Visiting Big Ben (The Great Clock)

Our next adventure in our travels is visiting Big Ben!

(Did you know, Big Ben is actually the name of the giant bell that rings inside the Elizabeth Tower?)

How does this enormous clock work? Many pieces and cogs, that's how! And this is how a classroom operates, too! Various pieces and cogs must work together or you'll have malfunctions.

Attention all teachers! 

Students have things they need in order to feel successful in your class!

They need appropriate challenges, affirmation (support and encouragement), to have a purpose, to be contributors, and feel they have power (over themselves or what they learn).

What can we, the teacher, do to help them? 

By first investing in our students! We invite all students to be contributors and give them many opportunities to do so! When something isn't working, we persist and try something else until it does work. That requires us to be reflective.

How do we do this?By using the curriculum and letting all we know about students to guide the instruction! 

Make our lessons engaging! Help our students see that what they are learning is important (and that they are important)! We give them demanding work and scaffold them so they can be successful.The last term that helps run the curriculum cog is focus. I thought about this in multiple ways. 

First, lessons need to be narrow and focused so that students can really learn a concept before being given another one to build on. 

Second, I thought that the lessons need to be engaging enough to catch and hold students' focus. 

Third, I thought about how we (the teachers) need to stay dedicated to the topic or concept and not go off on a tangent, unless, via your best discretion, that will be more beneficial to your students.

Each of these cogs is important.  Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom exemplifies this importance:

"An effectively differentiated classroom is not simply one that seeks to balance the elements of student need, teacher response, and the role of curriculum and instruction. Rather, it is a classroom in which it is clear that unless the three elements remain carefully calibrated to work in concert, each element will inevitably be reduced to less that it ought to be."

 I don't want to think about any of those pieces being reduced to less than they are. It's too sad to think about. Super teachers everywhere understand the importance of those three cogs and they definitely provide the grease to keep everything running smoothly!

A Tale of Two Classrooms

I haven't read A Tale of Two Cities, but from the shmoop.com summary, I saw how vastly different conditions were in London and Paris in the late 18th century.  There is a vast difference between the traditional classroom and the differentiated classroom, too!  Let's stop in and check them out!

Comparison #4 really stood out to me.  When I was a student. . . well. . . okay, I'm still a student. . . when I was a younger student, I always felt I was competing against my classmates.  That's an unfair competition to be in!  Excellence should always (I wish I could underline this twice!) be looked at individually.  Students should never be made to think that if they don't achieve a certain score or run a certain time (running a 10 minute mile, for example. . . YUCK!) then what they did achieve wasn't good.  Students should see their own excellence by looking at how far they've come from where they began!

This comparison of these two very different classrooms boils down to this: students are different.  If you think they aren't, then you're kidding yourself. Super-teachers learn about their students differences, what they're interested in, and how they learn best to shape their instruction so that ALL students learn during every lesson.

A Brief Visit to Hallmarks

While unpacking differentiation, I came across some postcards from The Hallmarks of Differentiated Classrooms.  Oh, The Hallmarks!  They are nine strong "pillars" and when combined, achieve that "best-fit" between curriculum and instruction and maximum growth for each learner.

   

These nine pillars, these Hallmarks, are the key to true differentiated learning.

Question: So what? Now that I know this, how does it help me be a "Super-Teacher"?

ANSWERS! (to the best of my understanding)

For successful use of Hallmarks 1 through 3

1.  Assessment and instruction are inseparable. A "Super-Teacher" constantly assesses students' knowledge, understanding, and skill, formally & informally, and alters instruction accordingly.
2.  Knowing the essential learning goals for each lesson allows a "Super-Teacher" to help all students reach the same goal, but providing different pathways to get there.

3.  A "Super-Teacher" helps her students learn their own strengths and limitations (I love the use of this word! Limitations is a better word than "weaknesses". That word makes me shudder...).  They learn to take charge of their learning.  If done right, students become the center to their own learning.  They create the classroom community, pulling together to make sure everyone grows.

Hallmarks 4 through 6

4.  (These hallmarks work hand-in-hand!)  Each student is unique and has his/her own set of goals!  Every individual's growth is the key to the success of the classroom.  A "Super-Teacher" never compares her students but helps each student, and their parents, realize his/her progress!

5.  A "Super-Teacher" creates tasks that cause each student to stretch their understanding and work their way through the "unknown".  It is done successfully through scaffolding.  It prevents the dull and ineffective drill & practice and requires strategic thinking and actions.

6.  A "Super-Teacher" creates respectful and engaging work by assigning work for each student that is just as "inviting and important" as the work the other students are assigned.  Everyone is required to think at their highest level. 

Hallmarks 7 through 9

7.  The key difference between differentiation and accommodating/modifying instruction is forethought.  A "Super-Teacher" plans for things she knows will "affect different students in different ways".

8.  A "Super-Teacher" utilizes various groupings of students every day!  Use homogeneous groups, mixed-skills groups, or interest groups. This allows students to balance needs and productivity - PROBLEM SOLVING!

9.  I think this one is the easiest of the nine.  A "Super-Teacher" uses everything in her classroom to enable her students to work in various ways.  Consider readiness levels and interests when setting up your space and gathering materials for instruction!

Aren't those Hallmarks beautiful??? In all of their glory, they are a lot to take in. Taken a few at a time, though, and they're a lot easier to manage. My goal: to work on meshing these Hallmarks together and make them the keys to instruction, for only then can I truly differentiate. Only then can I become a "Super-Teacher"!

The Beginning of a Journey

Differentiation, put simply by the authors of Differentiation in Practice, "is really just common sense".  However, as a soon-to-be pre-service teacher, my journey to understand what differentiation is will provide me with invaluable knowledge for when I finally become a teacher.  Unlike making a physically journey, this journey begins slowly as I unpack my differentiation "luggage".

Let's first start by unpacking responsive teaching, which is:

"If any one of the [above] elements is diminished, learning is diminished as well" (Tomlinson, p. 3).

I want to briefly pick apart each of these elements and their relationships.  Who refers to gender, culture, socioeconomic background, interests, abilities, etc. of students.  What refers not just to the grade level curriculum one teaches.  It also includes helping students fill in gaps of understanding and adding challenges to help other students move beyond the required curriculum.  What we teach is reliant upon who we teach.  Where is the learning environment created by the teacher and students, "a matter of the heart" (p. 5).  The learning environment can set students up for success and can be used to enhance what we teach to whom we teach.  How we teach is, in fact, differentiated instruction.  In order to be successful, how we teach takes into account who, what, and where we teach.

To a new or up-coming teacher, this little view into differentiation may seem overwhelming.  I thought about how much experience a teacher needs to be able to always be aware of everything in each of these four elements and then implement instruction based on them.  I became intimidated and doubted I would ever be able to do all of those things. But, the text offers words of encouragement:

"First, [you] will never be able to do everything each child needs on a given day or in a given year. Second, the more diligently [you] work to know [your] students and match [your] instruction to their needs, the more likely it is that the year will be successful for the broad range of learners and the more satisfied [you] will feel as a professional" (p. 6).

This phrase is like my travel insurance.  When or if something happens to disrupt my journey and I begin to despair, I can rely upon it to reduce my stress and help me get back on course!

Reference:

Tomlinson, C.A., Eidson, C.C. (2003). Differentiation in practice: A resource guide for differentiating curriculum. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.