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.