Differentiated Instruction: Part Three

Today's assignment was to finish reading Differentiated Instructional Strategies (Chapters 6-8).  Now that I have read the whole book, and am nearing the close of the course I am starting to put my thoughts together on how this would look in my lesson planning.  Below are some reminders to myself:

SEVEN Reminders for lesson planning:

1. Know what the essential questions are.  Know it for the unit and know it for the lesson.  Keep that in the forefront of your planning because if you know it you will have confidence to change things as necessary.  It will allow you to be flexible.

2. Pre-assess before starting a unit..  It can be a quiz or informal survey.  (Exit cards, journal entry, KWL chart, observation, signal cards, etc.) It should focus on essential understandings, not be an assortment of facts.  It should be short and to the point.  Assessment of knowledge, skill and attitude each require different questions or activities. (See the BER handout on criteria of a good and useful pre-assessment.)  This will help you decide what instructional strategies to use and better help you decide when and how to incorporate choice into the unit. 

3. Have a "hook" or focus activity.  Start a lesson with an activity that will engage the learner and spark curiosity.

4. Decide how new information and skills will be acquired and how students will practice or rehearse the knowledge to make meaning. (see pg. 102 for different instructional strategies)  Don't forget to think of student interests and learning styles. (Think of Bloom's taxonomy and the ideas on multiple intelligences.   Once you know, let them know.  Communicate with your students about what they are supposed to learn and how they will do it and if necessary, why they need to learn it. 

5. Decide how students will receive feedback.  Do you need to make a rubric?  What sort of self-evaluation will you have the students do?  Self-evaluation helps the student become more aware of their learning (styles, progress) but it also holds them more accountable for their learning.  Circle time and exit cards could both be used for this.

6. Spend time training students in the skills you want them to have so that they can be successful at working in groups or individually.  Work at building stamina in how long they can work without direct teacher supervision.  Have students become accountable for their behaviour and work habits by having them self-assess these skills.

7. Don't forget to plan for anchor activities.  You could prepare different activities or simply have a rotating library bin or center set up.  If students know what they are allowed to do when they are done you will have fewer interruptions to your teaching of small groups or individuals. 

SEVEN things to DO before September:

1. Re-type daily plans to better reflect above. (Don't forget to include code for auditory, visual, kinesthetic activities)

2.  Make a learning styles/interest survey for the first day of school.

3. Type up a reading comprehension choice menu.

4. Type up a list of math journal prompts.

5.  Make skill cards or posters for independent and group work.  (Tell what it looks like, sounds like and feels like--see p. 110-111)

6. Make handy reference of:

• Bloom's Taxonomy
• Multiple Intelligence activities (see p. 42-43)
• Pre-assessment ideas
• Anchor activities

7.  Start small--Think BIG!

Differentiated Instruction: Part Two

Chapter Four is about assessing the learner.  Topics range from a variety informal pretests and surveys to choosing and creating tasks to evaluate learning growth.  This chapter is a treasure trove of ideas.  One of the little tips that I really like is doing your pre-assessment/survey two to three weeks before starting a unit to allow you to plan for the unit specifically for your class.  I realize that this is not always practical or possible to do so, but if you are going to try differentiating for one unit or project, this would be a great tip to follow--even if it is a few days instead of a few weeks.  By doing a pre-assessment well ahead of time it allows for some modification of a unit.  That is, not that the teacher would necessarily make changes to the unit, but may decide to introduce it differently, or focus more on certain aspects for teacher directed learning and allow students to work in groups or individually on projects on other content.

In my case, a lot of my students have undergone formal assessments to help us determine how to best develop their IEP. One of the "informal" pre-assessments that I have used in the past, especially in Language Arts, is a K-W-L chart.  I have used these when undertaking a non-fiction book study.  I find that the chart helps them make connections and help with the comprehension of the book.

