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.