DIFFERENTIATION TASK 3
This is the time of year when we reflect on how to improve our practice. One tool we use is research.
You will be reading a one page (front and back) article about Differentiation. Remember this has been our focus this year. The article breaks Differentiation into four classroom elements based on student readiness, interest, or learning profile:
1) content - what the student needs to learn or how the student will get access to the information;
2) process - activities in which the student engages in order to make sense of or master the content;
3) products - culminating projects that ask the student to rehearse, apply, and extend what he or she has learned in a unit; and
4) learning environment - the way the classroom works and feels.
TASK:
I. Read the article independently, then meet with your grade level and discuss the four types of differentiation mentioned above. Use this time to reflect on your practice. Please use the reflection page provided to the grade level chairperson to document each teacher's response. Submit this to Mrs. Fisher by Friday, April 27th.
II. After meeting with your grade level, please post a comment by answering the three following questions:
1.) Which differentiation area am I the strongest in?
2.) Which differenation area am I the weakest in?
3.) Which differentiation area will I work on for the remainder of the year to develop a better understanding of; and/or try to implement more of?
My strongest area of differentiation is the area of content. I use different types of reading materials especially in my guided reading groups. I also have 8 students who are taking challenge spelling words which are the first grade spelling words. I knew some of my higher students would be able to work on spelling the first grade words prior to entering first grade. However, I have tweaked this because I can tell who is ready to be challenged and which parents are working with thier students.
ReplyDeleteAs far as my area of weakest concern, that would be differentiating their learning environment. I will work on this area because I know it exist in first grade. Sometimes I look at space as an issue especially in the portables. As far as trying to differnetiate between an area of quiet or collaboration. I also find it challenging to teach 5 and 6 year olds how to whisper because they seem to have 2 levels: on and off:) I do ask my higher students to assist in helping lower students sound out words during writing exercises. I know there is always room for improvement so I will do my very best to work on this area.
My strongest area of differentiation is in the area of the learning environment. I believe I've grown in this area tremendously. Being an ESOL teacher I have realized the importance of placing students in a quiet, safe, and structured environment. My students are at such different levels as far as ability as well as language that I have to come up with a plan where those struggling students have a way to get help if they need it. I appoint one of my higher level students as the "peer teacher" where she will help those students who seem to be struggling. My learning centers, whether it's Math or Reading, I always pair students together to that they can collaborate and they do feel comfortable asking each other for help. I have many students that need to move around a lot and aren't able to just sit in one place for too long. I've pinpointed those particular students and have a routine structured to meet their individual needs. I remember my first and second year of teaching, I was a complete mess. I didn't have a plan in place and I ran around like a mad woman trying to help all 18 students. I realized I need to focus on pulling small groups at a time and seeing those higher level students as "helpers." Doing that seemed to bring less tears and stress :) My weakest area of differentiation would be process. I need a lot of help putting together tiered activities. I'm also lacking as far as what should my main focus be with a student who seems to be struggling in several areas. I sometimes feel that I give my students too much time to get a task done. I often wonder if I could better spend that time focusing on something else. I am trying to work towards asking higher level questions and guiding students to the proper response while having that language barrier that sometimes gets in the way. I am going to try my best to work on the process category of differentiation. I'd like to collaborate with the coaches and/or fellow teachers to get help in this area. I feel that if I get feedback and maybe watch an activity that's planned with a Tier focus, that I'll have a better understanding and then I'll be able to better help my students.
ReplyDeleteMeryl, I really enjoyed the thoughtfulness of your posting. Thanks for sharing so honestly. It's neat to see you reflect on your growth as a teacher, especially since we're far away on the other hall and don't get a chance to peek in and see all the good things you're doing!
DeleteI feel that my strongest area is content. I have become very familiar with the various different ways that content can be presented. My most successful has been through visualization. Using visual examples and having my students follow along with me has been most successful. Collaboration with the math coach has been most succesful in enabling me to teach my students in a manner that they can feel comfortable with. I often use the interent to help me present content to my students in a more meaningful manner and helps me with differentiation in how I can present it to my lower students. My weakest area would probably be process. I still need to develop my learning centers so my students can 1) have a chance to explore different areas of the curriculum and b) have meaningful work to keep them interested and curious about the math process. I would like for my students to be independent thinkers and be able to present independent strategies on their own.
