Differentiation Reading Response

Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom, Carol Ann Tomlinson, pg 100-103

I think it's helpful that one of the surveys gives answers for the students to choose from and one is open for the student to respond. I think both are important because some students will not know what to tell you and having prompts is helpful, but also hearing their open responses is useful.

The responses from the learning profile survey could help you begin to see how students learn best. It would make you more aware of preferences so you can plan for them. Just having this in the back of your mind would make you aware of which teaching strategies you are planning and who might need a change or a choice. Sometimes you may want to use this info to form groups. I didn't think of anything I would want to add to this.

The about me survey provides lots of info. This could guide you in helping children make connections with others, lesson planning with a variety of strategies, and pairing children to help each other. Knowing students interests can be valuable as you look for ways to integrate what's important to them with what's in the core. This is a great survey. There's one question I would consider adding: "Is there anything about school that worries you?" I want to know if their worried so I can help them find ways to fix, cope, and conquer.

"File of Inventories/Pre-Assessments"

I could see myself using any of these tools. I especially like the idea of students self assessing. A self assessment tells the teacher where a student is, but it also reminds the student of where he can go. I like the checklists for teacher observation because they give the teacher a place to start. My biggest question would have been "What should I look for?" Even if these checklists turn out to be not exactly what I need they can be built on as I experience more teaching and assessing. A method, besides these resources, for pre-assessing the class is the "what we know, what we want to know, what we've learned" strategy. I love how it can show what the students already know, what the have misconceptions about, and what's important to them about a topic.

Differentiation Reading Response

Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom: Strategies and Tools for Responsive Teaching, Ch. 1-2


Favorite parts and thoughts

When teachers "invite students to invest their time and energy in the pursuit of knowledge, understanding, and skill" by differentiating for their interest, students "are more likely to be engaged and to persist in learning." (pg. 3)

I love thinking of teaching as an invitation. We can't choose for a child to learn. He must choose for himself. If I can be the kind of teacher who understands her students interests well enough to help them find a bridge to the things society expects them to learn.......

The teacher must find a way to entice the child into the room of learning because the child who is dragged in takes nothing with him when he finally escapes. The child who enters because he sees something valuable to himself will stay, explore, grow, and never want to leave.

But there is more. The child must be more than in the room of his own choosing. He must be engaged with the content found in the room. He must find something to occupy his thought and cause him wonder. He must find thing he wants to grab a hold of. Then the child is engaged, then the child is learning.

(This line of thinking has called up a memory of when I was young. I read a book about babysitting, and one of the sections was how to calm a child or distract them if they were upset when the parents left. One of the strategies was to take with you a bag of things that might be interesting to a child. The book suggested to ignore the child's crying, reassure them and begin to focus you attention on some activity from your bag. The child will see your interest, want to watch, and eventually join you in the activity.)

"Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow." (St. Exupery's The little Prince pg. 80,83)

There's something so touching about children who peek at you from their burrows wondering if you will be the kind of person to sing to them, to sooth them, to love them. And something heartbreaking when you can't find the tune they're waiting for.

"The truth is, we will never really do all each child needs us to do. A simultaneous truth is that the first truth is no reason to stop trying." (pg. 22)

It's a little discouraging to think that the ultimate goal cannot be reached. But like Esme I feel I must try. And that just trying makes a difference.

The classroom scenarios on pg 23 and 24 are also a little discouraging. The teacher is doing what we would guess is a great way to help students feel good about their work and being in the class, but they are totally missing the mark. I'm hoping that chapter three offers some advice on how to do better than this. I wish I could read it now, but alas other assignments are calling....

Ceareal Sort Reflection

My friend Lorri is an intern in second grade. She has let me come to her class to help out. She let me prepare a lesson on sorting to get the children ready for spelling sorts. I haven't been able to sleep and thoughts of what to do next time are yelling at me to remember them. Here is a run down of the lesson.

Success: I began by asking the students to stand by their desks. Lori says, "One, stand up. Two chairs in. Three, sit at the rug." I used this routine and said, "One, stand up. Two, chairs in. Touch your shoulders, touch your knees, look at me. Please come silently and join me on the rug." they sat and were ready to listen.

