Hi Everyone, My name is Meagan Blied and I am looking to further my education and continue refining the craft of teaching through online classes at National. I earned my teaching credential through National University in 1998. It has been almost that long since I took an official class as a student, so bear with me as I am still getting my footing here. I have been a high school English teacher for almost 18 (16 more days to go) years and taught at a comprehensive high school and now am teaching in a continuation high school. I love my job and am excited about working with other teachers outside of my site and district.
I am going to share a few different teaching activities I use with my students to differentiate the material; in what I hope is an interesting and unique way. One of the most useful types of differentiation I have incorporated into my classroom is focused on the skill of writing. Writing is the most difficult and challenging skill for my students. I find they require a whole variety of supports. My school is teaching the argument essay repeatedly until our students can demonstrate mastery. So, we have a variety of prompts available to our students to help make the curriculum more accessible. Some of our students get a very open-ended prompt like "To what degree do you agree/disagree with schools disciplining students for bullying or fighting off campus or outside of school hours." Those students who are near mastery might not require much technical guidance at all and will take the reading materials we have studied and run with it. Other students may require a more specifically worded prompt like, "Write an argument essay either agreeing, or disagreeing with schools involving themselves in student activity that happen outside of school hours and off campus." The students using the second prompt may get paragraph frames to help support them through the writing process.
It is not unusual for me to write a sort of fill-in-the-blank first body paragraph for some students so they can get a feel for the structure of a paragraph. From there, I would expect that student to use a very specific writing organizer that prompted the writers as to the order of information within the paragraph. It would ask them to write a counter and provide a sentence starter, and would also provide a sentence starter for the refute. Some writers will drop the organizer by the third body paragraph, others will use the organizer as long as they feel they need to. Some writers cling to the organizer beyond what they really need and then I can encourage them to go ahead and write on their own. Within the assignment of an essay, there are many different types of differentiation and supports available to my students based on their needs. What I find is that with the added supports my students are not frustrated beyond what they can do and they are more willing to work hard to get their essays completed. Their usual coping method is to not attend school or to simply avoid the assignment altogether if they feel it is too difficult. In my most extreme experience, I had a student verbally relay what she knew about the subject in-lieu of writing it out. Her writing skills were so low and we did not have a class that was appropriate for her readiness, so based on that particular student's needs, an oral report was sufficient for her to communicate her position on the issue.
As far as learning activities go, I think being a parent has really made me aware of how differently kids process directions and information. A long time ago I gave up thinking there is only one correct answer or only one correct way to communicate understanding. It has been a joy to be relieved of trying to force all students into one tiny educational box. It is so interesting to hear, if given a choice, how students can communicate what they know. Most assignments have options for writing out answers, drawing out answers, or using single word ideas to demonstrate an understanding of a concept. Just giving students the option does wonders for engagement. Not only do they feel empowered by the options, but I believe their engagement increases. They look forward to seeing and hearing how others have processed the material and are paying closer attention to what their classmates are sharing. They begin to feel more self worth because their peers are interested in what they are saying and I watch them begin to take real risks in the classrooms. As the teacher, I provide my students with appropriate options; like choose any poem they are interested in to analyze and share with the class. Their presentation options are varied as well. Some students like to present live, others record their presentation without a live audience and sit outside while it runs. these different differentiated learning activities help make the classroom a more engaging environment for everyone.
This is just a little glimpse into my classroom. Have a great day!
I had one wonderful experience as a student with differentiation. I took a class titled "Great Books" all four years of high school. I was exposed to so much varied literature I believe that's why I was a British Literature major in college. My teacher gave us 10 different, novels, poems, short stories, or historical subjects to investigate/read and report back on in an oral seminar he held after school. Each student had to participate in two seminars a quarter, and for me that extended over four quarters and four years of my high school career. I loved almost every single work I read or subject I researched becasue I was given a choice in what I studied. When I was a 9th grader, I really needed the easiet choices; I wasn't ready to discuss existentialism in George Bernard Shaw's play "Heartbreak House." I think I learned more in that class than any other, I loved what I was doing and for me, my experience is evidence that differentiation works in terms of buy in from students.
ReplyDeleteMy experiences as a teacher is varied as well. I was overwhelmed with trying to meet the needs of all my students. I felt like I was always creating curriculum and needed time and consistency to develop differentiated activites and supports for my students. In the last couple of years I have begun to realized that so much of what teachers do automatically is differentiation. That epiphany really helped reduce my concern over differentiation. I continue to try to add differentiated assignments, rubrics, writing prompts and build in supports for any student who is struggling, or not being challenged, as best I can and trust that is enough.
I learned a number of interesting things by visiting the blogs of my classmates. I felt instantly humbled by the amazing instruction happening in so many classrooms in the state, maybe even outside the state. It is easy to feel very isolated in your own little classroom and I enjoyed the reminder that there are so many great teachers out there with interesting ideas to share.
ReplyDeleteI really liked what Nicole said about using small clues, like a facial expression to use as data. I was reminded that teachers instinctively use so many different tools to assess student learning. We are constantly gathering data on our students and reading them for information about how they are doing, if they are learning, are they ok and so on. It is a big job.
I also loved what John had to share about using 5 different assessment tools throughout the year. I loved that the students get to choose which types of assessments will be best for them to showcase what they have learned. I think that teaching the students where their strengths lie is inherent to organizing free choice in curriculum or assessment. Those students are getting valuable lessons, guided by their teacher about what they are good at and personal areas of strength.
In a nutshell, I learned that blogging can be a great tool for communicating with other professionals working on the same teaching skills. I liked the community feel of the blogging; it was informal and friendly.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that a blog might be a great place for teacher reflection. I could keep a record of the types of differentiation used with a particular student to help me see that particular student's growth. It could be evidence of my growth with the skill of differentiation as well.