ReplyDeleteI feel my strongest area is learning environment. I have a couple of quiet zones as well as places for group work where students can collaborate without distracting others. I feel that my rituals and routines allow my students to find help when I am not available or to get the resources they need. My weakest area is product. Giving kindergarteners options can be difficult. However I can work in this area by allowing students to explore different ways to express their learning, such as group work.
ReplyDeleteMy strongest area is content. I use reading materials that vary in levels. I present my materials using both auditory such as book on tape and visual such as internet sites they can explore. I have my higher students buddy with my students who need a little more support. I always pull students into a small group to re-teach a skill that wasn't quite grasped by those students. My weakest area is product. Giving kindergartners options to work on their own assignments such as students who are higher and need more enrichment is a challenge for me. I will continue to work in that area because I know how important it is for me to challenge all of my students no matter what their level.
ReplyDeleteI feel that my strongest area is learning environment. My classroom is set up in a way that allows my students to work independently and invites student collaboration. I also have rituals and routines set up so that the students can get help when I am busy. I think that my weakest area is product. In Kindergarten, I feel that it is difficult to give my students options to express themselves and their learning especially my higher level students. I will continue to work on this area by trying to help them come up with different ways to learn because I know it is important to challenge them each and every day.
ReplyDeleteBased on the examples provided for each classroom element of differentiation, I feel there are parts of each I am doing well and other parts I'm not. For example, in the area of content I have routines in place that comfortably differentiate HOW the students get the content BUT I've tried differentiating WHAT the learning content is before, for example in Spelling, and it became unmanageable for me. The easiest way I've found to differentiate content is through small group remediation and small group extend lessons, but those are after the fact, not during the initial instruction. An area I'm focusing on right now and for the remainder of the year is within the element of products, specifically, example #2 using rubrics. I'm trying to focus on that type of assessment monitoring tool in order to help students differentiate their next steps more concretely. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteI feel that my strongest area is content. I use a variety of reading methods such as books on tape, buddy reading, and differentiatied reading groups. Either I or a peer tutor work with struggling learners daily. My weeakest I believe is being able to challenge the higher learners in my class. I work extensively with the lower learners, but often do not have challenging enrichment activities for the higher learners. I find it difficult to give any kindergartener, higher or lower, independent work because they have trouble staying on task for more than 15 minutes. What I am going to work on for the rest of the year is creating center activities at varying levels for students to work on independently for longer lengths of time.
ReplyDeleteI feel that I am strongest in the process area especially with Example 1) using tiered activities through which all learners work with the same important understanding and skills, but proceed with different levels of support, challenge, or complexity; I spend a great deal of time analyzing the benchmarks and determining where the students understanding falls on the benchmark continuium, then determine what the lesson flow and task will look like to meet the needs so that they will be able to complete the Tiered Task that has been given to them. But I also feel that being preparred for their misconceptions is something I really have put a lot of effort in this year. Forseeing these misconceptions allows you to be "preparred" to create LIVE Differentiation on the spot. Meryl I think this is what you were mentioning, I'd love to plan and work with you. The area in which I feel the weakest in is Products. I find this is because it is time consuming. Not only for planning, but the time to explain it in the limited amount of classtime we have with the students. I often think, "Well if they all do the same thing, I only have to explain the product once." I would like to work on coming up with a solution by really thinking about common type products that can be used with many different benchmarks and throughout different subjects that will show student understanding and mastery. Another issue would be the grading; maybe Raine and I could work together developing rubrics that would make differentiating "products" easier. :)
ReplyDeleteI would say that I am strongest in the content. For example, before studying a new topic I make sure I look at the end of the unit assessments that correlate with the particular topic or benchmark(s) in order to make sure that the way I present the ideas and the activities students involve in will meet the cognitive complexity of what the student needs to learn. My weakest element is the product. It is very difficult for me to come up with alternative assessments that will show that the student has mastered the concept. I will definitely work developing in the product area so that studentswill be able to express their varied skills as opposed to sticking with the traditional test.
