Week 3 Essential Question

How do you make decisions about your own actions for students in a differentiated classroom? What is your criteria for intervention, and/or for letting learning happen?

When I am teaching a lesson, or planning my procedure and the process I’m going to take, I think about the students I will be teaching. What are their learning styles? Do they usually need support in this subject or area? While I’m teaching, I focus on “reading my students” (Tomlinson). It’s important to have informal assessments during the lesson to help understand when to differentiate. Students are “assessed on an on-going basis so that teaching, and indeed the other methods of differentiation, can be continuously adjusted according to the learners’ needs” (BBC).

A differentiated math lesson in my classroom starts as whole group. We brainstorm together, talk to our partners and problem solve on how we’re going to solve the problem. I break down the problem and model how to find the solution. Then we move onto a group setting. Students are given a problem and work with a group to solve it. We go around the room and discuss different ways to find the problem. This allows students to “undertake the same task and allow a variety of results.

I always mention to my students, “there is always more than one way to solve the problem.” While group work is occurring, I walk around the room and complete an informal assessment. I listen to the students conversation, observe their work and answer to the problem. Once I get a feel that students are understanding the content while working with a group, I have them start working independently. While students are working, I walk around the room and complete another informal assessment. If a student is struggling, I have them come to the back table to get one – one support. Depending on how many students are struggling, it could be 1-5 students at the back table.

“Learning is not one size fits all” (McCarthy, Myths). As an educator I try to find what “clicks” with the students. What “may “hook” one student might well puzzle, bore, or irritate others” (Tomlinson). I use manipulatives, number lines, extra scrap paper, and whiteboards. Depending on the situation, I have used an iPad with my students to show them an online module of how to solve the problem slowly. This is an intervention I use, when a student is not grasping the concept. “Differentiating content includes using various delivery formats such as video, readings, lectures, or audio” (McCarthy,assessment).  If a student starts to understand the concept, after many observations and completing their work on their own, they are allowed to return to their seat. While I’m working with students at the back table, the other students are completing their work and bringing me their assignment to be checked. I assess the students work. If the student is grasping the concept, I give them an enrichment activity to complete which helps them “develop a more rounded understanding of the subject matter or even to progress through the set course more quickly” (BBC). I find that when the students are given an enrichment activity to complete, this allows extra time with the students at the back table.

After all the students understand the concept, we start to problem solve as a whole group. I have the students turn and talk to a partner or group to solve the problem. While they are problem solving, I observe and listen to their conversations. We then share our ideas on how to solve the problem.

Once the math lesson is complete. I give the students an informal assessment on the standard. I use this assessment to check which students need extra support, an intervention (math game) thinkcentral or a soar to success activity to complete at home.

Another example is with a reading vocabulary lesson. I have my students read the text. I create vocabulary cards with visuals of the meaning. I have the students read the word in the text then talk to a partner and explain their definition of the word. We meet as a group, share our ideas and talk about what the word means, I show the vocabulary card and move on to the next word. We repeat the sharing and whole group activities until all words have been learned.

While my students are discussing their thoughts about the word, I observe their understanding and take a quick informal assessment. If there are students that need extra support, I show them the vocabulary card. After we finish reading the text and review the vocabulary words, I have my students create a vocabulary squares booklet.

The booklet contains the word, a picture of the word and a the word used in a sentence. While students are working independently on the activity, I observe their understanding. If students are not understanding the concept, I have them work with me at the back table. We look over the vocabulary cards again, look through our text for evidence and find examples we could use. There was a situation where some of my students had a difficult time with reading and couldn’t write in a complete sentence or they were taking an extremely long time writing one sentence. The way I differentiated was instead of them writing the sentence I had them draw a picture for the word. It’s important to “set different tasks for students of different abilities” (McCarthy, instruction). After they drew the picture, I had them explain their picture to me. From their explanation, I could understand if they learned the content.

The other resource I use to decide which students need an intervention is our universal screening assessments with Aimsweb. For reading it’s 3 passages that are each timed for one minute. Math is computation that is timed for 8 minutes. The school district I work at has certain goals students should be achieving by fall, winter and spring. If a student does not meet the goal, I start to progress monitor and watch their growth. For a reading intervention, I have students go onto a computer game called Lexia. Students can use this game at school and at home. It automatically gives the students an assessment in the beginning then places them in the correct level. Each student on Lexia, is on a different level. The program sends me alerts and other lessons/interventions I can do with my student on the specific skill they are not understanding.

Students who have difficulty with math computation are given one – one support with math flash cards, addition and subtraction strategies to use. In my classroom mostly every lesson is differentiated. Students who do not need support are given enrichment activities to complete or programs to use at school or at home to help the learner be successful. No practice is “truly best practice unless it works for the individual learner” (Tomlinson). When I teach to my students I “think of many ways to accomplish a common goal. (Tomlinson). What might work with one child might not necessarily work with another.

