Differentiate
Why this category is important to me:
In all but one of my seventeen years of teaching I have taught in a heterogeneous classroom. In one aspect differentiation is all I know, however in another more important aspect it is what works best for students. For me, differentiation comes down to knowing kids well academically and personally. Once you know what they are capable of then you can push them academically. “The single most important factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teacher him accordingly,” David Ausubel (Zull 91). I see this quotation as a call to pre-assesses kids at the beginning of the school school but also at the beginning of each unit of study. We should constantly be checking in to see what we need to build on and then what we need to practice for each individual student in our classrooms.
Why it’s important to learning:
Differentiation is important, because the alternative model of one style of teaching fits all students does not work.
As we as a school/ state move to SBL and proficiency based graduation requirements differentiated instruction will be essential to helping all kids succeed.
Back to the soccer metaphor, described on my articulate page, there maybe group drills but there are also individual instruction for how to pass, how to use your whole foot when shooting, etc. In a classroom, the final summative looks the same for the students but all the formatives(practices) along the way will look different depending on the need of the students. As we, as educators, continually check in with students through our assessments we will continually change what we are practicing.
How what we know about the brain supports it:
“Is the real world differentiated? Absolutely… In the real world, we gravitate toward careers with tasks for which we have some proclivity. We don’t spend an entire day working in our weak areas” (Wormeli 7).
Brain research shows that we learn best when we receive positive reinforcements. The one size fits all model ultimately creates negative feedback loops for students. Where as Differentiation classrooms, by design, are places where teachers are more empathetic to their students.
Unit 1: Summative
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iJl5H3VYOGwhYBmXcOXYhmvz2gGCAhD9EmMqkKOgjv0/edit?usp=sharing
Unit 1: Formatives
Formative on habits of learning
https://docs.google.com/a/cvuhs.org/document/d/1ltgvRL6PLFx_0CNZhy-EQcmn35YtU_zYZAsqOJEihT4/edit
Unit 2: Formatives
Formative on plot lines
https://docs.google.com/a/cvuhs.org/document/d/1TiF7YZ22_9Y-Baku_8vWE8O_mGfFVRkpu8zl36KFwTQ/edit#heading=h.v763mh96vi2o
Formative on reading strategies:
https://docs.google.com/a/cvuhs.org/document/d/1ycA6wifNH9MnKBR5399y0Q3_WfHlush4u6zTKCfQPUU/edit
Unit 2 Summative:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lmqLZElTUDdhfrCJa2XsNzTp1zx_KNDNrM9WwFqC-O4/edit?usp=sharing
Why this category is important to me:
In all but one of my seventeen years of teaching I have taught in a heterogeneous classroom. In one aspect differentiation is all I know, however in another more important aspect it is what works best for students. For me, differentiation comes down to knowing kids well academically and personally. Once you know what they are capable of then you can push them academically. “The single most important factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teacher him accordingly,” David Ausubel (Zull 91). I see this quotation as a call to pre-assesses kids at the beginning of the school school but also at the beginning of each unit of study. We should constantly be checking in to see what we need to build on and then what we need to practice for each individual student in our classrooms.
Why it’s important to learning:
Differentiation is important, because the alternative model of one style of teaching fits all students does not work.
As we as a school/ state move to SBL and proficiency based graduation requirements differentiated instruction will be essential to helping all kids succeed.
Back to the soccer metaphor, described on my articulate page, there maybe group drills but there are also individual instruction for how to pass, how to use your whole foot when shooting, etc. In a classroom, the final summative looks the same for the students but all the formatives(practices) along the way will look different depending on the need of the students. As we, as educators, continually check in with students through our assessments we will continually change what we are practicing.
How what we know about the brain supports it:
“Is the real world differentiated? Absolutely… In the real world, we gravitate toward careers with tasks for which we have some proclivity. We don’t spend an entire day working in our weak areas” (Wormeli 7).
Brain research shows that we learn best when we receive positive reinforcements. The one size fits all model ultimately creates negative feedback loops for students. Where as Differentiation classrooms, by design, are places where teachers are more empathetic to their students.
Unit 1: Summative
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iJl5H3VYOGwhYBmXcOXYhmvz2gGCAhD9EmMqkKOgjv0/edit?usp=sharing
Unit 1: Formatives
Formative on habits of learning
https://docs.google.com/a/cvuhs.org/document/d/1ltgvRL6PLFx_0CNZhy-EQcmn35YtU_zYZAsqOJEihT4/edit
Unit 2: Formatives
Formative on plot lines
https://docs.google.com/a/cvuhs.org/document/d/1TiF7YZ22_9Y-Baku_8vWE8O_mGfFVRkpu8zl36KFwTQ/edit#heading=h.v763mh96vi2o
Formative on reading strategies:
https://docs.google.com/a/cvuhs.org/document/d/1ycA6wifNH9MnKBR5399y0Q3_WfHlush4u6zTKCfQPUU/edit
Unit 2 Summative:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lmqLZElTUDdhfrCJa2XsNzTp1zx_KNDNrM9WwFqC-O4/edit?usp=sharing