Week 8 Final response

Determine one unit in Differentiating in Practice: A Resource Guilde for Differentiating Curriculum (Tomlinson & Eidson, 2003) that seems appropriate for the grade level of your field/student-teaching class. Read everything about that unit thoroughly. Explain: 1) what impresses you most about the unit; 2) anything you learn about differentiation, just from studying this one unit; 3) what you don't understand about the unit or how it works; 4) what, other than the content, you believe you would have to modify in the unit if you were going to teach it to your student-teaching class; 5) why you would modify it; and 6) how you would modify it.

Unit 5- It's all a matter of chance

1. I really like how she had on her unit overview how clear everything was. She makes it so clear when and how she is going to differentiate. I really like how she differentiated on the homework assignment based on student interest and based on readiness. She is allowing the students to self-select the homework assignments.

2. I did not really realize that when differentiating that you really can assignment different homework assignments. I guess I thought you could but it made better sense to me when I read it in this unit. I like how she said, "it makes little sense to me to differentiate activities within the classroom only to send my students home to work on the same assignments regardless of their differing levels of understanding and skill and their varied interests."

3. The unit looks all pretty clear to me. She has made it so clear and easy to understand. It amazes me how she came up with it. However, the only part that I would struggle with and not clearly understanding is how she came up with all of that. I don't feel that I'm completely ready to create a unit like it.

4, 5, & 6. If I were to use this in my student teaching I would have to modify this a little. Mostly because I would have to modify it to how my students are and what their needs are. As teachers we learn very quickly that you will have few lessons that you don't ever have to modify. I would say 90% of the lessons get modified depending on your students needs those day. I would also need to modify the lesson for my english language learners. I would need to find out about their culture and their backgrounds and schemas. Other than those few things I would not need to modify this unit very much.

Week 7 Reading Response

What do you, individually, still need to know and understand in order to tier (differentiate) a lesson of your own choosing?

I really enjoyed class of Thursday. I thought it was a lot of fun and good to see an example of Tiering a lesson. However, I still do not feel completely comfortable with knowing exactly what it is and how to go about teaching it. From what I was seeing a big part of tiering a lesson is the before part. It is not only preparing your lesson and making sure that it is clear about what you want your students to KNOW, UNDERSTAND, and DO. It is important to group your students by their interests, ability to learn, or whatever the lesson may be focusing on. From what I saw from my group, it seems like you grouped us with who had musical talent and could play the piano. Not everyone maybe was able to sing very well, but for our group it was pretty important to be able to read the music. We had all types of students in our groups. It was not just all one type of people in the group. If I’m correct I think that when you are tiering and putting into groups that the students need to have a sort of range of different types of learners. That way they can help each other out when others in the group are struggling.

I also think that tiering is a part of differentiating. It is not something you would use every time you are teaching a lesson though, correct? With that my question would be when do you know the best times would be to teach using tiering?

However, I might be completely wrong on what I am thinking tiering a lesson is. So please let me know if I’m completely wrong on my thinking. I would feel a little more comfortable with teaching a lesson like this is I knew what all your up front steps were on how you decided to group us and also when the best times are to use this approach. And also I would need to know if I’m on the right track of knowing what this is? ;)

Week 6 Reading Response

1. Choose 4 bullets from the list on pages 88 & 89 of chapter 7 (repeat them in your posting), and explain why you believe these 4 traits, or beliefs, or mantras are true for you?

• 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.

• Effective teachers are more concerned with student understanding of meaning than memorization of facts.

• Effective teachers know and understand their students in terms of abilities, achievement, learning preferences, and needs.

I feel that these four traits are true for me because I have seen them from past teachers. And the teachers that have shown these traits and been the best teachers I have ever had. With the first bullet point the most effective teachers are not just sitting at their desk telling the students what to do. The teachers are up walking around and interacting with the students. They are going to the students to help them out with any questions they might have. The effective teachers are not just sitting at their desk waiting for the students to come to them for help.

