Blog 6: Differentiating the Process

What does it mean to differentiate the process (content, strategies for instruction) in the classroom?

            To differentiate the process simply means to differentiate the how you teach a particular topic.  In order differentiate the process of instruction it’s important that you know the students in your classroom.  What are their learning styles? What are their interests? As an educator of these students you must know what areas your students struggle in, what reading level they are at, and what drives them to stay engaged in your lessons. 

            While researching this topic I found several ways in which you may choose to help aid in creating a differentiated environment within your classroom.  One suggestion that is technology based is the idea of using an interactive white board.  Interactive whiteboards seem to be very wide spread (we even have them in our Bush Alaska Classrooms) and are a great tool you can use to help differentiate the process of instruction.  You can do so by creating unique presentations that could include video clips, audio, reading, and interactive games.

            When differentiating your lessons to meet all learners’ needs, you are providing all students with an opportunity to learn.  Teachers can choose to meet these needs by grouping students according to ability level, according to interests, according to where they placed on an intelligence test, etc…  As an educator it’s important to think of what the goals are of your lesson before hand.  Once you’ve done that, you can now identify different ways in which students can meet that goal.  A few of these options could include peer tutoring, small group or 1 on 1.  If a student is struggling, you have the option of providing addition tools that could be of use to help aid in meeting the learning goal, such as: sentence starter lists, graphic organizers, number line, calculators…etc.  As a teacher you also have the option in modifying the workload for you student as to not overload them, but still provide an avenue in which each child could be successful. 

            By differentiated the process in the classroom a teacher needs to remain conscious of all their students learning needs, ability level and interest level.  By being aware of these needs a teacher is able to make accommodations accordingly.

Week 5: Overal Take-Aways

What are your overall take-aways from the methods/tools that you might use to differentiate the classroom environment (for teacher productivity and student progression)? Which of these may you use in your classroom in the future?

Wow has this module been FILLED to the Brim with new tools/programs/ideas to use!  Investigating so many tools and programs has left me feeling the same way I do when I venture on Pinterest and oooh and ahhh at all the cute ideas I could be doing within the classroom.  Where am I going to find all the time?  There are sooooo many interesting tools out there that I wish I had time enough to master them.  But alas, I do not.  So for now I have chosen to narrow my focus down to a more manageable amount of about 2 or 3 programs.

Recently (in the last couple days in fact) I have been investigating the use of Blogs within my classroom. Particularly I have focused my energy on a blog host called 'edublogs'. This site is dedicated to teachers and students alike.  I have yet to introduce it to my class, as I want to become someone proficient in this tool before I do.  I believe that by have students use something like a blog, log or diary, they are better able to reflect on what they have learned the past day/week/month.  Just as we do in this class.  Using blogs is an effective and useful tool in student self assessment, therefore I have to say that this tool has definitely become one of my take-aways. 

Another method I feel I will use past this technology class experiment is the idea of using a 'cloud'. Although I am unsure as to which program I will use (whether it will be google docs or drop box, i will let you know!)  I like the idea of being able to access documents anywhere, as well as being able to provide more immediate feedback to my students.  

Lastly, a tool I would like to take with me would be the use of a student response system.  My school does have the SMART response products, therefore I really should start using it. In fact, just this last Wednesday people from our Tech department at our district came to our school and TRAINED us on this tool, so why not use it?  This tool will be a great indicator of success and a great indicator of whether or not a students is understanding the material being taught.  I look forward to experimenting more with all three tools listed above.  3 is enough for now, but who knows...perhaps I'll throw another one in there as the months progress!

Week 4: How can I use tools “in the cloud” to easily manage and deliver feedback to my students?

How can I use tools "in the cloud" to easily manage and deliver feedback to my students?

This week I investigated one ‘cloud’ program in particular, which was Dropbox.  Oh how amazing this was!  I have several computers in which I work with throughout the day, including my personal computer, work computer and smart board computer.  Usually when I create presentations to use in class I may create it on a different computer and then have to save it to a memory stick, and transfer it to the other computer that I’m using at the time.  With Dropbox I don’t have to!  Using this program worked well for me the past week.

The idea of ‘clouds’ sounds like a very beneficial tool to use to transfer documents and feedback to students.  Unfortunately there is a significant amount of students whom of which do not have Internet (or even a computer for that matter) at home.  In addition to this, our Internet out here is very poor as well. 

Now although my thought immediately went to how using a ‘cloud’ program outside of school hours, I definitely know it’s not limited to that time period.   For instance, in my classroom when we are near the end of a writing project, I have student’s type up their product and have them save it onto a memory stick (in order to access it the next day).  With this use of dropbox, we will not have to do this anymore.  When students are ready to submit their work, they can just drag it to the program, and I can immediate get it to my computer. As a result, I am able to respond quickly to my students work without having to go through the extra stuff that I had to before.  How great this is!

