Tiered Assignments...
Differentiation based on student readiness...
The Equalizer...
After examining the RED group and YELLOW group, and all the other classrooms, what are your thoughts about readiness differentiation? Go ahead and state the obvious that it requires upfront planning and organization...what else?
Not only does it require upfront planning and organization, it requires you to really know your students in order to group them. You also have to be involved in the activity and checking for understanding/assessing students as they work. Some students may be ready for the yellow group, but if you aren't involved in the process you might miss that.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that it takes a lot of upfront planning and organization. I would love to have another teacher on my grade level that wants to teach this way because I'm one of those people that likes to work with a buddy or group. It is very hard to do it alone, but I'm working on it. I have been very frustrated with trying to get student interviews and interest surveys completed, only to find out that I need to tweek my interview questions and steps to completing the student interest inventory to get better information for the student cards. I recieved a lot of information from the parents, but also need to rethink the questions for them and only ask for information that is usable for academics and personal connections. I have no idea how to figure out their learning styles because they haven't had a variety of experiences yet in the classroom. However, I am adding the question, "what was your favorite activity you did in preschool?" This way I will have some idea of thier learning style according to their preferences.
ReplyDeleteHaving a buddy is a great way to make this all easier. For one thing, they can help with planning. You guys can share materials that are created and there is just something about having someone to share things with...Like Pooh said, "It's so much friendlier with two."
DeleteAfter thinking about all the strategies we have learned in class for differentiating our instruction I’m excited for next year. I say that I’m excited for next year because I have a Student Teacher right now and can’t start to put these things into place. My plan for next year is to start developing and working with these things so I can meet the needs of my students.
ReplyDeleteWhen reflect back on my teaching now, I realized that I do use some of these methods already. However, I just wasn’t using them fully, or even correctly at times. I’m excited that I now know more about them and can do them correctly and have even better resources and ideas on how to use them.
I really like everything that we have learned with differentiation based on student readiness. I have pre-tested my students for a couple years now and then grouped the ones who passed into a higher group and the ones who didn’t pass just stayed with me and did the normal lessons. However, this is not the case for the majority of my school. Most teachers in my building do not do this. Yes, they differentiated for lower level students but they do not differentiated for high level students. Part of our School Improvement Plan (My school is in Year 1 of not making AYP) is to pretest our students and target instruction based on those needs. So, I’ve been really excited about what we are learning because I can immediately take it back to my classroom and use it. I’ve also been trying to share the information with anyone in my building that will listen and I just happen to be Grade Level Leader for 3rd Grade so I’m pretty much just giving idea after idea at our Professional Learning Community meetings in hopes that maybe I can at least get my grade level on board with these strategies.
I would like to see more teachers get on board with this type of teaching. All of our students really deserve it and not just our lower level or even our TAG students.
I already have some ideas of what I want to do over the summer to get ready for some Tired Lessons and Curriculum Compacting for next year. There has even been talk about moving Second Grade into my building (We are divided into K-2 and then 3-5 in other building right now). I went straight to my Principal and told her if this happens I want to be a 2-3 Loop Teacher and I told her all about my ideas to Curriculum Compact the standards and was really excited. I’m hoping this may happen.
Using preassessment at the beginning of each unit is important if a teacher wishes to use tiering successfully. In addition to getting a handle on each student’s readiness, the effective teacher will also know their preferred learning styles, whether or not they work at a fast or slow pace, and how able they are to work independently, as opposed to needing more supervision.
ReplyDeleteThese elements are a lot to put together to plan a successful tiered activity. I know it took me two hours of looking at data, and thinking critically about each readiness level to plan one day’s tiered lesson for math. And that was using one already assigned task for one group. The lesson went very well (good thing – it was for my principal’s observation!), but when it was done, I thought, “Now what?” I realized that there must be ongoing follow-up with informal assessment and the ability to move students around as they become proficient.
Just like learning how to drive a car, which seems so difficult at first, then over time becomes second nature, I’m sure that working to differentiate learning for all students gets easier as you go along. I could feel Krysta’s excitement as she shared her enthusiastic plans for incorporating differentiation in her classroom, and throughout her entire school. I wish all teachers could feel that way!
Sorry, Krystle! I was refering to you, but combined your name with Krista.
DeleteBecause I wasn’t in class last week, I would love to share something I took from the GT conference I attended at William & Mary last Thursday and Friday!
