About 6-10 minutes into this 14 minute video, Sajan describes a blended learning classroom that incorporates individual learning, teacher instruction, small group work, and assessments.
http://youtu.be/Ah-SmLEMgis
Robert Sternberg (1996) maintains that, “Children with other kinds of abilities may be derailed from the fast track early in life, with the result that they never get the opportunity to show what they really can do” (p. 202). We need to make certain that we are preparing students for the future and not leaving some students on a slower or less productive track. Our expectations around literacy will shape the speed at which we can close the gap with some learners and ensure the growth of all learners. Accepting less will create an unthinkable future for our students. (From the book: Differentiated Literacy Strategies for Student Growth and Achievement in Grades K-6 by Gayle H. Gregory and Lin Kuzmich)
Teachers in the Muscatine Community School District are already doing a fantastic job of differentiating instruction to meet individual needs of students, from the lower able to the highly gifted. The temptation, however, is to allow ourselves to teach to the middle, and think the highly able will be just fine, since they already have the subject mastered. The danger in that thinking, though, is that those students can create poor study habits (what study habits? who needs to study when they already know it?), lead to boredom, and can actually create at-risk behaviors.
To avoid those problems, team up with your G/T Specialist and create some individual study assignments, preferably with the student's interests in mind. Student interests, parent surveys, and product-development interest forms can be found here. This will give you, the educator, a starting place for that student who gets their work done early, asks questions constantly, and is able to begin an individual project that highlights his or her interests.
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An Example of Classroom Differentiation:
Mrs. Timmons, a 4th grade teacher at Mulberry, used the "Cube Project" to differentiate instruction during Power Time. Students were encouraged to research subjects they wanted to know more information about, and the ultimate outcome was a 6-sided cube with pictures, vocabulary, facts, creative writing stories, and higher order thinking (ex. "If I could change one thing about this...")..JPG)
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An example of using EXIT CARDS to differentiate instruction in a middle school mathematics class:
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Another great example can be found in this video from Teaching Channel
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A Different Place is a great website with differentiation in practice, as is Dare To Differentiate**********************
Differentiation Central is a comprehensive website with video examples and lesson plan templates.
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Power My Learning can be a useful tool to differentiate learning in a 1:1 classroom. Teachers can sign up and import class lists, assign tasks, and keep records of student use/learning.
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Tips
How to Involve and Engage Students
Student misbehavior isn't always about bad attitudes and "keeping reps" (reputation). Many times student misbehavior in the classroom happens because of boredom. When students are bored in class their brains begin to wander and they start thinking, "I wonder what would happen if I…" Then the little disruptions begin. The little disruptions pile up and turn into large disruptions. This scenario can go on and on until everything is out of control. What can we do about this kind of behavior?
Keeping students involved and engaged in activities is the very best solution. When students are excited about their learning, they are motivated to pay attention in class. You get excited because your students are actually paying attention. The students sense your excitement and get even more motivated to stay in your class. The positive effects continue to pile up. However, it isn't always easy to keep students involved and engaged. Below are a few tips and ideas to help you along.
First of all, paper/pencil worksheets are not engaging activities. Do they keep students busy? Yes. Are they motivating? No. Reading the textbook aloud and then answering questions at the end of the section is not an engaging activity. Does it take up the whole class period? Yes. Is it motivating and exciting to students? No. While these activities deceptively look like they keep students involved and engaged, in reality they do not. In fact, you can generally meet the same goals and objectives with different activities.
Activities that involve and engage students are ones where they are manipulating the information physically and mentally. Students need to be moving around, working in groups, and discovering information for themselves. Reading along, taking notes, listening to a lecture, or copying vocabulary words are all passive learning activities. Instead you want to get students actively thinking and moving. How can you accomplish this? You need to start thinking "out of the box."
Do you have a lot of worksheets in your school/district curriculum? How might your students gain the same information in a more engaging manner? Break students into groups and give each group different questions from the worksheet. The group must answer their questions, create a half-poster that illustrates the answers, and then present the information to the class. Students could use graphic organizers such as a web, Venn Diagram, or T-chart to present the information. Your students might want to create a rhyme, poem, or song to help other students remember the information.
Do you have chronological information that students must remember? Type out the information and cut it up into strips. Give each pair or group of students an envelope with the strips. Have them work together to put the events in order. This could also work with the steps of a math problem or science experiment. Let students paste the strips onto construction paper.
Have students retell a section of the textbook as a short children's story. Tell it from the point of view of one of the elements or participants. Use a round-robin story. Break students into groups. Each group is assigned a section in the chapter. One student starts writing the "retelling". After a minute or two, pass the paper to the next student who continues the story. Keep rotating the paper around the group until the entire section is retold in a story. Set a timer to help everyone stay on track.
Create mobiles that represent information. When students read a novel or a section in the textbook, have them draw pictures that illustrate the concept or events and hang it on a mobile. Make a class paper chain of information. Each student writes one fact on a strip of construction paper. Have the class stand in front of the room. The first student reads their strip and then folds it in a circle while you staple it. The next student reads their fact and then attaches their strip to the chain. Continue through the entire class.
