Teacher Response to Student Needs: Rationale to Practice

I really enjoyed what I read in Chapter 4. This chapter starts out by saying that, By accepting every student's need for affirmation, contribution, power, purpose, and challenge, the teacher intends to provide invitation and opportunity for each student through investment, persistence, and reflection. There is now a line of logic to govern the teacher's thought and action. Both covertly and overtly, the teacher lets the learners know the following:

• You are unique and valuable as individuals, and we are important as a class
• We are here to help you find and develop abilities as individuals and as a class
• Our goal is to help each person and our class become as capable as possible
• That is an important goal, and the work we do to achieve it must be both important and challenging
• The time we have to achieve our goal is valuable
• Therefore, we have to figure out together how to work in the most effective and efficient ways we can
• We'll need to learn about one another and ourselves, so we know where we need to go and how we're doing in getting there
• We'll need to determine guidelines for working, so we can reach our goal, both individually and as a class
• We'll need to figure out working routines that enable us to succeed in reaching our goals, both individually and as a class
• We'll need to develop support systems to ensure that we continually grow, both individually and as a class
• Like all important goals, our goal will require investment and persistence.

I liked this chapter a lot because it focused on the first step in meeting the child's request for personal investment. Throughout this book so far, I've noticed a common theme in creating a class with differentiation and that is: Meeting children where they are and investing in them and their needs. 

An important part of having a differentiated classroom is paying attention to the classroom environment. "The classroom environment includes both physical and affective attributes that individually and cumulatively establish the tone or atmosphere in which teaching and learning will take place." There are many strategies we as teachers can use to build positive environments in our classrooms. Some of these strategies include:

• Studying students cultures
• Conveying status
• Commending creativity 
• Making room for all kinds of learners
• Helping students know about one another
• Celebrating successes

Another important part of having a differentiated classroom is having communication within the classroom. It is important that teachers decide beforehand how classroom environment will address and affect communication. Some strategies to foster positive communication in our classrooms include:

• Holding goal setting conferences
• Using dialogue journals
• Incorporating teacher talk groups in lesson plans.

Along with classroom communication, we should have guidelines for classroom operation. It is important that we allow our students to be a part of setting up our classroom guidelines so that they feel like they are an important part of our classroom setting and making our classrooms run effectively.

Lastly, it is important that we have classroom routines, support systems, and shared responsibilities in our classrooms. When we have all of these things in our classrooms, our classrooms will run more smoothly and our class as a whole will be much more effective.