Module 5 unit 3 assignment 2
The following quote from Carol Ann Tomlinson’s book on
differentiation goes a long to describing how we as teachers should look at for
our class; “A great coach never achieves greatness for himself or his team by
working to make all his players alike.” I found this a very interesting way at
how we should go about planning the class. Indeed as outlined in Janelle Cox’s
article, there are many strategies we can apply when accommodating for the
different types of learners in our class. The focus on differentiation in our
instructions to students has been on my mind a lot as I undertook this
assignment. I found myself reviewing how I gave instructions before and where I
did okay and where I needed to improve upon.
The reassuring thing in all of
this is knowing that our journey through differentiation is a continuous
lifelong experience when we teach. There is simply no one way as all of us need
time to formulate out understanding of what is being asked and our experiences
up to this point will determine how we carry out the steps needed to fully
comprehend the information.
In my classes for this year, we don't have children with any
diagnosed disabilities. However with my co-teacher we have identified two
student in our class who appear to have a learning disability. One of the
student’s appears to be on the autism spectrum and we have carried out our own
in school assessment. This child is very good at art and excels in this area
when we have arts and crafts incorporated into the lesson being delivered. We
have looked at ways in the class to have the other students recognise this
child’s accomplishments in this area. It is because of this that a few of the
children have started to hang out and play with this child at the break time.
These are certainly small steps for us as we are looking to get this child more
support in the form of support in his reading and writing during the week.
The second student is a transfer student from another school
and again based on the monitoring from us we have come to a general understanding
that she has ADHD. At times she can be very disruptive when giving instructions
and this causes a lot of delays at this important point. To counter this
excitement we have started to have this student to help us prepare the
materials needed for the exercise we are to do. We have set up a work details
schedule for the class and she has been placed on this together with all the
other students in her group. The usefulness of creating working spaces groups
means we can have this student take part in activities where she has
responsibility, can see what is to be done and just as important all of the
class know what is expected of them for the exercise.
For these students, we have to ensure we have a fun and
interactive way of providing the context for them. This is important for the
entire group. The use of the; Think-Pair-Share strategy is one way of seeing
that all students get what is asked of them. Before using this, the teacher can
set up to use flashcards, visuals on the IWB or the power point and have the
students follow these to get to where we want them to go. Of course as with any
activity, there will be times when some students get to the end of the task
quicker. One of the ways that I have used in this situation is to have the
early finishers help out their classmates. This has been a good motivation for
the future as students look to get the task completed so they can help out in
this way. I looked at having additional worksheets in the past but I found
these mundane and repetitive for the early finishers.
When reflecting on this afterward I believe that the
incorporation of other strategies such as; journaling, partner talk and the
think-pair-share could provide a useful way of ensuring that the class can get
to the learning goal in the time needed. It is with some activities that
additional time may be required for a learner. Using additional activities to
prepare them to take on the tasks through better understanding may help them in
the future.
References:
TeachHub.com: Cox, Janelle. “Classroom management: Creating differentiated instruction”
Edutopia: Differentiated instruction: McCarthy, John. (2015) “3 ways to plan for diverse learners: What
teachers do”
Tomlinson, Carol Ann. “The
differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners, 2nd
edition”.
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