Week 4

Essential question: How do we prepare parents for differentiation, and gaming/gamification in the classroom?

            The answer to the question this week is quite simple and easy for me. What or how would you prepare students for differentiation and gaming/gamification in the classroom? Get to know your students! (prezi). Know their background, how they learn, which learning style works best for them, what their interests are, what are their hobbies and things they do not like. If you can find the answers to these questions, you will be prepared for your students.

This goes the same for parents. Know what their expectations are for their child. “Hear from them. We need to understand better the child’s culture and language and history and dreams. We need to know the stories that get brought home from school, and the parent’s perspective on what will work best in helping their children learn” (Tomlinson).  We also need to know, why the Seahawks didn’t win the Superbowl! I mean seriously, who called that play. We need to work as a team with parents. We can understand the students background, but if we don’t understand the parents or listen to them then we won’t know how to prepare the parents.

There might be a parent that had a difficult time at school. We need to “rebuild their trust that school is a good fit for their child” (Tomlinson).  Invite the parents in. Have a workshop where parents are involved in the daily classroom activities.

With this parents will get a more “realistic feel for what it’s like to be a student in the classroom” (Crowe). Provide examples for the parents during a parent night event in the classroom. Send home “information bulletins or newsletters from time to time, telling about goals for specific projects and how various procedures are working in class” (Boss). I like the idea of having a parent Skype with their child’s classroom when on a business trip. This doesn’t have to be a reason to Skype with the parent. If the parent wants to watch a lesson and can’t make the parent workshop, set up Skype so they can feel included. We are differentiating during this activity.

Provide “constant communication” with parents (Nishat). Give them insight on what is occurring in the classroom and leave it open to feedback for questions, concerns and comments. Provide a comment and answer google drive document. These are a few questions I found that could prepare parents well for differentiation or gaming in the classroom.

•    •       How are you finding out about what my child already knows and can already do?

•    What kind of information would you like me to provide as you learn more about my child?

•    How are you ensuring that my child is being challenged in his or her daily work and assignments?

•    If my child already knows a lot about a particular topic and has clearly mastered the associated skills, what other possibilities exist for him or her?

•    How is my child growing in this subject area?

(DGR)

    The only thing a parent wants and a teacher is what’s best for their child and student. We want them to be successful. If we prepare parents for differentiation and a gamified classroom we can do amazing things with our students. The even better part of this education style is we will have the parents confidence and support behind us.

Game

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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. 3 February 2015.

Boss, S. (n.d.). A Parent's Guide to 21st Century Learning. Retrieved February 4, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/guides/edutopia-parents-guide-21st-century-learning.pdf

Preparing Students and Parents for a Differentiated Classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2015, from https://prezi.com/7mlpxmahxslw/preparing-students-and-parents-for-a-differentiated-classroom/

Crowe, C. (2004, November 1). Responsive Classroom®. Retrieved February 3, 2015, from https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/article/wonderful-wednesdays

Duke TIP. (2008, October 3). Retrieved February 4, 2015, from http://tip.duke.edu/node/910

Nishat, A. (2011, January 1). Differentiated Instruction Demystified. Retrieved February 3, 2015, from http://www.aldeenfoundation.org/DifferentiatedInstructionDemystified.pdf