One type of assessment that I have never used but would like to start this year is math journals. I will have a small group of grade 7 and 8 students who I will be teaching math (some on IEP, some just receiving some extra support).  I would like for these students (most of whom do not struggle in reading or writing) to reflect on their learning and attitudes toward math by writing in these journals.  My plan is to provide writing prompts each day and have this activity help them self-evaluate their learning as well as give me insight into their level of comprehension and their attitude towards math.  I do not plan to be fussy about sentence structure or the quality of writing since this is not a language arts class.  In fact, I would be quite thrilled to see illustrations to demonstrate their knowledge.  I am hoping that the journals will be another way to help measure content mastery and to chart progress.

 

Chapter four also talks about authentic tasks and assessment for final grades.  I have two students who I will be teaching again next year for Language Arts.  I feel like we have been doing the same reading comprehension activities for the past two years.  Needless to say they aren't the most thrilling activities.  I am hoping to allow some student choice in demonstrating that they understand the reading.  As I reflect on this chapter as well as what we have discussed in class I want to use more novels as opposed to readers and create (or have the students create) meaningful activities from them as opposed to depending as much on student reading comprehension workbooks.  Baby steps.  One unit at a time. Of course, I will need to pass this by my co-SERT--but I think that she will be excited as well.

 

Chapter five is about adjusting, compacting and grouping.  I am always adjusting assignments every day.  Of course, I have the luxury of having very few students at a time.  It is much easier for me to give individualized attention to my students than it would be for a classroom teacher.  I am assessing students work daily and adjusting or compacting almost immediately.  This is part of what I love about Special Education.  It excites me to think that regular classroom teachers may also be doing this for all of their students.

 

I must admit that I was not really a fan of group work as a student.  I often felt that I could work better on my own (unless we were allowed to pick our own partners).  As a teacher I had a love-hate relationship with group work.  Ideally, it teaches students inter-personal skills that are valuable and it allows for curiosity and creativity in a way that seat-work often does not.  However, it can lead to misbehaviour and can be very difficult for a student that already struggles socially.  One of the keys to successful group work has got to be clear expectations:  expectations of what needs to happen; how much time will be spent on the activity; and how to work in a group.  I saw this demonstrated in class and outlined in chapter five.  Seeing it done both in class and on the video really helped me see how it can be done well.  I will end my post with a quote from p. 84:

 

Groups need

• Ample space to work
• Clear directions and procedures
• Rules and guidelines established
• Individual roles assigned for on-task work
• To tap into all members' strengths

Good to remember.

 

Differentiated Instruction: Part One

It has been a while since I last posted but I am taking another course (Differentiated Instruction) and I like the permanency of a blog post so that I can find my recollections again later.  I hope to make this course as practical as possible which means applying some of the strategies meant for a regular classroom to a Resource Room setting.  For our first homework assignment we were given the first three chapters of Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn't Fit All by Gayle H. Gregory and Carolyn Chapman to read and respond to.

Chapter One is an introduction to differentiated instruction.  It is the "Why" and the "How" in brief.  This chapter has a template for a lesson plan that looks helpful.  Differentiated lesson planning is an area that I would like some more instruction in.  I have the general idea but I would love to see it modeled in multiple subjects and grade levels to feel like I have a good grasp on it.  For my own daily lesson plans I have thought about including a code for whether an activity is visual (v), auditory (a) or tactile-kinesthetic (t-k).  Although I work with students on IEP, which is a bit different, I think that this addition to my plans will help remind me to teach to a variety of learning styles.  It will remind me to teach to the students preferred learning style but also to include activities in a style that they perhaps need to develop skills in.

