Week 3

Essential question: How do we prepare parents for differentiation in the classroom?

Preparing parents for a differentiated classroom really starts from the beginning of the school year.

Tomlinson said, “Your students and their parents may initially need your help to understand and feel comfortable with the new look and feel of the classroom” (2001, 39). One way to ease parents into a differentiated environment is to make sure they understand what it means. Tomlinson gave an example to send home a survey of when children started to talk, walk, crawl, ride a bike … (2001).  This can be used to help the class understand that everyone learns differently as well as help explain to parents that every student is different and might need to learn differently then the student next to him/her. “When learning tasks are consistently too hard, students become anxious and frustrated. When tasks are consistently too easy, boredom results” (Foucault). The parents might also need to understand that the teacher will usually be teaching differently than they are most likely use to seeing. “Instead of standing front and center to deliver instruction, he or she is apt to be on the move, observing, asking questions, and guiding students to make their own sense of the world. “A Parent’s Guide to 21st-Centurary Learning, 2).

I also liked Crowe’s idea for helping parents feel comfortable in a differentiated classroom. She created wonderful Wednesdays where parents were free to come by for however long they wanted and participate in the classroom activity that was going on. One way to make this work is to “keep these days structured around workshop-type activities and ask parents to join us as full participants” (Crowe, 4). She explains that “the purpose is for parents to experience day-to-day life in our classroom in a safe and comfortable way” (Crowe, 4). Wonderful Wednesdays also gives the teacher and parents more time to get to know each other. This is important because “In many ways, differentiated instruction, especially for young children, begins in the home. Parents know their child more intimately than does anyone else” (Smutny 2004). Thus, if the teacher has questions about what a student is interested in or how long they have been learning about a specific thing there can be an in-person conversation about it. Parents will also see that the teacher is truly trying to get to know their child and will create a connection that might be helpful later on in the year.

I choose this picture by Douglas (2016) to illustrate how a differentiated classroom can change a child’s education for the better.  Most students need different ways to learn and if their teacher gives them all the same boxed education, then many will fall behind or struggle the whole way.

References

A Parents Guide to 21st-Centurary Learning . (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/guides/edutopia-parents-guide-21st-century-learning.pdf

Crowe, C. (2004, November 1). Wonderful Wednesdays. Retrieved January 31, 2017, from https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/wonderful-wednesdays/

Douglas, L. (2016). The Elusive Pursuit of Equity. Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://secondlineblog.org/2016/11/the-elusive-pursuit-of-equity/ (Photograph)

Foucault, A. (n.d.). Differentiation Tips for Parents. Retrieved February 01, 2017, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/differentiation-tips-parents

Smutny, J. (2004). Differentiated Instruction for Young Gifted Children: How Parents Can Help. Retrieved February 01, 2017, from http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10465

Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-ability Classrooms. Alexandria, Va: Assoc. for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Week 2 Relection

This week went a lot smoother than last. The Tweet session was easier than I expected. It was a lot of firsts for me, but I think I kept up really well. One question from the chat that was something I think about often was,“Q4: How can you bring engagement to subjects that students or you aren't excited about?” I complied the different examples and they are: making connections, make it interesting, give incentive, use technology, bring in guests, real life examples, make sure the lesson has purpose and relevance, and Ted talk. These are all great ideas and it is nice to know that I am not the only person who sometimes struggles with engagement. 

The first blog that I commented on this week was Gerald’s. We talked about when students in high school can complete intervention and Gerald said that he has struggled with this because his students do not have a study hall period. This is why it is so important to make sure that students receive intervention in elementary school and do not get passed by. I replied to Kendra’s Blog and talked about the way that she has started to teach math in her classroom. I asked her a few questions about how the program was working and she said that she has been making tweaks, but that “it is working to create better students.” It sounds like it is not necessarily helping student who are not motivated though. It can be hard to work with students who are not motivated. From my experience, it is very draining. On Josie’s blog, I asked multiple questions about not losing the interest of students who are struggling. I feel like I am always in the middle of a balancing act, trying to make sure that the lower, higher, and middle students are all getting everything they can out of lesson. The last blog I commented on was Jim’s. I talked about also connecting to the coach metaphor and how I am right now transitioning form the team mate to the coach.

Week 2

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?

I do not have my own classroom right now, so I am thinking more hypothetical and for the future. This first question is kind of confusing for me and really made me think. I think the question is asking, how I decide what students should be doing in a differentiated classroom. This gets right into getting to know your students and understanding where they are in the learning process. It is important to remember that, “differentiation doesn’t suggest that a teacher can be all things to all individuals all the time. It does, however, mandate that a teacher create a reasonable range of approaches to learning much of the time, so that most students find learning a fit much of the time” (Tomlinson 2001 pg.17). Approaches will be different for every teacher, for me it usually involves including videos, websites, in person examples, and written examples. “The reality is that every teacher already has the tools to differentiate in powerful ways for all learners” (McCarthy 2014, p.2).

How do I let learning happen in a differentiate classroom?

“When teachers differentiate instruction, they move away from seeing themselves as keepers and dispensers of knowledge and move toward seeing themselves as organizers of learning opportunities” (Tomlinson 2001 pg.16) This statement is similar to a TED talk I watch by Sugata Mitra, he talked about his research with third world children and he talked about how these students who did not have school where able to learn. He explained that one reason this could happen was because they were encouraged. Mitra said, “learning as the product of educational self-organization. It’s not about making learning happen, it’s about letting learning happen”. He also said “the teacher only raises the question, and then stands back and admires the answer”. I think this is exactly what we are trying to make happen in our classes. Giving students tools, support, and a basis and then letting them figure it out on their own. I think the hardest part about letting students learn is that it takes time and it never seems like there is enough time in the school day.  I read an article by Adora Svitak and she talked a little bit about getting students involved in real issues. This would be easier the older students get, but I can see there being a few things that elementary students could do. When I was in high school my favorite and most memorable class was an English class that was all about participating in Model United Nations. We learned about child soldiers, sex trafficking, and fair trade. This may seem like a lot for high school students, but it was the most involved and excited I had ever been about school. One way I might do this with older students would be to give them a topic and let them research for a few days and then have the class share what they learned as a group. Leading up to this would need to be lessons about legitimate websites and looking past the first page of google, but it could be a way to mix up the day to day lessons.

References 

Bubbl (n.d.). Mind Mapping. Retreived from https://bubbl.us

McCarthy, J. (2014, July 23). 3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners: What Teachers Do. Retrieved January 25, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-ways-to-plan-john-mccarthy

Mitra, S. (2013, February). Retrieved January 25, 2017, from http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud

Svitak, A. (2012, February 08). 5 Ways to Empower Students. Retrieved January 25, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/empower-students-adora-svitak

Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-ability Classrooms. Alexandria, Va: Assoc. for Supervision and Curriculum Development.