Teachers having high levels of motivation really help to motivate the students to perform better. Those teachers who are loving everyday what they are doing and showing their love for what they are teaching will help the students to be more motivated themselves. If students see the teacher being so excited to learn more about certain topics then the students will have higher levels of student achievement.

The teachers will realize that good students are not the ones who memorize everything. It is more important to them that the students actually understand what they are learning and will then grasp the concept better. If students are just learning to memorize they will not have a good grasp on what the concept means that they are learning. They will most likely forget what they memorized because it does not have meaning to them.

An effective teacher truly knows their students. The teacher needs to understand what their abilities are and how they prefer to learn in order to teach the students well. A teacher is not doing a good job teaching if they just teach the material to all the students and is not really teaching to certain students needs. An effective teacher needs to understand every single student in his or her class.

2. Comment on one of the metaphors in this chapter. Explain why it makes sense to you, or why you don’t agree with it.

I really like the metaphor where it says, "As he grows, the bread evolves,...and that makes him one with the bread." Just as the bread evolves (develops gradually from a simple to a more complex form) so do we as teachers. As teachers we may not have the best ingredients (ideas) but over time and practice we will develop a sweet taste to teaching. It is through trial and error that we make mistakes but with more practice and time we get better just as the bread tastes better every time.

Week 5 Reading Response

1. In chapter 5, Tomlinson discusses 5 (five) bullet points about the differences between teaching curriculum that is important, and “covering” what she calls “scaling Everests of information [that is] not effective for our students." Choose two of the bullets to explain what they mean to you, and how they help you envision the kind of teacher you want to be.

I really like the second bullet where it talks about "students in schools, classrooms, and educational systems that teach less and teach it better score higher on standardized measures..." I found that quote to be so true about me as a learner. "Curriculum that is a mile wide but only an inch deep is ineffective in producing real learning." For me knowing that I learn better if I am not thrown a lot of information quickly, really helps me to realize that I need to make sure that I do not teach that way. I need to not focus on trying to cram as much information in so little time when I am teaching. I know that I learn best when I am taught about something and we spend awhile discussing it and making sure I know it well as well as the other students in class. It is important that teachers know that yeah maybe some students can learn something really fast and really grab on to the concept, but, the majority of the students who do not learn like that need to spend more time on the subject so that they too can really grasp the concept.

The second bullet i really like is the one that says, "The importance of curriculum lies in helping students master and retain essential information, organize knowledge around essential concepts..." I feel like this bullet and the other bullet are closely related. We are not doing the students any good in helping them learn the information if we do not spend more time focusing on helping the students master the curriculum. What good is it going to do if we just fly through our curriculum and finish with everything we were supposed to teach; even though we really did not teach our students. If we want to be able to pat ourselves on the back we need to make sure that our students master and retain the essential information we teach them. Not give ourselves a pat on the back because we covered all of our curriculum even though the students did not learn anything.


2. From chapter 6, share 2 (two) exact quotes that are meaningful to you and explain why they matter to you.

The first quote I really like is in the italic area right at the beginning of the chapter. It says "All children can learn does not mean all children are the same." This quote matters to me because all our future students will learn what we teach. It just really matters how we teach it. In the quote it says does not mean all children are the same. So with that part of the quote we need to make sure that we do not teach all our lessons the same way. Since all the students will be different learners we need to make sure that we teach in many different ways. Just like we are learning to be a differentiated teacher!

The second quote I really like is "help students discover how ideas and skills are useful in the world." I know growing up and going to school I always wanted to know why what I was learning was going to help me in the world. We need to make sure that we give students reasons as to why they are doing the certain things and help them to connect it to the world and how it would be useful. If students know that it will be useful for them in the world they are going to enjoy doing an assignment better and learn it better.

Week 4 reading response

Share 3 (three) exact quotes that are meaningful to you (from across these two chapters), and explain why they matter to you.

