My key takeaway from this week's readings comes from the Edutopia article, "3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners: What Teachers Do". There is a graphic titled "The Learner's Relationship" and the online article's breakdown of the content from this graphic really broke down the complexity and aspects of differentiated learning. There are two key parts, "how teachers prepare" and "how students engage". Within the teacher's side, there are content, process, and product/learning artifacts. Then on the student side, there is readiness, interests, and learning profile. This really made it click for me and I viewed it as a checklist. So how I stepped up to it was okay I have this diverse learner, did I diversify the content? Did I diversify the process? How about the learning artifacts? These should all directly correlate to the student side and answer that part of the equation.
The other online article included a step titled "Differentiated instruction is not chaotic". Within the explanation of this one, it states that teachers who differentiate tend to have more leadership within their classrooms which I can absolutely see. I feel that successful differentiated instruction shows that the teacher cares and is listening. A teacher that does this would secure the trust of her students for them to listen to and respect the teacher. I think when we go to create our lesson plans, the differentiated instruction part always poses a difficulty or is something we slap together quickly to include on the lesson plan because we can't leave it blank. However, if we take the Backward Design approach and tailor the lesson plan according to those guidelines and with our students in mind, I believe the differentiation becomes a tad bit easier.
The other online article included a step titled "Differentiated instruction is not chaotic". Within the explanation of this one, it states that teachers who differentiate tend to have more leadership within their classrooms which I can absolutely see. I feel that successful differentiated instruction shows that the teacher cares and is listening. A teacher that does this would secure the trust of her students for them to listen to and respect the teacher. I think when we go to create our lesson plans, the differentiated instruction part always poses a difficulty or is something we slap together quickly to include on the lesson plan because we can't leave it blank. However, if we take the Backward Design approach and tailor the lesson plan according to those guidelines and with our students in mind, I believe the differentiation becomes a tad bit easier.
Hello and peace to all,
ReplyDeleteHello Taylor,
I am making my rounds with some post responses for this week, and seen that you don’t have too many responses for this week yet (and it’s getting a little late in the week), and so I thought I would give one to your post…. I will often try to look at people’s blogs who don’t have any, or many responses, and see if there is something that I can connect with what they’ve said, so that they don’t feel like they’re just posting and nobody’s reading their posts…. It’s kind of like when I’m in the classroom as a teacher, and I’m able to detect that a kid doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of attention from his or her peers, and so I try to make him or her feel more welcomed.
And please note Taylor, that I am not just responding to your post because you don’t have any comments this week, I am responding because you make some good points as well! And I know you get a lot of posts responses! And by the way, I have been enjoying your postings… Sometimes, I post a response in your blog back to your initial post, and sometimes I don’t even as I read your posts because it becomes a little impractical with everything we have going on in the class, and it can be rather impractical to respond everybody the way I would like to… I’m sure we all have this issue.
Anyway, in this week’s post of yours I like how you talk about how it’s a good idea to ask questions with regards to one’s own lesson plan…. And these three specific questions “ did I diversify the content? Did I diversify the process? How about the learning artifacts?.” I think this is an excellent checklist for all of us to consider after we have (or as we are ) making a lesson plan. I certainly will work to utilize this checklist.
And the other thing that I like in your post was how you talk about how we should keep on our radar, the old “backward design” model. I have to admit, that I have sometimes forgotten about this way of going about lesson planning. But now that you bring it up to me again, I have to keep a more in my radar because it is an excellent way to go about lesson planning. So thanks for bringing that backup to my/our attention!! And it definitely helps when considering differentiated planning as well! So some really great points Taylor.
Anyway peace Taylor… Some really great stuff …in all your posts …. Peace everyone
Hi Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post because you summarize both articles pretty good. I want to point out a very important thing you said, "A teacher that does this would secure the trust of her students for them to listen to and respect the teacher". This is very important because no student will listen to anything a teacher says unless they feel safe and respected. I do feel like these two articles really clarified DI and I agree in the lesson plan there is a section and sometimes we just do it because we have to and can't leave it blank.