Differentiation opportunity: I began by telling them we were going to sort. I asked, "if you have done any sorting activities before put your hands on your shoulders. If sorting is new to you put your hands on your knees." One student H.L. put her hands on her knees. I demonstrated sorting colored linking cubes. Then i asked the students if the cubes were different. They said yes they are different colors. Then I asked if they were the same. Most said no, but S.T. said yes. I asked her if she could tell the class how they were the same. She said that they were the same shape. We decided that if they cubes were sorted by color there would be four categories, but if we sorted by shape there would only be one category. At this point I had the children go back to their desks, wipe them with disinfectant wipes and apply hand sanitizer. Then I passed out paper and directed the folding of it into columns for separating categories. Next time I will skip the paper--took too much time and was confusing since my demonstration didn't include columns. I gave instructions for each partner to share a dish of cereal and asked them to begin sorting. At this point I wish I had worked a few minutes with H.L. letting her sort the cubes with me since she was the only student who indicated it was her first experience. The students were anxious about dividing up the cereal between partners since each twosome had one dish and two papers. H.L. said she didn't know what to do. I called the students attention to the front, apologized for not giving them good enough instructions, asked them to return all the cereal to the bowls and put one paper away. Each partnership would work together to sort the cereal on one paper. H.L. seemed to do much better when working with her partner.

Sharing and assesment: Each partnership shared thier categories. I think the class understands that a group of items can be sorted by different rules (eg. color or shape), and that the items can be sorted by the same rule and have different categories.

Most partnerships sorted by shape- only one group had a boat shape category, another had a frog-like shape category (for puffed wheat)

A few groups sorted by color- one pair of children had much debate over which were tan and which were brown.

One group sorted by smell.

At this point I should have worked again with H.L., asking her about her sort and seeing if she could think of another way to sort the cereal and asking her to show me.

Things to do different next time:
Omit paper columns or use them during demonstration. (if time is an issue omit)
Plan on giving each student cereal in a cupcake paper. Give only 3-5 pieces of each varriety.
Have students sort then share thier sort with a partner.
(allow to consult each other, "talk to your buddy if you need to.")
Plan for time to do multiple sorts.
Take better advantage of differentiation oportunities.

Overall I think the lesson was a success. Thanks for letting me practice on your class Lorri!

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

A friend of mine got a family pass to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. It was in connection with her blog, Because Babies Grow Up. She offered the ticket to our family if I would write a post for her blog telling about our experience. Here is an e-mail, and the post:

Amber,
You know the story telling festival began today, and I am amazed at how blessed we are that you thought of us to take your ticket. We went to the "Look Who's Talking" event. We heard six storytellers. It was the best entertainment we've seen in, well forever. From touching to hysterical we were enthralled, and tonight was only the"taste of what's to come." Steve's favorite was Bil Lepp who told a story of being chased by 5 wild dogs and 500 prairie dogs while he tried to run away on the 12 ft high stilts he'd built to stand on while he painted the second story windows of his home. Every time Bil would say, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you......." the story became more and more crazy and unbelievable. Steve was banging his head on my knee he was so caught up in the ridiculousness of it all.

Heather Forest told a Jewish folk tale that is the beginning of the phrase "words like feathers fly." Her song has the lyrics "cruel words like feathers fly." I hope she has recorded this story. I want to use it in my elementary school classroom.
Barry and I enjoyed all the tellers but were especially delighted with Carmen Agra Deedy. She told a story that could have happened to any of us, parts of which have happened to all of us, with voices and faces that were.......I can't think of a description, partly because her performance was beyond words and partly because my past-bed-time brain is beyond words.
The kids are especially looking forward to hearing Bill Harley tomorrow. I'm excited for them to have an experience so rich. I was teasing Steve and asked if the show wasn't better than playing PS2. He surprised me by having to debate about which he would rather do: Play PS2 or listen to stories. This tells me that he NEEDS to hear stories.Thank you for the perfect medicine.
I will use part of this email in the blog post I promised. Or if you want to post some of it now feel free. It's not to late for your readers to get tickets. And you can see just one event if you want.http://www.timpfest.org/
Thanks again,
Rebecka
PS I hope you are well, miss you and your sweet girls

Hello again everyone at Because Babies Grow Up! You know that Amber gave our family her weekend pass to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. I'm trying to decide how to tell you how incredible it was. If you read my email about Thursday night's performance and multiply it by 100 you would have the essence of our experience. The festival definitely has something for everyone. Some tellers are funny, some are inspiring, some are both. Some tell stories from their own lives, some tell beautiful folk and fairy tells, and some tell outrageous tales that started from the truth of their own experiences but grew to the unbelievable.

