Differentiated Instruction 101 and pod caste By Clare Kilbane
In addition to all of the other powerful strategies that we have become more familiar with, I see that the team saved the best for last. This, in my opinion, is what makes the classroom an emotionally safe learning environment. So often a student who learns and processes information differently gets losts in the traditional classroom because the teacher does not recognize that his needs are different. This student is made to feel that if he doesn't "march to the beat of the same drummer" that there is something wrong with him.
Years ago, I worked as an academic coach and intervention specialists on a seventh/eight grade team. The social studies and language arts teachers regularly collaborated on units of studies. During the course of the a unit on the Revolutionary War, the students read novels about that period in history. There were five groups. The advanced group read My Brother Sam Is Dead. The intermediate group read The Fighting Ground. Lower level readers read the Addie Series. Each group read aloud for a number of minutes. At the beginning of the period, they recorded the page number on which they began. At the end of the period, they recorded the page number on which they ended and the number of pages they read for that day. At the end of the project, each group prepared a presentation to share with the class. The teacher gave them a variety of ways that they could make their presentations. Each presentation included the plot, names of characters and their recommendations.
I thought that one of the statements made the URL was interesting.
" Only those teachers who want to teach all of the students in their classes need to be interested in differentiated instruction." I will go a step further and say only those who want to work in a space that is truly a learning center should try to differentiate instruction. I loved the way the math teacher differentiated instruction. At the beginning of each new unit the students engaged in some kind of problem-solving activity that required the use of manipulatvies. During this phase of the unit, all of the students were able to participate. There was a warm-up problem each day and a series of related problems that required the use of manipulatives. The more advanced students were able to detect patterns, rules, formulas etc. and were therefore encouraged to do enrichment while those who were not as advanced continued to work on the tasks at hand. The special education students and those who were challenged received more practice using the manipulatives and working basic problems. All students did the required homework which reviewed concepts taught earlier and new ones that they were learning in class. At the end of each unit, there was a project that required the students to use the facts, rules, formulas, equations that they had learned to create something authentic.
As a matter of fact, I did the same thing when I taught. In particular, I introduced certain sounds and the letters or combination of letters that made each sound. I also introduced words that contained the featured sounds and their letter combinations. The vocabulary ranged from the very basic to eighth grade. Each week the students selected twenty words that they wanted to define, use in a sentence, and practice spelling. I administered twenty different spelling tests to twenty students each week. Yet all of the students worked on he same sounds but at different levels and everyone was happy because they were challenged at a level that was comfortable for them. It was interesting because the students demanded more of themselves than I would have every demanded of them. Only those who scored eighty percent or above were permitted to move on to the next set of sounds. It was amazing because none of the students wanted to repeat the test. I did the same thing with reading, social studies, math and science in the sense that I taught the same content but I used different materials.
"When differentiating instruction, the learning content is often described as what the student needs to learn or how the student will get access to the information being covered." This statement reminded me of a time when I was trying to cover the concept of mercantilism with a class by using a textbook. They could not understand the concept as it was defines and explained in the text. So I decided to write a reader's theater and have the students act out the concept. It worked like a charm. I enjoyed writing it and they enjoyed acting it out. The play covered four chapters in their text book. After they rehearsed the play, they performed it for several of the staff members. Similarly, during the course of reading The Witch of BLackbird Pond, the students had a difficult time understanding the concept of a the word meadow. So I wrote a poem for them. They liked it so much that they wanted me to teach them how to write poetry. I created a poetry unit and they published their poems on one of the walls in the school cafeteria. They received many commendations for their poetry.
I appreciated the thought in the pod caste about being proactive. It is so much easier to be proactive than to be reactive and try to "retrofit" a lesson so that everyone can complete it. I think that when the learning process differs, students are enriched by the variety. Groups like to listen to the instruction of others. They learn their own content and the content of the other groups.
