Writing Bingo

Writing Bingo looks like a fun activity, also, for differentiating.

For Writing Bingo, there are several options, such as:

• Recipe
• Thank you note
• Letter to the editor
• Directions from one place to another
• Rules for a game
• Invitation
• Email request for information
• Letter to a pen pal, friend, or relative
• Skit or scene
• Interview
• Newspaper article
• Short story
• Free Your choice
• Grocer or shopping list
• Schedule for your work
• Advertisement
• Cartoon strip
• Poem
• Instructions
• Greeting card
• Letter to your teacher
• Proposal to improve something
• Journal for a week
• Design for a webpage
• Book- think aloud

Student Interest Survey

Student interest surveys are another good way to learn about your students and their interests and likes. A student interest survey is basically just a sheet with questions that the students fill out.

Questions on student interest survey-- according to Fulfilling the promise of the differentiated classroom

1. What are your favorite things to do outside of school (please tell why you like them
2. When have you felt really proud of yourself? Please explain why you felt that way
3. What are you good at in school? How do you know?
4. What's hard for you in school? What makes it hard?
5. What are some ways of learning that work for you?
6. What are some ways of learning that don't work well for you? Why?
7. What's your favorite:

• Book ______________________________________
• TV Show _________________________________________
• Movie ___________________________________________
• Kind of music ____________________________________
• Sport _________________________________________

8. What are some things you'd really like to learn about?

9. What are some things you really care about getting better in? Why?

10. What else should I know about you as a person and a student that could help me teach you better?

11. Describe how you see yourself as an adult. What will you be doing? Enjoying? Working toward?

Student Profile Survey

Student profile survey's are a good way to learn about your students. Student profile survey's get your students to think about their learning preferences and interests. This is a great way to begin differentiating your classroom based on your students learning preferences and interests.

In Fulfilling the promise of the differentiated classroom by Carol Ann Tomlinson, there is an explanation of Student profile Survey's.

Explanation: This is an example of a student profile survey developed by her teacher to help her and her students begin to think about their learning preferences and interests

Directions: Below are some words that describe how people learn and what people like

• look at the list and decide which ones REALLY sound like you. Put those in the column on the left.
• Look at the list again. Pick out the words that really DON'T sound like you. Put those in the column on the right
• There will be some words you don't put in either column because they are a little like you, a little different from you, or you just aren't sure. 
• Also put in the "like me" column other important things to know about you, your interests, and ways of learning that aren't on the list you were given to pick from

List to pick from:

• Very logical
• Very creative
• Sit still when I learn
• Wiggle when I learn
• Like to plan things
• Like to be told how to do things
• Like choices about how to do things
• Great at planning
• Like to do one thing at a time
• Like to do several things at a time
• Like to work with words
• Like to work with numbers
• Like to work with objects
• Like music
• Like art
• Not great at planning
• Need quiet when I work
• Need noise when I work
• Like collecting things
• Like making things
• Like to work alone
• Like to work with people
• Like to know the big picture
• Like details

Getting Started on Differentiated Instruction

Differentiation Quotes

Throughout the semester, I've seen so many quotes that Inspire me and make me want to be the best teacher I can be. A lot of these quotes have to do with differentiation, as well. 

Differentiated Instruction: A Primer

I recently read an Article by Sarah D. Sparks about Differentiated Instruction and I really like what it had to say. The first paragraph of the article says, "How can a teacher keep a reading class of 25 on the same page when four students have dyslexia, three students are learning English as a second language, two others read three grade levels ahead, and the rest have widely disparate interests and degrees of enthusiasm about reading?"

We need to differentiate for these students!

"Differentiated Instruction is the process of identifying students' individual strengths, needs, and interests and adapting lessons to match them." 

"Differentiation has much more in common with many other instructional models: It has been compared to response-to-intervention models, as teachers vary their approach to the same material with different students in the classroom; data-driven instruction, as individual students are frequently assessed or otherwise monitored, with instruction tweaked in response; and scaffolding, as assignments are intended to be structured to help students of different ability and interest levels meet the same goals."