            A tool that I was previously semi-familiar with is a tool called Google Docs.  I am part of a Curriculum Adjustment and Development group within my district and we often rely on Google Docs to transfer, edit and save documents for everyone within our group to see.  Using this program is very convenient, as it cuts out the middle man of emailing and saving the document somewhere on your computer, only to find out it was edited 10 minutes later, sent back to you and you have to resave it.  Using something like Google Docs allows for repeat edits, less use of hard drive and less hair pulling out.

            I can totally see how Google Docs can be used to help easily manage and delivery feedback to my students, although I do see this program as being a bit more difficult to train 3^rd graders to use as apposed to Dropbox.  But wait!  Google Docs you aren’t completely out of the picture to helping communication with my students!  I personally can use Google Docs to aid me in managing my student’s work and provide more frequent feedback. By saving documents onto Google docs, I can access anything my students and I have worked on at school at my home.  As a result I can grade work that I previously may now have been able to.  Google Docs could also be a useful program to use for communication with the parents of my students (provided they have a computer/internet at their how).  Although I definitely am not proficient in using these two ‘cloud’ programs, I am looking forward to improving my knowledge base over these continuing weeks. Hopefully as I work out the kinks I will be able to introduce these two programs into my classroom.  For the time being however, I will enjoy these two programs myself.  Good by USB memory stick!

Communication:

            I feel like this week has actually been very productive in terms of expanding my PLN.  Not only am I talking with a few individuals within this class, I’ve also started to expand my horizons in terms of emailing/Skyping with other teachers within my district.  The wiki that I am working on (3^rd grade) is finally getting some shape, which is a good thing.  Currently there are only 3 people working on it (including myself) therefore there is still a decent amount of stuff left to do.  This week, although not posted on my wiki as of yet, I’ve been working on lesson plans that could be used in a 3^rd grade classroom (I’ll post soon!).  I’ve also been monitoring twitter daily, and conversing when necessary or when I have questions.  Ultimately I feel much more comfortable in this class than I did in the beginning.

Week 3: Tech Tools to Manage and Track Progress

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What technology tools can I use to manage and track differentiated student progress in my class?

When I first read the essential question for the week I immediately thought of a program called IXL Math. I have just began using this program/tool to help track the successes and misses students are having in Mathematics.  It is SUCH A GREAT PROGRAM!   A few weeks ago I was working with my 3^rd graders attempting to teach fractions, but it just didn’t seem to be getting through (I ended up stopping the lesson for a bit just so I could figure out what to do).  That afternoon/evening I started doing research on ways I could teach fractions and the activities that I could use to do so.  The next day I tried several things, but wasn’t confident if it had really ‘sunk in’.  As a result I decided to use the program I discovered the night before in my fraction hunt. I discovered IXL Math, and figured I'd give it a whirl with my kids, what could it hurt?  I directed them to the fractions section of 3^rd grade and had them attempt the problems.  To my amazement, they all did AMAZING!  Not only could I see them having fun with it on their own individual computers, but it gave useful data that I was able to use too! My students could see if they got a problem correct immediately after they submitted their answers, or if they got it incorrect it showed what they got incorrectly, and how to do it right.  The great thing too, is that as a teacher I have the ability to see what each student is working on, whether they have mastered the subject, and even how long they spent on a particular review activity.  Having something that can not only give my students immediate feedback, but feedback for me was amazing.  Through this I was able to see that nearly 4/5ths of my class of 15 had MASTERED the standard for fractions for 3^rd grade.  I highly recommend this product.  Teachers are allowed a free 1-month trial, and if they decide that they love it (like I do) they can pay $200 for a year access for 30 students.  

Of course there are several other programs out that are beneficial tech tools for teachers and students to use.  One that we use in our district is called AIMS.  Now I’ve read that several districts give the AIMS test 3 times a year and that is it…well not in my school.  Once we get the benchmark data from our students tests (the portion that is given 3 times a year), we level them according to tier 1, 2, and 3.  We use this data to help create reading groups, as well as identify students who need reading and math intervention (more that just the core groups).  In addition to using this data, we also give tier 2 and 3 probes (tests) every two weeks, to help graph growth in either of the subject areas.  Using this tool has proven to be very beneficial as to determining what intervention works, and what interventions we need to modify.  Although it does sometimes become frustrating and time consuming to do the AIMs Probes every two weeks for tier 2 and 3 students (most of the students within our school are tier 2 and 3), the data we gather is very useful. 

I know there are several other fantastic tools out there in which teachers and students could use to help track their progress, and I am definitely willing to try them out some time.  But, I am slightly hesitant as I’m not sure how many programs really will be enough.  At the moment the two programs I am using is more than enough in terms of time consumption, but perhaps the more proficient in the programs that I become, the more comfortable I will be in adding a new one.

For those of you who don’t know about IXL Math, PLEASE check out the link below.  Just TRY it out with your students; you can get a 1 month trial for FREE!

Link to the home page: http://www.ixl.com/

Link to the free trial!: http://www.ixl.com/membership/school/trial