When I coached the social studies teacher on the seventh/eighth grade team, he divided the class into half. I took one half to the pull-out room and he kept the other. I worked on a project with my half. They students loved pull-out day. They accomplished so much more because there was more room, extra help, good notes to their parents for staying on tasks and sometimes treats for good behavior.
and pod caste
By Clare Kilbane
In addition to all of the other powerful strategies that we have become more familiar with, I see that the team saved the best for last. This, in my opinion, is what makes the classroom an emotionally safe learning environment. So often a student who learns and processes information differently gets losts in the traditional classroom because the teacher does not recognize that his needs are different. This student is made to feel that if he doesn't "march to the beat of the same drummer" that there is something wrong with him.
Years ago, I worked as an academic coach and intervention specialists on a seventh/eight grade team. The social studies and language arts teachers regularly collaborated on units of studies. During the course of the a unit on the Revolutionary War, the students read novels about that period in history. There were five groups. The advanced group read My Brother Sam Is Dead. The intermediate group read The Fighting Ground. Lower level readers read the Addie Series. Each group read aloud for a number of minutes. At the beginning of the period, they recorded the page number on which they began. At the end of the period, they recorded the page number on which they ended and the number of pages they read for that day. At the end of the project, each group prepared a presentation to share with the class. The teacher gave them a variety of ways that they could make their presentations. Each presentation included the plot, names of characters and their recommendations.
I thought that one of the statements made the URL was interesting.
" Only those teachers who want to teach all of the students in their classes need to be interested in differentiated instruction." I will go a step further and say only those who want to work in a space that is truly a learning center should try to differentiate instruction. I loved the way the math teacher differentiated instruction. At the beginning of each new unit the students engaged in some kind of problem-solving activity that required the use of manipulatvies. During this phase of the unit, all of the students were able to participate. There was a warm-up problem each day and a series of related problems that required the use of manipulatives. The more advanced students were able to detect patterns, rules, formulas etc. and were therefore encouraged to do enrichment while those who were not as advanced continued to work on the tasks at hand. The special education students and those who were challenged received more practice using the manipulatives and working basic problems. All students did the required homework which reviewed concepts taught earlier and new ones that they were learning in class. At the end of each unit, there was a project that required the students to use the facts, rules, formulas, equations that they had learned to create something authentic.
As a matter of fact, I did the same thing when I taught. In particular, I introduced certain sounds and the letters or combination of letters that made each sound. I also introduced words that contained the featured sounds and their letter combinations. The vocabulary ranged from the very basic to eighth grade. Each week the students selected twenty words that they wanted to define, use in a sentence, and practice spelling. I administered twenty different spelling tests to twenty students each week. Yet all of the students worked on he same sounds but at different levels and everyone was happy because they were challenged at a level that was comfortable for them. It was interesting because the students demanded more of themselves than I would have every demanded of them. Only those who scored eighty percent or above were permitted to move on to the next set of sounds. It was amazing because none of the students wanted to repeat the test. I did the same thing with reading, social studies, math and science in the sense that I taught the same content but I used different materials.
"When differentiating instruction, the learning content is often described as what the student needs to learn or how the student will get access to the information being covered." This statement reminded me of a time when I was trying to cover the concept of mercantilism with a class by using a textbook. They could not understand the concept as it was defines and explained in the text. So I decided to write a reader's theater and have the students act out the concept. It worked like a charm. I enjoyed writing it and they enjoyed acting it out. The play covered four chapters in their text book. After they rehearsed the play, they performed it for several of the staff members. Similarly, during the course of reading The Witch of BLackbird Pond, the students had a difficult time understanding the concept of a the word meadow. So I wrote a poem for them. They liked it so much that they wanted me to teach them how to write poetry. I created a poetry unit and they published their poems on one of the walls in the school cafeteria. They received many commendations for their poetry.
I appreciated the thought in the pod caste about being proactive. It is so much easier to be proactive than to be reactive and try to "retrofit" a lesson so that everyone can complete it. I think that when the learning process differs, students are enriched by the variety. Groups like to listen to the instruction of others. They learn their own content and the content of the other groups.
When I coached the social studies teacher on the seventh/eighth grade team, he divided the class into half. I took one half to the pull-out room and he kept the other. I worked on a project with my half. They students loved pull-out day. They accomplished so much more because there was more room, extra help, good notes to their parents for staying on tasks and sometimes treats for good behavior.