Story telling is a great way to bring your family together. When you listen to a story together you're changed together. Later when a family member sees a connection between your family's experience and a story you heard together they will make a joke or share the connection and you are drawn together by the experience again.

My girls are 12 and 14, and my son just turned 11. The girls wanted to be at every event. They loved everything. Steven however got tired quickly. A few of the tellers just grabbed him and drew him in, but he was not very patient when he had to listen to tellers who didn't. So I let him stay at home for many of the daytime events. The event that is best suited for young children is Friday night's Bedtime Stories. If you have small children you may want to only take them to that event. If you do take children to the daytime events they might like the puppet shows better. This year there was also a mime and a juggler.

The weekend was jam packed and we were totally exhausted by Sunday morning, but it was worth it. A great thing about the festival is that it begins Thursday evening on labor day weekend, but the last event is Saturday night so you still have Sunday and Monday to recover before you have to go back to work and school. A weekend pass is only $100, which for a family of five or six is a bargain. We are definitely going to make the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival a family tradition. We think you'll like it too.

Differentiation Reading Response

Differentiation in Practice, pp. 1-14
Morning Meeting Packet

My favorite part of the Differentiation in Practice section was the hallmarks of differentiated curriculum. Many of the hallmarks are concepts we've been learning all through our courses: strong link between assessment and instruction, clarity about learning goals, using a variety of student groupings, and purposeful planning. I love how this section could be used by the teacher as a tool for self reflection or assessment.

Morning Meetings are one of the most exciting strategies I've learned about. As a parent I've become increasingly aware of the great importance of class unity, but I have been uncertain how to help students develop it. Last Friday I was able to visit the classroom of a friend who is an intern. I joined their Morning Meeting and was so impressed with the feeling when the students greeted each other by saying, "Welcome, Joseph." I love the idea that MM can set a happy tone for the day and get the children ready to learn. I like the idea of sharing and how it lets children practice showing interest in each other. I can see how it can guide them to caring about each other. I'm sold!

Back to School

So we're back in class. We've been to all of our classes now and here are a few things about the first week:

Dr. Waite, ESL Methods- I've been waiting for this course since I was taking intro to education and exceptional students. I can't wait to know more strategies for helping students who speak a different language. I was hoping to have the same instructor that I had for foundations of multicultural education. I loved the way Dr. Patch let us hash things out among ourselves. He was always reluctant to tell us his personal opinion even though we knew he has strong beliefs. Dr. Wait is much more in your face and I've promised my self not to let that make me feel contentious. The thing I like most about Dr. Wait is how excited he is about his courses. When I had him for into and now for ESL methods he makes us feel like this course covers the most exciting material he's ever taught.

Donna Smith, PE- in the elementary school- Ever since we had art integration methods I've wanted to have more resources and ideas for helping children learn through movement. My favorite thing from the first chapter of the text is about helping children move more during their recesses.

Elaine Tuft, Math Methods- I'm a little nervous about teaching math, but also very excited. I'm looking forward to all of the things we're going to learn in this class. I hope I can be the kind of teacher that helps children be excited about and feel confidant doing math.

Nancy Peterson, Differentiation- It was so much fun to be back in Dr. Peterson's sphere. I bought the Morning Meeting Handbook this summer and couldn't put it down. I believe that fostering unity in the classroom and helping the children to build a community is at the core of being a successful teacher, and I want to soak up everything I can that will help me do that.

Ann Adamson, Classroom Management- "I'm Drat the rat and I wear a yellow hat. If you don't like the color you can change it like that (snap), Because I'm drat the rat...."

Stan Harward, Literacy II- I'm really excited for the professional study groups. Each group chose a book from the list and will read and discuss it over the course and present ideas from the book to the class. My group chose Revisiting the Reading Workshop.