We met last Tuesday (13/5/14) to reflect on differentiated learning (DL). Simge was presenting and I was the facilitator.
We used the ‘Success Analysis Protocol with Reflective Questions’ with
some minor modifications. We asked members to share an experience of
when they successfully tired differentiated learning in the classroom. We set up a Google spreadsheet for everyone to share their reflections on one document. It turns out that you need the Google Spreadsheet app in order to type onto the doc with tablets--always learning with technology. We even managed to borrow some tablet keyboards. We ended up doing it the “old-fashioned” way via email. .
We observed Bloom meeting rule #4: “treats will always be provided at every meeting”--thanks Simge!
Here were the responses:
Samantha (3rd grade English teacher):
“When reading texts from the book, I make two photocopies. I then use the different copies to make different activities.
Paper A has low level missing words, Paper B has higher-level missing words. Technology was optional. It was very successful because each student was helping the other which made them feel confident and capable. However higher level students had to listen to the difficult pronunciations of the lower level students, while lower level students got the clearer pronunciation of high level students. (Who were also able to help with other problems in understanding such as spelling)
The only negative thing is that this activity relies on the students being equal amounts of low/high level. Sometimes in a class the differentiation is not so clean cut, and sometimes is a case of effort or attention span, not ability.
A better option is...
Paper A might be text with key words missing, while paper B is a jumbled text/ Iff the teacher wants to divide the activity. Paper B goes to the lower level of the pair.
Paper A has to read their ordered story to paper B, before paper B can help them back. (otherwise paper B would be reading jumbled up and A can't follow)
Back to the board, and charades are also exceptional differentiation activities because they rely on students explaining ideas and objects through whichever ability they have.”
Aylin (8th grade English teacher):
“Differentiated learning, as the popular term is not really a big part of my classes as I'm teaching english in smaller groups usually with similar levels. We have streaming so we level the students. Though whenever we have an activity that requires group work I do try to group them accordingly. Unfortunately technology is far away from my classes since ı really do not think using ppt or youtube is really applying technology. 8th graders don't have tablets or internet connection with a gadget they only take turns to use the desktop / laptop in class.
The last time I used such a group work was not very successful because of they were more interested in what the others were doing. Moreover my low level groups are very small and once I group them that becomes a nest for them
Next time I could make use of some of the 'good' examples I will hear today to motivate me to use it more often! :)”
Joe (High school English teacher):
“I developed a large variety of worksheets and other activities ala sibel sagner which differentiated by supplying varying degrees of the material, creating open ended activities, and a selection of options for a task. It almost seems that the activities that involve supplying slightly more or less information in an activity don't have noticeable results. However, maybe this is just harder to measure. PErhaps our students are already so used to getting information from their classmates when they don't understand something that it has little effect? The differentiated activities that I find work better are the ones that include a variety of different tasks that allow all of the students to get involved in different ways. For example, we were reviewing a story that was assigned as homework but most of the students had not read. IN order to do this I divided the story up into scenes. THen I gave each scene to different groups and within that group i asked them to read the story, find key information, highlight atmosphere words, write key questions that they could ask about the work and finally illustrate the scene. ALl of the information went on one poster that they created together. THe students decided who did what and it turned out well. I think it worked well because they know how to monitor each other to get things done and complete tasks.”
Steve (High school English teacher):
“At my previous school, we did several differentiated assessments. One of my favorites was a tic tac toe puzzle that we did for a states of matter unit. The students had to finish 3 tasks and make a line (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) and there were some different as well as some similar types of tasks for them to complete. Each student could choose their own tasks by choosing things that were of interest to them, but at the same time, the content was controlled by the teachers so that they were completing things that we thought we important. Plus, we had a high completion rate on the assignment and the kids enjoyed it because it was their determination of what to do. During this assessment, we did not use technology, but it could certainly be integrated without much trouble.”
Teachers shared their experiences and here were some of the responses:
Joe (HS teacher) shared his experience in the classroom with DL. Students working in small groups worked well and he didn’t assign each student a role. He let the group work out which students would do what. Perhaps getting at what was also brought up later about rewarding students for behavior or marks. Many group members agreed that when students tap into their own desire to be successful, it is much better than a student always expecting an award for good behavior/academic marks. DL methods might encourage that spark in students more.
Samantha (3rd grade teacher) shared an example of DL with her 4th grade dessert island project, noting that deeper learning happened when students were involved in the choices for their project. She also explained that when she knows students strengths as a class, she can present content aimed at the class’ prefered learning style as a whole. She also brought up pair work, how pairing students together can motivate the pair as a whole. Not necessarily strong with less strong students but even less strong students with other less strong students. Sometimes the less strong ones can motivate the other one in the pair because the pool of students is a lot smaller.
Aylin (8th grade teacher) shared another example of DL that she and other 8th grade English teachers tried out with their 8th grade classes. The students were asked to act a new scene from their book Holes by Louis Sachar. They divided themselves into groups and had to make up a scene that fit with the plot and only use characters from the book. Aylin said students had to be creative within a limited amount of time. Also, students worked well in their groups and stayed motivated.
Steve made a good point at the end of the meeting about the different interpretations of DL. He disagreed with viewpoint that DL is about leveling students. He said it’s more about offering different methods of learning content as opposed to just giving the whole class one activity.
We also used Todaysmeet.com as a back channel for introverts. We thought it was a nice example of accommodating different needs within a group.
Here is the transcript from our meeting:
https://todaysmeet.com/bloom4
Thanks to everyone for their participation!
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