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.