Anytime a good discussion with student participation is happening in my classroom, I think it's always an opportunity to let learning happen, as long as it applies to learning in some way. This is why all of my discussion bubbles lead to let learning happen.
The decisions you make about your own actions for students in a differentiated classroom depend on each individual student that is part of the class. Johnny and Sally are both in a differentiated classroom, but this doesn’t mean what works for Johnny will work for Sally and vice versa. I think the first thing a teacher needs to look at is the student’s readiness, interests, and learning profile to make a good judgment of how they will respond to learning (McCarthy, J., 2014). My decisions for my own actions would also depend on the task that is being worked on in class. Depending on what I want the student to learn, processing tasks, and a final product would change the way I approached how to intervene. Differentiation in the classroom can fall under seven different categories: tasks, grouping, resources, pace, outcome, dialogue and support, and assessment (BBC, n.d.).
Tasks, in my mind would be the most difficult way to differentiate because you are setting different tasks for the students depending on their ability level. One way to remedy this is to create a worksheet that gets progressively harder to accommodate the many different learning levels within the classroom, but the question to ask myself is, “Will this assignment be beneficial to my students?” If yes, then I assign it, if it’s just busy work, then there’s no point in making my students do the assignment. Grouping is probably the easiest way to differentiate in the classroom, because as the teacher I can decide as I’m assigning an assignment how I want to group, do I want to let students pick their own or do I want to assign groups? With grouping though, I have to make decisions based on the individual class I am teaching at the time. I have to know my students well enough to know who works well together, those who will just talk and not stay on task, are there any cliques that will make others feel left out, etc. With this knowledge I can easily make the decision of how I want to group students. While using grouping, I also make decisions about what type of resources students can or will use. If it is a class that will get off task using computers because they would rather look up anything else on the computer than what we are learning, this probably isn’t the best idea, so they will need to use their textbooks or other print resources that are available. Discussion within grouping also comes with decisions that need to be made by the teacher. If students are discussing, but staying on track, I would let them discuss rather than do their written group assignment, because I think you can learn just as much by discussion. This also allows me to determine pacing of an assignment based on the amount of time students are spending doing meaningful work. Pacing is an easy for me to differentiate as I can make my decisions based upon the student or group of students. I can easily ask myself questions such as, “Is this student lazy or not understanding? Can I tell they are really trying?” “Is this a normal thing for this student to be behind or a rare occurrence?” “Do the actions this child display in the classroom really warrant being given extra time? Are they on task or do they just daydream? If they do just daydream why are they?”, which leads back to the question of laziness or not understanding. Pacing plays a role with dialogue and support, constantly communicating with students and understanding where they are at in school, how their daily life is going, etc. is what helps me make most decisions when it comes to differentiation. When making decisions about outcome and assessment I usually give all students the same type of assessment, but grade the process of the assessment rather than the answers (Tomlinson, C., 2005). Of course, if they get the wrong answer they can’t get full credit, but the process in which they did the question is more important to me (this applies specifically to math in my case). I can look at the assessments in this way and know which steps students understand and what needs to be re taught or practiced more. Assessment allows me to have a guide in my teaching, the curriculum is not my guide anymore (Tomlinson, 2001). When it comes to differentiation in the classroom, the argument for student responsibility needs to play a role in decision making (Tomlinson, C., 2004). This goes beyond the area of can this student handle this assignment, if we are making decisions based on the responsibility of our students, are we encouraging good responsibility skills or poor? As teachers, I believe one of our responsibilities is to teach a young person to become independent. While they are young we give them a lot more guidance, as they continue to mature, the guidance decreases as the student’s responsibility increases. Just as they are going to be responsible for their own life one day, it is a lesson they learn in school using tasks and assignments as a tool to facilitate. I think this leads to the area of intervention in looking at how responsible the student is being. If the student is not doing their work because they don’t understand, it’s time to intervene with differentiating assignments, but if a student is not doing their work because they are lazy, I don’t think as a teacher I could justify differentiation. Their class work is their job, if they are lazy and we change things for them, what are we really teaching