Chapter Two is titled: "Creating a Climate for Learning".  One of the main points of this chapter is about creating a safe place in which learning can take place.  Hopefully my room is already a positive learning environment but as with anything, there is room for improvement in this as well.  While reading this chapter I was reminded that social and emotional factors can be a huge barrier to learning.  Next year I will be teaching a few small groups and I am thinking that I would like to include a "circles" concept to my everyday teaching.  What I mean by that is that I would like to start each lesson by going around the group and give an opportunity to share.  Some classes I will give a prompt ("What is the best thing that has happened to you today?", "What are you most looking forward to during the break?") and others I will just allow for them to share some news.  Spending a few minutes in discussion of a more social nature allows some students to "let it out" so that they can then focus on what needs to be learned that day.  Which brings me to my next idea: a focus activity.  Sometimes it can be difficult to get back on track after talking about our social lives and relationships.  I hope to plan focus activities to start each lesson.  It will have to be something relevant to the lesson (or at least the subject area) and engaging enough to bring everyone's attention back to the subject matter.  I realize that this will not always be easy, but if I include it in my day plan it will help me be more intentional in creating the positive learning environment that I want my classroom to be.

Chapter Three is about the importance of knowing the learner.  Learning styles or multiple intelligences remind us that not only do we want to teach to a variety of styles but we also want to allow for students to show their knowledge/learning in a variety of ways.  When I create IEPs I look at learning styles as well as try to tap into student interests as well.  I have a few new students next year that I have never worked with before and I hope to do an introductory activity with them in the first week.  I am not yet sure what format I want to do this in (discussion, questionnaire, survey on the computer or game) but I am searching Pinterest for ideas.  If I don't find anything that way I will probably make my own.  Figure 6. on page 27 and Figure 12. on page 39 seem like good places to start.

Empathy Activities

A few people have commented on the empathy activities that I mentioned in the last class. For those who are interested, I thought I would briefly describe them on my blog.

They came about in a staff meeting when the grade seven teacher jokingly wished he could take his class to the Resource Room so his students could better understand what we did. Those of us in the RR looked at each other and thought, "why not?" After a brainstorming session we came up with five activities to share with a class to hopefully have them experience some empathy for those who have academic/physical struggles and explain some of the things that we might do to help. We split the class into five groups and stuck to a strict time limit for each activity. Here is a brief outline:

Visual:  We bought about 5 pair of dollar store safety goggles and scratched them up with sandpaper.  We then had the students try to copy off the board. I did this activity and I purposely used a faded marker on the white board and wrote quickly. I then proceeded to erase parts when I needed more room. I told any students who complained that they should have stopped fooling around and kept up with the class.

Speech:  We bought marshmallows and had students read a passage out loud for the class. The teacher who led this activity asked students to speak more clearly. She also asked them to repeat words multiple times. Many students started to speak more softly so she also asked them to speak up.  Several students had trouble with drooling. (This was the most popular activity by the way.)

Fine Motor:  We bought some nuts and bolts of various sizes from the dollar store as well as thick, fuzzy gloves. We had a competition to see how many nuts and bolts they could screw together in a minute. More points were given for the smaller screws. We also had them do the same activity after without any gloves to see how much easier it is.

Gross Motor:  We bought some cheap binoculars from the dollar store. Students tried to walk on a tape line while looking through the wrong end of the binoculars. They also tried skipping with twine.

Auditory:  We had the students write an "unfair spelling test" using a recording from this site.

After each activity we talked with the students about how it felt to struggle with these things. Most students expressed that they were surprised at how difficult these activities were. We also pointed out to them that they only had to struggle for a few short minutes after which they could remove their "disability". We tried to discuss with them how it might feel if your brain knew what it should do but your body wouldn't cooperate or if you found something difficult when everyone else seemed to master without difficulty. We also shared some of the activities we might do in the RR and also talked about physio, occupational and speech therapy. We talked about compassion, kindness and bullying.

It was very interesting to see that some of the students who have struggled in some of these areas spoke up and talked about how it felt for them to deal with their disabilities and what sort of things they have done to overcome them. Most students responded positively to it (only two or three made inappropriate comments and seemed unaffected by the visit--but that may just have been a social strategy for them).  All in all, we enjoyed being able to share a little of what we do in the RR and the grade 7 teacher said that it made a positive impact on his class.  I encourage others to try it at their school if space and time allows.

I also discovered this activity which I think would be fun to do with younger kids to teach why things don't have to be equal to be fair.