Farther down in the article, it says "Carol Ann Tomlinson, a co-director of the institutes on Academic Diversity at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, and the author of The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, 2nd Edition (ASCD, 2014) and Assessment and Student Success in a Differentiated Classroom (ASCD, 2013) argues that differentiation is, at its base, not an approach but a basic tenant of good instruction, in which a teacher develops relationships with his or her students and presents materials and assignments in ways that respond to the student's interests and needs."

There are many different strategies to differentiate instruction in the classroom and if does not involve creating a whole bunch of separate lesson plans for individual students.

According to Tomlinson: "Differentiation requires more than creating options for assignments or presenting content both graphically and with hands on projects. Rather, to differentiate a unit on Rome, a teacher might consider both specific terms and overarching themes and concepts she wants students to learn, and offer a series of individual and group assignments of various levels of complexity to build those concepts and allow students to demonstrate their understanding in multiple ways, such as journal entries, oral presentations, creating costumes, and so on. In different parts of a unit students may be working with students who share their interests or have different ones, and with students who are at the same or different ability levels."

Although there are so many different strategies that can be used to differentiate instruction in the classroom and all differentiated classrooms may not look exactly the same, one of the most important things a teacher can do is begin by learning about their students and trying to tailor their teaching as much as they find feasible.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/28/differentiated-instruction-a-primer.html

Teaching is hard, but rewarding.

Chapter 7 starts by saying, (The teacher) is able to take each student on his or her own merits, to convey, not a generic hope, not a one-size-fits-all confidence, but the specific version which can only come from the student's own facts and from knowing each child well (Sizer & sizer, 1999, p. 114).

According to James Stronge, research says the following:

• Students consistently want teachers who respect them, listen to them, show empathy toward them, help them work out their problems, and become human by sharing their own lives and ideas with their students
• Caring teachers who create relationships with their students enhance student learning
• Effective teachers consistently emphasize that their love for their students is a key element in their success
• Teachers who create a warm and supportive classroom environment tend to be more effective with all students
• Caring teacher intentionally develop awareness of their students' cultures outside of school
• Effective teachers spend a great deal of time working and interacting directly with students
• High levels of teacher motivation relate to high levels of student achievement
• Teachers' enthusiasm for learning and for their subject matter is an important factor in student motivation that, in turn, is closely linked with student achievement
• Teachers whose students have hight achievement rates consistently talk about the importance of reflection on their teaching
• Effective teachers have a solid belief in their own efficacy and in holding high standards for students. This is common among reflective teachers
• Effective teachers carefully establish classroom routines that enable them and their students to work flexibly and efficiently.
• Effective classroom managers increase student engagement and maximize use of each instructional moment
• Effective teachers clearly identify learning goals and link them with activities designed to ensure student mastery of the goals
• Effective teachers use a variety of support systems to ensure student success
• Effective teachers emphasize hands-on learning, conceptual understanding, and links with the world beyond the classroom
• Effective teachers develop and call on a wide variety of instructional strategies proven successful with students of varying abilities, backgrounds, and interests
• Effective teachers set high expectations for themselves and their students with an orientation toward growth and improvement evident in the classroom
• Effective teachers are more concerned with student understanding of meaning than memorization of facts
• Students achieve at higher rates when instruction focuses on meaningful conceptualization and builds on their knowledge of the world
• Student engagement is higher when they take part in authentic activities linked to the content under study.
• Teachers in schools with high achievement rates pre-assess in order to do targeted teaching
• Effective teachers know and understand their students in terms of abilities, achievement, learning preferences, and needs
• Effective teachers reteach material to students who need additional help
• Effective teachers use a variety of flexible grouping strategies to support student learning
• Effective teachers demonstrate effectiveness with the full range of students in their classes
• Effective teachers match instruction to learners' achievement needs
• Effective teachers accept responsibility for student outcomes.

I've heard over and over that teaching is one of the hardest and demanding jobs but it is also one of the most rewarding jobs there is. A teacher has so many roles to take on while in the classroom. They are responsible for the learning of a class full of students. One of the greatest aspects of being a teacher is being able to be there to experience the moment when the students finally "understand" what has been taught.