It’s important when differentiating to assess your students throughout the whole lesson, whether it’s informal or formal, create a flexible grouping environment, have a safe learning environment, be fair to each student, give the student guidance and assurance they can trust you.

Resources

Tomlinson, Carol Ann. How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms. Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD), 2001. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 5 January 2015.

Methods of Differentiation in the Classroom. (2010). Retrieved January 27, 2015, from http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/MethodsofDifferentiationintheClassroom.aspx

McCarthy, J. (2014, July 8). Myth-Busting Differentiated Instruction: 3 Myths and 3 Truths. Retrieved January 27, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-myths-and-truths-john-mccarthy

McCarthy, J. (2014, July 15). 3 Guidelines to Eliminating Assessment Fog. Retrieved January 27, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-eliminating-assessment-fog-john-mccarthy

McCarthy, J. (2014, July 23). 3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners: What Teachers Do. Retrieved January 26, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-ways-to-plan-john-mccarthy

http://www.lexialearning.com/

Pilcher, C. (2013, July 31). Think Central Student/Parent Access for Go Math digital products. Retrieved January 28, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHoZF5TVXzU

Week 2 Reflection

           This week we were asked to create a comic strip for our blog. After reading other colleagues’ blogs, I now understand that I must have misread the guidelines. A lot of the comic strips I read were short and explaining their thought or experience while playing Minecraft. For this week, I took  “create a comic strip” in replace of your written blog. No wonder it was difficult fitting all of the information into the comment bubbles! Well, I differentiated my blog this week. Instead of writing, which in return would have been a lot easier, I created a comic strip and sited my references. This is one way we could have students differentiate for writing. Enough with my mishap and differentiation from this week. Back to Minecraft differentiation. 

This week we were in Minecraft completing challenges. There are three of us in the class that have already completed these challenges from a different course and have mastered Minecraft after creating Givercraft. Instead of us repeating the same challenge, we differentiated and were put on as admins “teachers” “support Minecrafters” for the other learners. We were able to help others who didn’t know the basic tools, how to move, dig, make items…etc Thomas explains in his blog, it’s extremely “important for teachers to know the basic tools of the game.” Giving support this week, I found more rewarding than doing the same challenge over again. I use this example to outline what differentiation is. It’s not a program or one thing you make other students do. It’s an individual assignment created towards the students to make them successful.  If I were to have been asked to complete all the challenges, I would have been bored and thought this was a waste of my time. With helping my colleagues, I was given an opportunity to experience virtual teaching.

            This week I found many ways to differentiate in Minecraft. I wanted to find ways to differentiate using Minecraft for all subjects. With reading, students can read a book, like we did for Givercraft, create chests and books in Minecraft citing the text. They can build and cite from the text. For math, I found a video that explains how you can use multiplication in Minecraft. Students build the multiplication table basically and move around while multiplying the blocks together. For science, it was a stretch. I found that the teacher could enter Minecraft and create a brain, if studying the cells. The students could build the brain using the different kinds of blocks for the areas in a brain. Social Studies, students could understand what items they need to survive, while building tools and houses…etc

There are many ways to differentiate with Minecraft. The instructors that enjoy the game and also believe in the game for an educational tool, will use it. There are many educators, parents, IT personal that still need to be convinced, Minecraft is not just a “game” it is an educational tool. I would love to see a Professional Development Day on how to use Minecraft in the classroom. This would be the turning point for education. I don’t think we’re there yet, but hopefully in the next few years there will be a change.

Students are engaged in Minecraft, I know they would be engaged in MinecraftEdu, I have seen it with Givercraft. I have also seen students who are not, but that falls back on the teacher’s prep for the assignment and classroom management. If the teacher doesn’t know how to use the tool, the students will be in a “free for all.” With differentiation, engagement and instruction it is all based on concrete classroom management. Teachers can’t differentiate with students, if there’s no classroom management. As a society, we need to look at Minecraft as not “a game “ instead as an online educational tool.

Comic - Differentiation with Minecraft

Comic about Differentiation with Minecraft

This is my very first comic. I have to say, I enjoyed creating this blog from my findings this week, instead of writing a blog. I hope you enjoy it.