*We feel we have the capacity as teachers to both express and extend a vision of the way the world should be. When reading that quote really stood out to me. The words that hit me the most was “a vision of the way the world should be.” Everyone has a vision of their own, as to how the world should look and how the people should act in it. As teachers we truly can express our views of what that should look like to our students. We are the ones that help to shape about 30 students each year into the best students they can be. We help to shape them into better people and help to make them become a very independent person. We either leave a lasting imprint on our students for the positive or the negative. We need to prepare our students for the future and not just for the present time of passing tests. “We sense as novices that we are destined to be much more than dispensers of information, sergeants of behavior, and captains of the test prep…classrooms are places designed to forge democracy, dignity, and diversity.”

*The teacher’s demeanor, words, and actions need to communicate the following:
• I respect who you are as well as who you can become
• I want to know you
• You are unique and valuable
• I believe in you
• I have time for you
• I learn when I listen to you
• This place is yours too
• We need you here
What powerful little phrases those are. With those few words they mean the world to the students. It is so easy for our students to think that they are not needed, important, and that no one listens to what they ever have to say. For us as teachers we can easily get distracted and so busy in our teaching world that the students feel like they are neglected and that those above phrases are not being show to them. It is very important as teachers that we make sure that all the time our students know how we feel about them. We need to not only show it in our words but also in our actions. I think that each day it is important to really stress those phrases in words and actions to all the students in our class. Even to those students who are struggling and misbehavior a lot. Those are the students who really need to hear those words the most.

*”Fair is ensuring all learners get what they need to succeed.” Growing up as kids we all think that fair means that everyone gets the same amount of candy or that all students get the same amount of homework. To me this really hits home because my mom has always tried to make things fair between all the children. However, to make things fair it does not mean that she gives the same things and attention to all her children. The same goes for us as teachers. We need to not think of the word “fair” to mean give the same to all students. Fair means that we need to be aware of what our learners need to succeed. Some students might need more help and things to help them succeed while other students of ours do not need much help to succeed. This will always be a challenge for teachers because students in the class will vocalize if they do not think something is fair. It is important that we let the students know that fair does not always mean getting the same amount of something as the others.

Week 3 reading response

1. How might you use the information this would produce, in differentiating? What would you, personally, want to add to or remove from this inventory? Explain.

I absolutely love these surveys. I think they would be so handy to keep on fill throughout the school year. That way I could go back to them for information about the students and also use the information to do something special for the students. The one on page 101 I like how it asks the students what type of person they are when they learn. That survey would really be helpful with creating different study groups or groups for assignments because I could then have a person of each type in the group so that the groups are very well rounded. Also if certain students need it quiet when working I can know the ways that they learn better. On that survey I would maybe add a section for in the middle. Because there maybe some students that like it quiet but would not mind if there was a little music playing. In that section the students could give a brief elaboration on why they put it there. The other interest survey I would maybe use it as a student of the month or something like that. I would point out some of the highlights from the students survey so that all the students can learn more about the students.

What are some relationships you see between this variety of inventory types, and what we are beginning to learn about differentiating content, or process, or product for readiness, or learning profile, or interest?

Once again I must say that I absolutely love these inventories. I think they are such a great tool to use. I love how the first ones have smiley faces and frowny faces on them. These inventories help differentiate because they cover so many different things, and in different ways. They are not all the same inventory done the same way for all students. The inventories seem to be done an open ended question. These inventories are done in so many ways like drawing, writing, circling and so on. I have been learning how important it is to make sure that we teach to all different types of learners. Not all of our students learn the same way.

Week 2 response

1. The definition that makes sense to me is where she says, "teachers must take into account who they are teaching as well as what they are teaching. The goal is to plan actively and consistently to help each learner move as far and as fast as possible along a learning continuum." After reading that definition I had a better grasp on the concept of differentiation.

2b. "Will I be affirmed as a person here? Is there a real contribution for me to make in this place? Will what goes on in here seem purposeful to me? Will it make me realize I have power within me? Will I feel a satisfaction that comes from a challenge conquered?". I like that quote because that truly is what the student's think. It is important that we do not just feel like we are only teaching the students how to multiply or about the American Revolution, but we are teaching them that they are excepted as the person they are. What we teach them needs to have a purpose for them. The students really need to know the amount of power each of them have within them.