Skip to main content

Differentiation in the classroom

A student-led classroom is one where students play an integral part in decision-making. Coming up with essential agreements, deciding what homework to do, and planning the unit of inquiry, are various ways students can take charge. The support  and guidance of their teacher is ofcourse, a critcal factor.

Well then, how about differentiation?

We create pre-assements and formative assessments in order to gauge our students' understanding. What if the assesments are not good enough to gauge where the students are? Knowing that assessments are completely subjective, (however hard we try to be objective), shouldn't the students decide where they are in a continuum, and place themselves in different groups? Many children in my class do not speak English at home.Their inability to understand a maths word problem in English (and thereby getting the sum wrong), can give a false picture of that child's grasp of the concept.

In the video. my students have decided where they are according to a continuum:

The experts were ready to be challenged and stood firmly in their group when the other students asked them whether they were prepared to tackle a tough word problem based on Area and Perimeter.
The ones who needed help, raised their hands. I observed that no one felt embarrased and knew that they felt safe and secure being in this group. The ones in the middle group knew exactly where they needed help, or simply did not have enough confidence in themselves. So this factor needed to be addressed. What was stopping them from joining the expert group?

In the video, I asked the experts to help the ones who needed help. I encouraged the middle group to figure out what was bothering them. This is the group I will sit with in the next 15 minutes.
I will eventually give them an exit slip to fill. The results will help them decide whether they want to move on from their group.


Often different cultural habits and behaviours can come in the way of a teacher however good his or her intention. The children know best where they stand. Do they feel secure? Are they ready to be challenged? They can tell you if you let them. Stand back and embrace their ideas the next time you want to differentiate. It is infinitely rewarding. How do you differentiate in the classroom? Do share.

Comments

  1. Great idea, Naini. We spend a great deal of time discussing ways in which to empower students and encourage them to have a voice in their learning. This seems like a natural extension of the idea. Love your post ~ it has me thinking!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Popular posts from this blog

Unravelling the inquiry cycle in a PYP class room

“ People can make choices to support the sustainability of the Earth’s energy resources .” Me to students : Does that make sense? Students to me : (after a while)...not really...  Their understanding of "energy" during the pre-assessment task also reflected a superficial knowledge of the term. And thus our unit of inquiry started. As I was browsing the net, I came across this picture prompt- a map, which I thought would serve as a great provocation. The annual energy consumption per person . Kids love guessing where countries are, so it was a great way to address some geography at this point.  I had also been reading Craig Dwyer's  post  which inspired me to change my inquiry cycle and use a simpler one. Wonder (while exploring)- Explore (while wondering)- Create (while reflecting)- Reflect (with subsequent wonderings). I was feeling more at ease now. The map allowed the students to make a lot of inferences based on patterns whi...

Generalization-Designing Your Lessons for Conceptual Understanding (Part 3)

This post is the third of our blog post series on how to design lessons for conceptual understanding. Part 1 here Part 2 here Strategy 3 : Generalizations You may have come across Lynn Erickson's diagram on the structure of knowledge. In my IB workshop's I always like to present the avocado model alongside this diagram when I am talking about facts. The intention of inquiry-based teaching and conceptually-driven understanding (or Concept-based inquiry- whatever terminology suits your fancy)  is to enable students to make generalizations. In other words, can they transfer their learning to a new context because they have understood what they learnt.  In order to make generalizations, we need to first plan lessons that help students acquire facts/topics that are interesting  and worth knowing. Bringing in local and global issues that are relevant to the topic help students as they begin to compare the topics and see emerging patterns. Remember, facts and concepts have a syn...

5 classroom routines

Communication I plan to try and improve communication between our classroom, parents, and students. I'm not sure whether students or parents read my emails or get our classroom news. At times, they do not respond to the posts on Google Classroom. The silence from that side of the wall has been baffling, frustrating and a big challenge for me.  I just may have found the solution. The App  Remind   is an excellent way to overcome this problem. It is a great tool which ensures everyone receives the message instantly on their phones, and it need not be an iPhone or an android! Community Last year, being new to Japan, I was unable to take advantage of the resources around me.This country's unique culture and history have much to offer. After reading Ron Berger's " An Ethic of Excellence ", and seeing the powerful learning that can take place with the help of the community, I plan to actively learn more about and reach out in order to seek expert help ...