Week 1 Reflection

This week was very interesting. I had the opportunity to make an inphographic for the first time. I'm not sure if I was successful. After reading my peers blogs I saw some of my other peers inphographics and really liked them. Ali's inphographic, I will definitely use in my classroom. It's a very easy grab and go check for differentiation. It's  easy to ask yourself, am I doing this or not... check and then change. Mia's inphographic reminded me of my students. "Everyone has different ways of learning on different days." This quote explained my students to the T. It's amazing how students can understand content in one lesson and then in a different lesson be completely lost and need extra support, modifications or the procedure changed for them. This week, I read on my peers blogs, in our course text also and completed my own research on differentiation. I read that differentiation is not one thing that can be changed for a student. It's assessment, modification, flexible grouping, where students are being given support one to one or in a small group. It's having the students collaborate set goals and be student centered learning and it's all based on balance. Not every student will be completing the same task in the classroom during the lesson. I think balance falls in the categories of assessment, modification and flexible grouping. Cindy said it the best on her blog with balance: "teachers who differentiate instruction have to manage and monitor many activities simultaneously." Teachers are constantly assessing their students, modifying their assignments, changing the process to their instruction and creating flexible groups with their students. If our classroom is not balanced, then we are not differentiating our lessons. Without differentiation our students will not be successful. Again, I concur with Mia's  quote on her inphographic, "all students learn in different ways on different days." Educators and non-educators need to remember this when teaching to a student. We want to give our students the best education and help them be successful, then we need to differentiate constantly.

Differentiation

This is my first infographic I have created. My design is based on the key concepts to differentiation. The person is explaining teachers need to be proactive. Teachers need to think on their feet and change their process or procedure if something is not working for their students. The box, represents the assignments and instruction students should be receiving. The most important is it's qualitative rather than quantitive. It doesn't matter how much the student completes, the important part is the student learns the information and understands the content. It's important to always assess students throughout the lesson and have multiple approaches. When this is completed lessons are of quality rather than quantity. The other concepts of differentiation is student centered, students need an opportunity to be in groups, work with partners, or even one on one with the teacher for extra support. To have student centered learning, it's important for teachers to understand how their students learn. 

What is Differentiation?

Differentiation is when all students are learning at different levels, teachers use different approaches and could use different content to help the student understand the material better. “Differentiation is a way of teaching; it’s not a program or package of worksheets. It asks teachers to know their students well so they can provide each one with experiences and tasks that will improve learning” (Robb, 1999).

The best way to explain differentiation is by an example that happened in my classroom. It was during a vocabulary lesson. For the activity, I had my students fold their paper into four squares and write the vocabulary word on the top of each square. Then I had my students draw a picture and write a sentence using the vocabulary word. Students were required to use their text when writing their sentence. The whole class started the lesson together. We read the story, talked about each vocabulary word independently, discussed with partners about the meaning of the word, did examples and non-examples of the word and then went to our seats to work independently on the assignment.

Throughout the lesson I assessed my students. While assessing, I would decide if the students needed extra support with the vocabulary word. I had students that needed extra support, come to the back table to work with me one to one. We talked about the word, broke the word into parts to help with the meaning of the word. We found the evidence in the text. Some of the students understood the word and were ready to go back to their seat to complete the assignment. Other students still had difficulty.

I became proactive (Tomlinson) and noticed; the students who had difficulty reading were having a difficult time writing the sentence. Instead of having them write a sentence for each word, I modified their assignment and had them draw what they thought the word meant. Then I had them verbally tell me about their picture. From their sentence, I was able to assess if they understood the vocabulary words.

To differentiate means to have qualitative instead of quantity (Tomlinson, 2001).  The requirement for my students was not to finish the whole assignment (with the picture and sentence for each word), instead it was to understand what the meaning of the words were. Whether understanding was shown through a complete sentence or a picture, both were acceptable. Differentiating can look different in each classroom. It all depends on the student and how they learn.

Reading Rockets is a great website to find different activities to do in your classroom to differentiate with literacy. Here are the ideas I found from the website; I particularly like numbers 1,4 and 6.

1.     Using reading materials at varying readability levels;

2.     Putting text materials on tape;

3.     Using spelling or vocabulary lists at readiness levels of students;

4.     Presenting ideas through both auditory and visual means;

5.     Using reading buddies; and

6.     Meeting with small groups to re-teach an idea or skill for struggling learners, or to extend the thinking or skills of advanced learners.

Key concepts to take away from differentiation

1.     Be proactive – know your student and change the process or content if needed

2.     Qualitative is more important than Quantity – What matters the most if the students learn and understand the content. Finishing all of the word, when working at a slower pace, will only increase anxiety. If a student understands the material, move on.

3.     Assess your students all the time. Don’t wait until the lesson is complete to assess understanding, be proactive, walk around, observe, ask questions, listen to the students. Check to make sure they are understanding what they are learning.

4.     Change the approach. If student(s) are not understanding, change the approach to the instruction. Think on your feet and try many different ways until each student understands the content.

Differentiation happens all the time. It could even be when you’re walking down the hallway with your students. Differentiation is extremely important for students success. All children learn differently from one another. It’s important teachers differentiate anytime they see necessary.

Resources

Tomlinson, Carol Ann. How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms. Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD), 2001. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 5 January 2015.

Robb, L. (1999, February 6). What Is Differentiated Instruction? | Scholastic.com. Retrieved January 13, 2015, from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-differentiated-instruction

Tomlinson, C. (2009). What is Differentiated Instruction? Readingrockets.org Retrieved January 15, 2015, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-differentiated-instruction