Give students "clues" to look for items in the classroom that relate to your topic of study. Put students on a "scavenger hunt". Once they find the item, they must explain why it is on the scavenger hunt. Let students go on a road trip. Place different stop signs around the school or classroom with an activity or reading passage. Students must "travel" to each place and complete the activity (idea courtesy of Beaver Elementary). Give students a "passport" that must be stamped at each "stop" on their trip.
Let students make artifacts from a culture they are studying or give a speech as a famous historical person or a character from their novel. Give students the opportunity to act out 5 plus 3 or 10 divided by 5. Create centers for students to visit and complete an activity that meets one of your learning objectives.
These kinds of activities get students moving both physically and mentally. Before you know it you'll hear complaints like, "Is it time to go already?" and "I'm not finished," from your students. But those kinds of complaints are music to the ears. It isn't easy to create these activities and plan out the details. You have to provide structure and you have to constantly monitor and guide students as they work. You won't have perfect products in the beginning and will have to stress the importance of turning in work that reflects "personal best." It takes time and it takes effort. But when you start hearing those complaints, you'll know that it was well worth doing.
Reprinted with permission from the "New Teacher Advisor Column" written by Emma McDonald and published by Education World.
Keeping students involved and engaged in activities is the very best solution. When students are excited about their learning, they are motivated to pay attention in class. You get excited because your students are actually paying attention. The students sense your excitement and get even more motivated to stay in your class. The positive effects continue to pile up. However, it isn't always easy to keep students involved and engaged. Below are a few tips and ideas to help you along.
First of all, paper/pencil worksheets are not engaging activities. Do they keep students busy? Yes. Are they motivating? No. Reading the textbook aloud and then answering questions at the end of the section is not an engaging activity. Does it take up the whole class period? Yes. Is it motivating and exciting to students? No. While these activities deceptively look like they keep students involved and engaged, in reality they do not. In fact, you can generally meet the same goals and objectives with different activities.
Activities that involve and engage students are ones where they are manipulating the information physically and mentally. Students need to be moving around, working in groups, and discovering information for themselves. Reading along, taking notes, listening to a lecture, or copying vocabulary words are all passive learning activities. Instead you want to get students actively thinking and moving. How can you accomplish this? You need to start thinking "out of the box."
Do you have a lot of worksheets in your school/district curriculum? How might your students gain the same information in a more engaging manner? Break students into groups and give each group different questions from the worksheet. The group must answer their questions, create a half-poster that illustrates the answers, and then present the information to the class. Students could use graphic organizers such as a web, Venn Diagram, or T-chart to present the information. Your students might want to create a rhyme, poem, or song to help other students remember the information.
Do you have chronological information that students must remember? Type out the information and cut it up into strips. Give each pair or group of students an envelope with the strips. Have them work together to put the events in order. This could also work with the steps of a math problem or science experiment. Let students paste the strips onto construction paper.
Have students retell a section of the textbook as a short children's story. Tell it from the point of view of one of the elements or participants. Use a round-robin story. Break students into groups. Each group is assigned a section in the chapter. One student starts writing the "retelling". After a minute or two, pass the paper to the next student who continues the story. Keep rotating the paper around the group until the entire section is retold in a story. Set a timer to help everyone stay on track.
Create mobiles that represent information. When students read a novel or a section in the textbook, have them draw pictures that illustrate the concept or events and hang it on a mobile. Make a class paper chain of information. Each student writes one fact on a strip of construction paper. Have the class stand in front of the room. The first student reads their strip and then folds it in a circle while you staple it. The next student reads their fact and then attaches their strip to the chain. Continue through the entire class.
Give students "clues" to look for items in the classroom that relate to your topic of study. Put students on a "scavenger hunt". Once they find the item, they must explain why it is on the scavenger hunt. Let students go on a road trip. Place different stop signs around the school or classroom with an activity or reading passage. Students must "travel" to each place and complete the activity (idea courtesy of Beaver Elementary). Give students a "passport" that must be stamped at each "stop" on their trip.
Let students make artifacts from a culture they are studying or give a speech as a famous historical person or a character from their novel. Give students the opportunity to act out 5 plus 3 or 10 divided by 5. Create centers for students to visit and complete an activity that meets one of your learning objectives.
These kinds of activities get students moving both physically and mentally. Before you know it you'll hear complaints like, "Is it time to go already?" and "I'm not finished," from your students. But those kinds of complaints are music to the ears. It isn't easy to create these activities and plan out the details. You have to provide structure and you have to constantly monitor and guide students as they work. You won't have perfect products in the beginning and will have to stress the importance of turning in work that reflects "personal best." It takes time and it takes effort. But when you start hearing those complaints, you'll know that it was well worth doing.
Reprinted with permission from the "New Teacher Advisor Column" written by Emma McDonald and published by Education World.
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