them, in my opinion we are teaching them that laziness is okay. The teacher must play into this role by taking the responsibility to get to know his/her student well enough to make a justifiable decision (Tomlinson, C.,2004). One important criteria for intervention (at least in my case, teaching at a private school, that has no connection to the government) would be meeting with the parents and developing a plan. This might look something like an IEP, but not necessarily meeting with “specialists.” I have a student in two of my classes right now, one being science, and her mother doesn’t want her work specialized for her. She meets with a tutor twice a week and they work on different subjects together and she works with her mom a lot at home one-on-one. The mother and father want their child to be introduced to every assignment and graded just as everyone else so she doesn’t feel as though she is being treated differently. They don’t mind the fact that she may not receive as high of grades, for them her maintaining a “C” average is fine with them. They don’t want her to feel like she is being treated different academically with the social challenges she faces as a junior high girl. While differentiation, if used properly in the classroom, does not seek to label and segregate students, but to instead give them each an equal opportunity for learning in the classroom setting (Wu, E., 2013), parents and students do not always realize this or think this to be true. I realize that in public schools this approach may not be able to take place, but where I am at now it can be so this would be one of my criteria for intervention. Letting learning happen and the decision of when to let this happen and when to intervene, for me, simply depends on the student’s attention span and the discussion we are having. I think as far as discussion it is easy to let learning happen, because the teacher can guide the discussion, ask prompting questions, and keep the discussion on track. Discussion is one of the easiest ways to let me know what the students know and don’t know. The classes I teach are all under ten students, all of my students are comfortable with each other, so it is easy for all students to say their input without feeling put down by others. Once the discussion turns purely to me lecturing, they have come to the end of their supposed knowledge and I need to incorporate strategies, if needed, for students to learn the rest of the required learning. Bibliography BBC (n.d.) Methods of differentiation in the classroom. http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/MethodsofDifferentiationintheClassroom.aspx McCarthy, J. (2014). 3 ways to plan for diverse learners: What teachers do. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-ways-to-plan-john-mccarthy Tomlinson, C. (2005). Grading and differentiation: Paradox or good practice? Theory into Practice, 44(3). Tomlinson, C. (2004). Sharing responsibility for differentiating instruction. Roeper Review,26(4). Tomlinson, C. (2001). How to Differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. Alexandria: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Wu, E. (2013). The path leading to differentiation: An interview with Carol Tomlinson.Journal of Advanced Academics, 24(2). This week I learned that some people are not meant to play Minecraft at certain times or ever. I also learned that while I understand most technology and a lot of games, Minecraft is not one of them. That being said though, I do realize after the last week that Minecraft could be effectively integrated into the classroom and be a good learning tool for students whether I understand it or not, because before this week I would have been totally against it.
I was able to find a lot of websites that provided different worlds and assignments for students to work on during math to sharpen different skills. Actually a lot of them are the skills that my seventh grade math students struggle with and out of the kids I teach these seven are the ones who are so excited for the fact that I even mentioned the word Minecraft in class, so maybe this will help them if I can ever figure it out. I feel like in order to really use it in the classroom I need to be able to have some kind of understanding of the game and how to accomplish the tasks if they get stuck. While I feel like I have no idea of how to actually incorporate Minecraft effectively in my classroom, I did enjoy reading other people’s ideas in their blogs and different articles about it throughout the week. I also really liked making the comic strip and showed it to my kids and they actually thought it was kind of funny, so I feel like I was successful in some way. I’m looking forward to next week, because last week really wasn’t my strongest moments in a class as far as figuring out what I should write or even what to write since my Minecraft past is zero. As I started this week, I knew very little about Minecraft, that knowledge hasn’t increased much, but I have learned a few basic skills for survival for at least a couple minutes. I have always known about Minecraft and that students enjoyed it, but until this week when I mentioned it, I never knew as to what extent. While learning this morning with eight junior high kids around me all telling me what to do, I realized that this could really be a valuable learning tool in the classroom if students were given clear directions as well as knew the rules and consequences. Not only it is something that students love, it also allows for differentiated instruction in the classroom in a way that is not time consuming to the teacher.