ReplyDeleteWhat surprised me the most was the huge push for the Talent Development model. The entire two day conference was centered around the idea that the field of gifted education should strive for this model. Each break out session related back to the model and how their session (for example, Math Units) could be used in the Talent Development model. It appeared to me that much of the research being conducted at William and Mary currently is focused on this model and its successes.
One of the more interesting points that was made were the implications for implementation of the model. They proposed a 3 stage model: Stage 1 – Coordinate exposure to domains with out-of-school enrichment, Stage 2 – Accommodate for acceleration and specialization, Stage 3 – Mentorships and Internships. This made perfect sense to me, especially because they spoke so much about the different trajectories for the domains of music, sports, and academics.
I would love to see my school coordinate some after school enrichment opportunities for us to begin exposing students to different domains. Opportunities not only need to be provided to our students, but they must also be taken to be able to foster talent development however! There are so many obstacles I can foresee for this to happen… But in a perfect world… :)
I really enjoyed last class, because the first time I saw "THE EQUALIZER" I was like, what? I don't get this, am I supposed to get this?? But once we combed through several lessons and tried it ourselves, I very much began to understand it and it became much less intimidating. It definitely seems complex; I feel like you have to really REALLY know your students to figure out where/how to give more or take away. I really liked having the time to look and discuss the capsules. But I cannot imagine planning so many tiered lessons right now, even though it is what I think I should be doing... It seems a like the planning needs to be incredibly thoughtful and careful... and also takes the occasional leap of faith.
ReplyDeleteI have *sort of* been attempting some tiered plans this week. We have been doing math centers quite frequently (I have a student teacher right now). And I seem to have a wide variety of abilities when it comes to fractions and decimals. When students meet with the student teacher, they all are doing the same mini-lesson (new content). When they meet with me, they are doing varied review, but what we did with their seat/independent practice was make everyone a "book" of math work, where they can choose the problems they complete. But what we did instead was make different books for students based on their readiness and current ability level. But no one knows this but us... to all kids, these packets look the same, same bright pink cover page with silly title, same content (fractions and decimals) but varied levels and question types. I was excited to try this tiered-like practice, even if it isn't perfect at this point, and I was pleased to show my student teacher something I myself have learned about this semester!
Along with finding out student interests and learning styles and then using that information to thoughtfully plan differentiated lessons, it is important to pre-assess. Using pre assessments will allow the teacher to accurately plan based on student need. I will say that I don't do much in the way of pre assessments and want to improve upon that in the future. It seems to be more that I start teaching an objective and I can soon see who already has mastered the objective, who has an understanding but needs more instruction to fully grasp everything, and who doesn't have much of a clue at all.
ReplyDeleteAs one of the packets from our last class stated, "differentiating curriculum and instruction for student interest and learning profiles is important, but it is not enough... differentiation based on student readiness is essential." After pre assessing, the teacher will have a better understanding of what the students already know, and what they still need to know.
I think the Equalizer will be a great tool that will allow me to see if my differentiated lesson has addressed every aspect of student readiness. Based on the different tiered groups that I create, I can than go through and mark on the equalizer where each group falls, whether more foundational for my strugglers or more transformational for my advanced learners and anywhere in between. It will give me a quick visual and allow me to see if I am meeting every groups needs. Also, towards the end of the unit I can go back and remark on the equalizer to see if students are progressing, as they should be moving further to the right.
I am really excited to turn in my Data Analysis! I kind of blogged about this last week. But as previously stated, Krista and I really spent a ton of time revamping how we were going to approach finding our students’ learning style and overall interest. We came up with a PowerPoint presentation (which I was hoping to attach to my blog, but can’t figure out how), where then the kids circled all their favorites. Choices ranged from: Art, music, building, dolls, coloring, talking on the phone, space, etc. Last week I mentioned how the kids at this age, just LOVE everything! So we both had a hard time with our students wanting to circle everything. Last class we pondered as to what we could do! So we decided to have the students go back and circle their top 5 favorites with a green crayon, then put an red x on the 3 that were their least favorite (so looking at the ones they originally did not circle). This helped a little. But still I feel wasn’t completely accurate in understanding their interest. Overall, in my “paragraph” I am turning in with my Data Analysis, I mentioned how this will need to be “tweaked” in some way for next year. But reflecting, I realized that at this age, they are very much like sponges, and wanting exposure to everything, and just have a desire to explore whatever they can. At this level it is the building blocks, the foundations to make them more self-aware of true interest and ways of learning. So exposure is crucial.
