For this activity, we were asked to create a MindMap of differentiation strategies and reflect on what we learned.
Click here to view my MindMap.
Differentiation is something that is so important to the 21st Century classroom. Students come to school at different levels and with different skill sets, so teaching as if all students are the same is unrealistic and unfair. When I was in school, I found that I often was left with nothing to do if I finished assignments early, which frustrated and bored me. I often just read for pleasure, but looking back, I wish that my teachers had tried to differentiate instruction. On the other end of the spectrum, I have watched as my little brother floundered below grade level, getting left in the dust in classroom, leaving it up to me and my mother to keep him up to speed. Even studying for spelling tests needed to be done in a different way than most of his classmates. As it turns out, my little brother had undiagnosed ADHD for most of elementary school. Once he was diagnosed, teachers starting being legally obligated to differentiate, at least on some level, which has made all the difference for my brother. These two personal experiences have allowed me to see the value of differentiation for two vastly different types of students. Of course, there are far more kinds of learners than just two, but these experiences have really made differentiation something that I want to be good at in my classroom. Students are such unique individuals that it seem silly to me that we ever thought that all students could learn all material in exactly the same way at exactly the same pace. While I do understand that differentiating can be difficult, time-consuming, and, at times, frustrating, I believe it is more than worth it and can make all the difference in students’ lives.
Click here to view my MindMap.
Differentiation is something that is so important to the 21st Century classroom. Students come to school at different levels and with different skill sets, so teaching as if all students are the same is unrealistic and unfair. When I was in school, I found that I often was left with nothing to do if I finished assignments early, which frustrated and bored me. I often just read for pleasure, but looking back, I wish that my teachers had tried to differentiate instruction. On the other end of the spectrum, I have watched as my little brother floundered below grade level, getting left in the dust in classroom, leaving it up to me and my mother to keep him up to speed. Even studying for spelling tests needed to be done in a different way than most of his classmates. As it turns out, my little brother had undiagnosed ADHD for most of elementary school. Once he was diagnosed, teachers starting being legally obligated to differentiate, at least on some level, which has made all the difference for my brother. These two personal experiences have allowed me to see the value of differentiation for two vastly different types of students. Of course, there are far more kinds of learners than just two, but these experiences have really made differentiation something that I want to be good at in my classroom. Students are such unique individuals that it seem silly to me that we ever thought that all students could learn all material in exactly the same way at exactly the same pace. While I do understand that differentiating can be difficult, time-consuming, and, at times, frustrating, I believe it is more than worth it and can make all the difference in students’ lives.
Obviously,
the first step in differentiating the classroom is to determine what makes each
student unique. In order to do that, I plan to do an interest survey at the beginning
of the year to gauge what topics my students are invested in. Because I will be
teaching English and Social Studies, I should be able to fit in at least some
topics of interest in addition to giving my students a chance to complete
choice projects on things that are of interest to them individually. In
addition to an interest survey, I am lucky enough to be inheriting students
that have been at the school where I will be teaching for 3+ years, so the
school already has an idea of what each student is like. Of course, I will give
my students a clean slate, allowing them to prove to me what kind of people
they are, but I will also do my research on them as learners. I will ask
previous teachers about their learning style while continuing to keep an open
mind if I hear that they were sometimes difficult to handle. In addition to my
students having a history at the school, this school is very invested in
students’ IEPs and 504 Plans. These plans will help me see what has worked for
individual students in the past so that I can incorporate that into my
teaching. Finally, I will have students write an initial one page about a topic
of their choice. I will give them some sample topics in case they have trouble
choosing one. This will serve as a diagnostic for me to see what kind of
writers I have in my class, which will be especially helpful in determining
which students are above grade level and may need some more difficult material.
The
strategies I discussed in my MindMap are based on students that I have already
worked with that I will have in at least one of my classes next year. These
students are current sixth graders, and I have been volunteering in their
classroom. Some of the strategies are based on what I have seen work for
individual students in the classroom. Their current teacher is very attuned to
individual needs, so she has implemented many of the strategies I mentioned.
Some of the strategies, however, are things I thin would work will with
individual students. For example, Brandace really has a hard time doing grade
level work because it truly bores him. He is so far above grade level that it
feels like a waste of his time. I would really like to put him in a leadership
role and see if that helps him feel more connected to the material. At the end
of the day, the strategies that I discussed barely scratch the surface of the
options for differentiation. I am excited to get to dive into differentiating
and give students the kind of education that so many of us wish we could have
had. Students are all different, so there is no reason to think that a
cookie-cutter education would work.
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