As students grow up, it is important to encourage them to excel because of the intrinsic reward and not the extrinsic. Rewards are good, but it’s not necessarily getting to the finished product and getting a grade, it’s about the process they take to get the final result. It is difficult to express this to some students in an effective way. One way that can help accomplish this task is through the use of gaming in the classroom. I started researching gaming in the classroom and then narrowed my search specifically to Minecraft. “The popularity of video games is not the enemy of education, but rather a model for best teaching strategies” (Willis, J., 2011a). Students want to keep working on the video game to get to the next step and if we are using gaming correctly in the classroom, they are learning the skills and concepts of what they are learning in various subjects. Also, using games in the classroom is an activity that most students enjoy and because of this it can make learning meaningful while challenging. “Challenge is a powerful motivator when students take on tasks they find meaningful and, through their efforts and perseverance, succeed” (Willis, J., 2011b). Moving specifically to Minecraft, “because Minecraft has such open possibilities and potential, the teacher can choose how he or she wants to use it. Just as the student has the ability to be creative, the teacher has the same” (Miller, A., 2012). I began looking at different websites with games that were Minecraft oriented and related to math since that is my main field of teaching. As I began to look, I realized there are several different worlds created to help students learn different concepts such as coordinate graphs, practicing all mathematical operations, graphing, etc. (Teaching with Minecraftedu). Realizing that all I have to do is mention the word Minecraft and my seventh grade math class goes crazy, I started realizing how many different world incorporated what we are learning and decided that it would only make sense to combine something they all love with math (something not all of them love) and to see what happens. In order to incorporate Minecraft into the classroom I need to know a couple things about the game in order to be successful. As the teacher, I need to know my tools, my goals, what instructions I’ll give, how I want to group my students, allow my students to become the teachers and teach me a thing or two, look how other educators are using it, and at least attempt to create my own world (Teaching with Minecraftedu). This is a list that takes more than a day to achieve, but I have started learning the game at this point with the help of my students and it gets them excited that we are going to be using it in the future. To effectively use Minecraft in the classroom, students need to be aware that there will be constant check-ins, they are not allowed to do whatever they want within the game, they need to remain on task fulfilling their quests related to the class (Davies, R., 2013). We need to make sure that students have been given clear directions and know the consequences of not following them appropriately. I think if these two things are put into place that students could really benefit from using Minecraft in the classroom. As I think of differentiation, I often think of reaching students on their level, gaming meets students on their levels, it allows the player to progress quickly through earlier levels if they already have the skill sets. Gaming also allows students to consistently work at their own level while challenging themselves, without consuming all of the teacher’s time (Willis, J., 2011a). If we are aware of the resources available to us as educators and use them efficiently, we can develop units that fit with different Minecraft worlds that have already been created. We don’t always have the skills or tools in our “teacher toolbox” to reach all kids (McCarthy, J., 2014) and it would, at this day in age, be irresponsible to say that the world of gaming could not help our students be successful. I think a goal for most teachers is to teach their students in authentic ways, and by using Minecraft in class we can engage our students in a way the understand and that is on their level to have them apply their knowledge in an authentic way (Davies, R., 2013). Davies, R. (2013). Using minecraft to engage and challenge your class. https://www.fractuslearning.com/2013/06/13/minecraft-in-class/ McCarthy, J. (2014). Students matter: 3 steps for effective differentiated instruction. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/3-steps-effective-differentiated-instruction-john-mccarthy. Teaching with MinecraftEdu (n. d.). http://services.minecraftedu.com/wiki/Teaching_with_MinecraftEdu Willis, J. (2011a). A neurologist makes the case for the video game model as a learning tool. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/neurologist-makes-case-video-game-model-learning-tool Willis, J. (2011b). How to plan instruction using the video game model. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-to-plan-instruction-video-game-model-judy-willis-md Miller, A. (2012). Ideas for using minecraft in the classroom. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/minecraft-in-classroom-andrew-miller Honestly, the idea of differentiated instruction, what it is and what it isn’t, is kind of a new concept to me. I mean I learned about it in college as parts of different classes, but never really looked at the definition of it and how to apply it thoroughly in the classroom. It was more like here’s some idea for students who are visual, here are some ideas for those who are kinesthetic, but they were more like use the projector, and that’s something that’s just a natural part of class, but I don’t think it’s necessarily differentiating.
I have small classes, my largest class is my science class which is 17, and we do a variety of activities, from lecture, small group discussion, whole class discussions, and different types of assessments that have the means to reach all students. My math classes have ten and seven students, so it’s very easy to work one on one with them, which allows me to teach them how to do different concepts in different ways, so without having to think about it beforehand I can differentiate as I work with different students. So as far as learning about differentiation in the classroom, I have already learned a great deal this week and I’m expecting that that will only continue as the weeks go on and we read more and do more posts. I also enjoyed reading the other posts and getting ideas from other teachers out there who have done some great things in their classrooms. It made me reflect on how I am doing different activities in the classroom and what I need to change and what I can improve. I can see this next week as being a bit more of a challenge as my knowledge of Minecraft is zero, but the little amount of research I have done is getting me interested in how to use it in the classroom, so maybe it won’t be all that difficult at all. Like many others, this is my first time creating an infographic and I know there aren't any pretty little circles or pictures on there, but I was having a hard enough time just making that (It could've been the 17 kids in the room blowing up balloons so big they popped every few seconds.). I also understand graphs like this better than others, so I though I would do what I understand. Anyways, it just shows the four main parts of differentiated instruction that I thought were important from the reading. Off those four main ideas, it gives subtopics, and off of those shows how to use differentiated instruction in the classroom with your students.
