18

I have learned a lot about differentiation from observing different classrooms and from different classes i have been to. I think the most important thing that I took from these experiences was that I need to be aware of students specific needs int he classroom. Every child deserves to be cared about and they each deserve a good education. There are many, many different strategies to help children get a good education but they all deserve the same things from their teachers. If students feel that they are cared about and if they feel challenged and like they have purpose in the classroom, I think they are a lot more likely to want to succeed in school and in life.

17

The last post I focused more on the fast finishers in classrooms but I have also noticed a need for remediating content for those students who are behind. I do think that putting them in reading groups and having them read on lower levels is great. I see a need for more subjects in classrooms to be differentiated for those who are on lower levels. I think spelling, science, writing, and math should also be differentiated for those who need extra help completing assignments. I don't think it makes any sense to just give the whole class the same spelling list and expect them all to do well on it. It is not realistic to expect that to happen either. I have never been a teacher but it also seems like a challenge to find the time to make all the different subjects differentiated and meet all the needs of all the students. I think there needs to be a happy medium for teachers as well. I have asked a few teachers about how they meet the needs of every student and a lot of them think it is idealistic to plan three different activities for one lesson. Maybe I will just have to experience the real thing to understand how it is done.

Post 16

I think it is so important that students learn what they should be learning in a subject. The learning should also be on their level. As I have watched some classes in the last few years of being in school, i realized how much time has been wasted. I think that it is important to challenge students in subjects that they excel in. I have seen too many classrooms that have the children who are ahead of others just fill their extra time completing tasks that are not worthwhile just so the other children can catch up to them. I think kids need to be challenged and they should not have their time wasted either. Having some sort of differentiated assignments, especially in math and english, would help the students who are fast finishers learn more and not get bored or waste valuable time.

post 15: observations

I am still in the second grade classroom observing this wee. I noticed that the spelling is just given as a list for the students to memorize. I have seen that some of the kids in this class are struggling to just get their sight words down and do not know the basic concepts of decoding and phonics. Some of the students don’t know that an e at the end of a word makes the vowel long or that there are diagraphs that make different sounds. I think this class could benefit  from spelling lists that are differentiated. I really liked how we learned to differentiate spelling by using the words their way book. It has the kids in different groups according to their readiness and to what they know about spelling. Then the students are each given a different spelling list every week. I think this is a great way to teach basic word sounds and spelling concepts. I know that there are quite a few students in the class who are on low reading and spelling levels and I really think that implementing something like this would help them improve. 

post 14

I think I would like to differentiate in my future classroom by coming up with some sort of assignments in math, spelling, and reading that are differentiated to individual students needs. I think this is very important to do this. The classroom I am working now does differentiate the reading by having different groups on the same levels of reading working together. The teacher also differentiates for interest in reading by letting the students choose a book they are interested in but that is still in their reading level. They are also able to choose what center they want to go to next. They have some that are on the computer, some are with a kindle, some are journal writing, and some are reading with the teacher or independent reading. I think this is a great way to differentiate reading activities. 

post 13

I was assigned to do my fieldwork in a second grade class. The are working on subtracting double digit numbers with and without regrouping. I gave a pre-test to all of the students in the class and there were two or three who did not miss any or just missed one question. This surprised me because I was not expecting any of them to get more than a few correct since they had not learned how to do some of the types of problems that were on the pre-test in class yet. This made me see a  real need for differentiation in this class. I think that those three who got all the correct answers need something harder to work on. They don’t seem to be bored in class but they need to be more challenged. There are also quite a few students who missed more than half of the questions and need to have some remediation in math. It was interesting to see how differentiation might help these students learn. I am not sure how I would implement the differentiation because the school and grade teams all use the same books for math and they stick to the program but I can see the need for differentiation in the classroom after watching these students do math. 

post 12

This post sort of goes along with the last one which was about aiming high. I want to talk about involving students in decisions and helping students learn to set their own academic goals. Having students schedule their own assignments and tests or things of that nature can help attitudes in the classroom. This is because they feel like they have some sort of control of their own time and it gives them more responsibility. Students need responsibility to feel validated and important to the classroom community.

helping students set their own goals is also a way to build self-awareness and confidence in themselves. It also helps them see their own development and success over time. I think this is so important for students to feel like they are learning and progressing. I personally often feel like I am not learning much in school but then when I talk to someone who is a teacher I realize how much I actually have learned in my schooling. It is important for young students, as well as adults to see their own growth and accomplishments and see that all the work and effort they are putting in is making a difference in their learning.