ReplyDeleteYay, another person to work with on this challenging task!! : )
DeleteMy strongest area is in the content area. In the article they list six examples of differentiating the content for elementary students and I saw that I have used all six of those examples in my own classroom. I am probably the weakest in products because of the amount of time involved in preparing so many different assessments for such varying levels of students. For the rest of this year I will concentrate on my learning environment. At this time of year the children begin to get more challenging in their behavior. Some of the best behaved kids seem to go a little crazy. So I have been CHAMPING out my lessons with more specific guidlines for behavior and I want to promote respectful group work using character development. I also have a goal to make them more independent before they go to third grade.
ReplyDeleteI think my strongest area is also content. Various modes of presentation, using partners or groups for work time, small group remediation, etc. are several examples in my class. My area to strengthen is process. Some of the examples mentioned are things I would like to try. For example : providing interest centers and creating personal agendas for tasks that need to be worked on. As we prepared for FCAT I had my rti groups create a "challenge list" from their Spring Benchmark assessment. We would cross off the challenge benchmarks as they made progress in small group. Adopting this approach for every student would provide completely individualized, differentiated instruction. My challenge is figuring out a way to make the class run seamlessly with this approach. I need to brainstorm some ideas for "how it looks" with real-world contraints factored in.
ReplyDeleteReally good points, Wendy. Ideas can be great and make sense, but they also require that time spent figuring out how it will work and look for you.
Delete1.) Which differentiation area am I the strongest in?
ReplyDeleteI feel that I am the strongest in Content. As RTI, FCIM, and small group lessons are formed I feel I am always pulling stuff that one group needs and pulling other stuff for the next target group. It feels ongoing and never ending.
2.) Which differenation area am I the weakest in?
I feel that the area of product is my weakest. I haven't mastered letting go of the reins so to say and allowing my students to develop their own form of product assignments.
3.) Which differentiation area will I work on for the remainder of the year to develop a better understanding of; and/or try to implement more of?
I will continue to strenghthen the Process area. I feel that I am implementing this part of differentiation in my classroom, but not in all curriculum areas.
I believe that my strongest area is content and the weakest area being products. In my class, I assign an activity to my students without providing them with options. My students have opportunities to express their learning through a variety of activities; however, it is usually a specific activity that has been chosen by me and students are not given a choice. I would like to work on this area for the remainder of the year and even TRY to have students develop their own assignment for learning that is taking place in our classroom.
ReplyDeleteMy strongest area is “content differentiation. I used different leveled readers in, audio-texts in science and vocabulary lists, videos that present content, and re-teaching strategies in math and science too. On the other hand,I need to work on the “differentiation process” area. Specifically on providing interesting centers for students to practice, review or extend class topics.
ReplyDeleteI will work on differentiating products for the remainder of the year. Currently, we are working on science projects and this is a good opportunity to use rubrics that match different skills levels. Additionally, I will give students the options to show/display their science project and they will have the choice to do their projects individually or with a partner.
I feel that my strongest area is content. I implement approaches that can help students needs to learn. I found that uses visuals and presenting ideas through kinesthetic means have been the most successful. Students are able to retain information by using visual associations and kinesthetic movements to trigger the content that we are learning. My weakest area would probably be in learning environment. I would like to take different approaches for the remainder of the year by differentiating the learning environment. I could try creating a quiet zones for students that enjoy working without distraction and have other students work at an acceptable level in pairs. Some students work better independently and others enjoy working with a partner. I want to find a happy medium that benefits that class as a whole. I would like to develop a routine that allows my students to get help while I am busy with another student. Students are eager for help during RTI, small groups and guided reading. Developing a successful system for students that need help can eliminate constant disruptions during one-on-one time with my specific groups.
ReplyDeleteLooks like we will be providing some Professional Development next year on PRODUCTS...so everyone be on the look out for wonderful ideas, useful tools, great literature,etc. that would help support this! Thanks to everyone for such great responses!
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