scheduling decisions... they are the ones that are going to be learning after all!  If you have some flexibility in plans then ask your class what they would rather do, either which activity or what day to do the activity.  They will feel involved and will be more excited for it.  Most of the time we could probably guide them towards what we want them to do anyway which makes it a win/win for us! 

Readings for Sept. 23rd

How would I use the information this would produce in differentiating? 

First off,  I really like how these worksheets remain positive.  Instead of asking what you are bad at in school it asks, What's hard for you? and , What makes it hard?   I also like where the students can list things like me and not like me.  Its not, what I like and what I hate.  I just really think its important to be positive about all things right from the beginning.   

You can get to know your students pretty well by doing these surveys.  If you have them do these before school starts and you get that back you can try to group your students accordingly.  For example you can group the kids that sit still when they learn with the wigglers so you don't have 15 wigglers all next to each other.  Hopefully by putting the wigglers next to those students who sit still you will get everyone to sit still rather than everyone wiggling.  I don't even know if that makes sense!   Hopefully the still kids will rub off on the wigglers... (in a perfect classroom I guess.. haha)  It might be good to group kids that have things in common for the first few weeks of school just so they already have instant friends.  They are able to make connections with those students.  You can also group kids with differences so they get to know more about other people and learn new things that they wouldn't have previously.  

This is something that you did at the beginning of the year... did you use them for something? 

What would I like to add or remove from the survey? 

I had a harder time doing the first survey with the different columns.  It was harder for me to separate the like me and the not like me.  Maybe it's because I don't know myself well enough or that I don't think I am very good at anything... who knows.  I don't like that you can't put things in the middle.  I think that if I did it I would add a column called "sometimes like me", because sometimes I like math and am good at it but sometimes I'm not and I think that it should be included.  

Do any of these hold potential for me in my student teaching classroom? Explain. If they don't what are you going to do for pre-assessment toward differentiation? 

Since we will be teaching a math unit I really like the subtraction and multiplication inventories.  I think that I will be able to tell a lot about my students when they complete the inventory.   I think for younger grades too the smiley faces are a nice easy way to answer questions.  When I administered the Garfield Motivational Survey last field to one of my students they loved it.  We were able to tell a lot about his attitude towards reading and also some of his home life.   It is a not confrontational way to find out if they like reading and what they like to read about etc.  

Chapter 1 and 2 of Fulfilling the Promise

These two chapters were very interesting.   I like the phrase in the beginning of the reading that says, "... teachers must take into account who they are teaching as well as what they are teaching."  It isn't just about the material we are teaching, we have to take into consideration the types of children we are teaching and the way that we present the material that needs to be taught.   We need to consider how our children learn and what learning style they are and try to use as many learning styles as possible.  If there is a way to incorporate kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learning all in one lesson we need to do it.  

A key ingredient in the learning environment is the "mood" of the classroom --> I think the mood in the classroom plays a huge roll.  Even in the college classroom, if we are tense and nervous we are less likely to respond and contribute in the classroom.  If we feel comfortable and their is a calming mood we are more likely to be active and contribute in class discussions. It is up to the teacher to set the mood in the classroom and I believe our attitude towards ourselves and our attitude towards the students and curriculum plays a big part in that. 

We need to also continually assess our students readiness, interest, learning profile, and affect.  By doing this we have to modify our lessons continually in order to ensure maximum learning.  Students are always changing and we need to take that into consideration.  We can't be teachers that make a curriculum and stick to it like glue... we need to reflect on what we taught, what worked, what failed, what the students got from it, how we can change it to make it better next time.  There are too many teachers out there that are so set in their ways and think that their way of teaching is the only way of teaching.  I feel really bad for the students in their class because they don't take the time to change their methods of teaching to benefit those in the classroom. 

"Connecting with each child is at the heart of differentiated teaching."  We need to get to know our students because if we don't know them we can't teach them.  We need to "tame them" and also learn from them.  Connections are so important and I think that it will not only make my job as a teacher more rewarding but it will also help my students learn and feel like they belong.  

Morning Meetings

After reading the packet and watching the morning meetings video last class I think that I am a believer in them.  I like how it builds community and helps the classroom be more like a family rather than a bunch of different kids from different backgrounds forced to learn together.  

I notice even in our cohort that we work together better when we know each other at a personal level.  We are not afraid to share our ideas and feelings with our friends.  We got to be comfortable with each other last semester and had a family environment but now we have new people and we tend to stay with the people we are comfortable with.  I think that by having morning meetings we will be able to get to know each other better and be like a big family.  

The only thing that worries me about morning meetings is convincing administration and others who haven't been introduced to them that it really works.  It's not just a waste of time because you can do academic things in the activities and it is a great way to start the day.   Who doesn't want a greeting, a time to share, a quick activity, and a review of the day?!  That sounds pretty sweet to me! 

Differentiation in Practice: pg's 1-16

The first line of the chapter says, "Differentiated instruction is really just common sense"... I was thinking about that and was like, SWEET... I have common sense!  I can do this!  

As I continued to read though I realized that common sense does help but you also need to know your students very well and know how to help them each in their own way.  

I really liked how they went and described each of the students in Ms. Johnson's 3rd grade class and the special talents they have.  It wasn't just the negative things that we some teachers focus on, it was about what they love to do, what they have some trouble in, and how they like to work.  It helped a lot to put differentiation in perspective for me.  I will have a real class with real students that all have different talents and learning styles.  I also liked how the author kept referring back to the students throughout the chapter to make it more real for us reading it. 

It is so important for teachers to have a good learning environment for their students.  If they don't feel comfortable in the classroom they won't take risks or try to learn.  "The learning environment in her classroom may be the single most important make-or-break element in helping her students become the best they can be." 

I also enjoyed Ms. Johnson's two truths about her teaching; First, she wont be able to do everything that each child needs every day of the year... teachers aren't superheros.  Second, the more she woks to know her students the more likely it will be a successful year.   We need to get to know our students on a personal level so we can know how to teach them and gage material toward them.  

Overall, I am really enjoying reading this book.  It flows very well and makes sense to me... which is weird because text books normally confuse the heck out of me.  It has good metaphors that I can relate to which makes it easier for me to learn.  I hope that I will be able to get to know my students and provide the best learning environment for them I possibly can.  I know that differentiation will take time and practice but I hope that it will pay off and that I will be able to be the best teacher for each of my students.