ReplyDeleteI can’t remember if I talked about this last week. But we also sent home a parent survey, that helped us understand in some small way the kind of learner the students could possibly be, by their interactions at home. We also requested for the parents to send in 5 pictures that represented their child (this could be photos, drawings, etc). I was surprised by the amount of support and information I received back. Then I interviewed my little friends looking at the pics, and just hearing about what they love and dislike about school. Again, mostly everyone loved everything about school. Haha. I will definitely do the parent survey next year at the beginning of the year.
Ps aside from my babble. I think tiered assignments are wonderful. And I have really been trying to utilize them (tweaked) in my classroom in math. Like I shared we do math grouping based on pre-assessments and then I alter hands-on activities, computer activities, and independent work…all depending on the level my groups are. This in a way is tiered…in first grade terms! It is hard, I have to admit. It takes a lot of sitting down really mapping out my groups and the week, and sorting through activities to do. But math groups this year have really worked and have been for the most part (I hope) appropriate for all my kids!
Readiness differentiation does take a lot of up front planning and organization! It also requires pre-testing, on going assessment, and post testing. Without assessment you would not know where everyone is at any given moment. This assessment is linked back to planning and organization! In my 2nd grade class we pre-test every unit. We then form their math groups based on this pre-assessment. We use on going informal assessments to determine who needs more during class. We do a fairly good job making sure that the struggling gets get what they need. But I feel we could do more for our more advanced students. I really liked the Tiered Assignments and have been thinking how we would use them during our 2nd grade class. I plan to use the summer to get things together for next year to better differentiate for all my students!
ReplyDeleteAll of my classes (84 students) took the learning style inventory and I have analyzed the data. I see that my students' preferred styles of learning are peer teaching and discussion. We offer and encourage peer teaching. I am currently teaching proofs using trigonometric identities which is a great unit for discussion. However, I could structure more units around discussion. Teaching games, lecture, and programmed instruction come next. I teach mostly by lecture and programmed instruction. So, it looks like I am on the right track as far as teaching to their learning styles but I would like to do more.
ReplyDeleteYes, teaching kindergarten and differeintiating for math and reading is much like controlled chaos, like the example in class of the guy's first grade room. However, once you get it mapped out (it really helps to do as a team) you can plug in recources as necessary and it makes it less overwhelming. The problem I have is the time it takes for oral pre and post assesment of the material for each unit-each week. Even though I do not currently have gifted students in my room, this model is ideal for all levels. Espcially the flexible groups that change weekly.
ReplyDeleteI struggled with a format for my student inventory/ interest since I can't give them anything written to complete independently. I also have minimal parent response/involvement, so I couldn't count on that information for more than maybe half the class. I was however, pleased with the format I came up with and think it can be adapted to other grade levels. First for interest, we had a class discussion and came up with a list of about 30 things they wanted to learn more about in school. Everyone was required to participate and contribute at least 1 idea. Then, I picked 3 things at random from the list and had them circle their favorite (out of the 3) each item was repeated 3 times throughout the list of choices. If they selected the same things three times, it shows very strong interest, twice, strong interest. It ended up each student had a list of 4-10 topics that were of interest to them after answering 25 questions. I could use this information especially in writing projects!
To get the learning style, I asked them each 15 questions with a visual, auditory, and kinesthetic answer choice. I then calculated the percentages of each (ex: 20%visual,50%kinsethetic,30%auditory). The struggle I had was wording the questions, and I may change the wording again...because kinesthetic=play in most cases...and almost the WHOLE class when given the choice, would rather play! They are 5-6, so I guess that is to be expected. That is why I calculated the percentages to get a more accurate picture- because the 2nd learning style preferred might actually be the first, if you take out the appeal of the "play" element. I just don't know how to present a kinesthetic option not as play, but in a way that little minds can understand. Totally open to suggestions! It did provide some insight as how I can group the kids for future projects based on interest and learning style!
Readiness differentiation is probably the type of differentiation I do the most. It helps those students who might not have the needed prior knowledge to work at their own pace while also meeting the demands of students who could pass the test on the first day. I feel this is the easiest way to differentiate, however, it's still a very time consuming job that requires an unbelievable amount of planning and prep work ahead of time to get to know the students.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to differentiating on readiness with my tiered activities, I do like to vary the learning style. Some activities might be writing based. Some might be art related. I like to provide choice in that facet as well.
Tiered assignments are something I do from the very beginning of the year. At first, I allow my students to simply choose which assignment they want to do. This provided needed insight even though they might be choosing an activity that's either too easy or too hard. After the first unit or two, I have gotten to know my students and can more approrpriately assignment activities that meet their needs.