When a teacher walks into a classroom, he/she is met with a variety of different learning styles, in addition to the amount of knowledge that a student has which varies. Student knowledge can be affected by the number of schools they have attended, how well they did at these schools, their family’s socioeconomic status, as well as a variety of other circumstances that can influence their ability to learn. In order to reach all students, a teacher cannot teach one method and expect to reach all students. There needs to be variety in the way the information is presented as well as the products we want to receive from students to show what they have learned. In academic terms, this is known as differentiated instruction, which can be a misleading term to anyone who has not done significant research on this type of instructional design, but to put it plainly, it “is a way of looking at instruction that is centered on the belief that students learn in many ways” (Smith, G. & Throne, S., 2009, p. 30). In order to fully understand differentiated instruction, one must understand what it is and what it is not.
Differentiating instruction used to be viewed as the daunting task in which a teacher had to develop thirty different assignments for each of the thirty students in his or her classroom as this is what was thought to be individualized instruction (Tomlinson, C., 2001, p. 2). Throughout the years though, the meaning of differentiated instruction has shifted and has allowed teachers to incorporate it into the classroom in a much easier fashion. While we are still purposefully creating assignments to reach the needs of our students, we are not individualizing each assignment for each of our students. One of the easiest ways to approach the task of developing different tasks for students is to allow them to select the method in which they will show what they learned throughout the unit, or allowing the student to choose a task from a given list. Differentiated instruction is “qualitative over quantitative” (Tomlinson, C., 2001, p. 4). It is not about assigning students a number of problems and then increasing the number for the gifted students and decreasing the numbers for those struggling. Differentiated instruction allows students to be part of the learning process and create a finished product in which they can prove they have learned the information sufficiently, which also takes away the risk of students comparing themselves and grouping themselves as smart, adequate, or “dumb” (Vehkakoski, T., 2012). Differentiated instruction also allows the teacher and student to both be learners and teachers (Tomlinson, 2012, p. 5). Grouping in differentiated instruction is no longer just grouping by ability. Differentiated instruction uses multiple approaches to grouping such as whole class, small groups, and also individualized learning (Tomlinson, 2012, p. 5). In small group discussions, the student can become the teacher because higher level students are able to help those students who may be struggling. Grouping in this way also allows students to work with multiple other students instead of being with the same students with the same abilities each time, which, to me, doesn’t seem like it would help students be able to learn more, but keep them at a certain level. Grouping students uniquely for each project provides students with an opportunity to grow in their learning. While differentiated instruction in the past has all been about pencil and paper changes, there are new technological advances that allow us as teachers to broaden our horizons in this area. When working with any student the need for modifying content, process, content, and learning environment can occur (Siegle, D., 2014, pg. 51). New technology is being created each day that helps to increase student learning and can be used as a mean to target one of the four areas mentioned needing modification (Siegle, D., 2014, pg. 51). Although I believe that technology should not always be our number one go to, it is definitely an important option to look too while creating different assignments. In order to make sure technology is going to be effective for our students while differentiating, I think it is still important to look at the different attitudes and approaches our students take in their learning. I think sometimes technology can sometimes be used as a crutch for those times when we don’t have enough time or energy to create something different, and I don’t believe this is differentiation. Differentiated instruction allows our students to learn based on their unique skills. “Knowledge and understanding are not transferred directly from one person to another, but are created based on experience” (Altıparmak, K., 2014, p. 1146). If we allow our students to have a memorable experience during the learning process, I believe the information will stick with them longer, than if we say here’s some questions, everyone answer them, and then move on to the next assignment. As we grow as teachers, differentiated instruction may become easier as we learn new tricks, but it is a way to build relationships with students as we interact with them and show them we care through the process of showing them how much effort we put into our jobs on a daily basis. The goal of educating, for me, in regards to teaching information, is to teach students in a way that is effective for them, and this is not the same for each student. Bibliography Altıparmak, K. (2014). Impact of computer animations in cognitive learning: differentiation. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 45(8). Siegle, D. (2014). Differentiating instruction by flipping the classroom. Gifted Child Today,37(1). Smith, G., & Throne, S. (2009). Differentiated instruction and middle school learners. In Differentiating Instruction with Technology in Middle School Classrooms (pp. 29-39). Eugene: ISTE. Tomlinson, C. (2001). What differentiated instruction is and isn't. In How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms (pp. 1-7). Alexandria: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Vehkakoski, T. (2012). ‘More homework for me, too’. Meanings of differentiation constructed by elementary-aged students in classroom interaction. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 27(2). |
AuthorI teach grades 7-11 at a small private school in Soldotna. I get to teach a variety of subjects that change every year, this year it's science, history, and math, next year it'll be completely different. Archives
April 2015
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