Differentiation...Let me count the ways!!

Differentiation is a district goal that we are strongly committed to.  We use the language to make sure that ALL of our students are learning, but how does that look in a classroom.  What are some ways that I can differentiate without having to rewrite everything I do?  I don't need one more thing to do! Differentiation does not have to be difficult or another thing added to your list.  There are 9 different variables that could be used to tweak the lessons you are already doing in your room.

We will think of 3 boxes with 3 different ways to differentiate.  

The first set of boxes are really looking at the "what" of our teaching.  First, is our sources.  How does this look?? You have different levels of students working on researching Prairie animals, but some of the students are more proficient with reading than others.  You may decide to change the sources in which your students research the topics.  One group may use books with clear headings and right there facts.  Another group of students may use websites directed by the teacher to find facts from.  These are two routes that have been altered or differentiated for your students.  What is the process you use to instruct your students? How do differentiate processes?  Think about the many ways that you can explain a topic to a student.  When you are teaching social studies, most times you are changing the process throughout the lesson.  You may read aloud the text to the students, you may have them read together and answer questions, you may have them read independently.  All three of these processes allow for our students to comprehend the material.  Finding which students work best with each process can sometimes be the more daunting task.  Differentiating your lesson by the process allows the students to learn in a style that either they prefer or that is helpful to them in comprehension.  The final "what" deals with the product that is created to demonstrate understanding.  Perhaps in your culmination activity, some of your students will write reports, some will make a poster, and some will make up a slide presentation.  This type of differentiation allows the students to show you what they have learned in a way that makes sense to them.

The middle set of the boxes deals with "how" are we teaching.  The three ways are in whole group, small group, or individually.  I think the clearest example of this is in our guided reading lessons.  First, we may start the lesson with a whole group introduction to the comprehension skill of visualizing.  Some students may need another dose of that instruction and meet in a small group with the teacher to possibly have it explained in a different process.  Finally, those that are really struggling will need another individual session with the teacher. This middle set of boxes is the easiest way to differentiate and is what we most commonly see in the classrooms.  

The final set of boxes really refers to the students that we are teaching.  We may need to differentiate lessons based on their readiness, interests, and information processing styles.  Often when we group our students for reading groups, we are looking at their readiness level.  At what level are they reading and who else is reading at that level?  Well, this same kind of process can be used to differentiate students in any lesson.  One thing to remember is that you don't just show readiness skills in reading and math!  Are your students at different levels in their communication skills, organization, attention, persistence, and academic background knowledge?  These may be other ways that you group your students when you are instructing in other content areas as well as in reading.  How do you differentiate by interest?  Have there been projects that you have given to students where you have allowed them to choose their topic?  This choice is often based on their interest in a topic.  Choice and interest often go hand in hand.  Choice and/or interest cannot always be a choice for differentiating.  However, have you ever tried looking at a math skill like measurement and ask students to think of a topic that they love and find ways that measurement relates to that topic.  For instance, my nephew LOVES dinosaurs, so he may choose to talk about how measurement could help scientist classify dinosaurs by their height.  Or maybe the length of their teeth would be helpful to know whether the dinosaur is a carnivore or herbivore.  Interests can be woven into subjects and can help create an interest in another topic when they see how it relates to something they love.  Finally, how do I differentiate by their information processing style?  Many of us have heard about multiple intelligences and how they can impact how a student learns.  This is a fun way to differentiate for students.  Again let's go back to having a project, but this time it is about Presidents.  To differentiate this project, we may give the choice of writing an essay for those linguistic students, create a song for musical students, create a collage for the artistic students, and possibly a game for those kinesthetic students.  In my mind, this third box really helps with differentiate for the needs of the students, but it also may effect one of the other boxes.  If we think of my last example with the presidents, we have differentiated by their information processing style, their interest, and their product.  Sometimes tasks lend themselves well to differentiating in more than one variable, but it does not need to.  I challenge you with your next activity, think of a way that you could alter one variable to differentiate to meet the needs of all your students.

Differentiation by Questioning

Differentiation by Questioning

Prior to teaching a lesson, best practice shows us that taking the time to predict where students will struggle and plan ahead for how we will handle those situations will result in more effective instruction. While we're at it, why not plan ahead for how we can push the thinking of students who find success early on with a problem, activity or task?

When we're planning an activity or task we often have 3 main groups to consider:
A. Students who will struggle and need assistance.
B. Students for which this task will be "just right" and will provide the perfect amount of challenge.
C. Students who are higher level thinkers and will need more challenge. 

One way to do this is by planning 2 sets of prompts that will either guide student thinking and help them overcome a challenge, or push student thinking about the concept to a deeper level. 

Assessing Prompts (aka "Unstucking" Prompts) 

These prompts serve two goals:

1. Assess student understanding (Assessing)

2. Help guide student thinking without providing an answer or teaching the concept.  ("Unstucking")

Either way, our goal in using one of these prompts is to avoid teaching students and providing students with the answer. We want to ask thought provoking questions, help the student recall important information that they already know, and help them move in the right direction in order to find success with the task. As we're doing this, it is a great opportunity to subtly gather data as to student strengths and weaknesses regarding the skill and perhaps identify future areas of needed intervention or instruction.

Advancing Prompts

The purpose for these prompts is exactly what it sounds like - advancing student thinking!  These are a bit more difficult to come up with, but when we do, we can easily take an average level activity, and seamlessly challenge our students without having to create something new entirely new.

Let's Try!

Alex Says that when you multiply two fractions the product always gets smaller. Is he correct or incorrect? Why or why not?

Assessing/"Unstucking" Prompts:

• What do you know about multiplying fractions?
• Show me how to multiply two fractions?
• Can you think of a situation where that wouldn't be true?
• What kinds of fractions do you know about?

Advancing Prompts

• What would the relationship have to be between the numerator and denominator to make Alex's statement ALWAYS true?
• What situation would make Alex's statement false?
• How could you reword Alex's statement to make it true?

The time spent planning here was not on creating 3 different tasks, our time was spent taking something that may be a grade level expectation and making it suitable for students at various levels. This is one way to easily differentiate an assignment, task, or problem! Give it a try! 

Social Language Vs. Academic Language

Do you have an ELL student who seems to speak perfect English?

Social Language

For many(but not all) ELL students listening and speaking in English are the first language areas that develop. For very new speakers they may go through a quiet period where they are quite apprehensive about using what they know. Once students begin speaking in English it can develop quite quickly but often they are primarily developing their social language. Social language is what they encounter consistently throughout their day. Whether they are talking to teachers or other students there are many words that they will hear over and over. This repetition of words and phrases builds the foundation of the student's language development. Many ELL students exhibit strong social language skills. This can be deceiving because they seemingly need less support in the content areas, when actually they have very little academic vocabulary.

Academic Language

Watch this video first...You will be tested on this information.

Academic language, also called content specific language,  can be difficult even for native English speakers. Whenever someone is learning a new concept one on the first hurdles is to learn the vocabulary associated with that concept. This is true for all academic concepts that students encounter in school. For many native  English speakers this learning curve is less because they have often encountered many of the words before, but it can still be daunting. Academic vocabulary is not typically used in everyday conversations and may only be encountered in the school environment. For many ESL students (and English speakers as well) this vocabulary must be explicitly taught.


For more information see these two articles:

http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/background/academic/ 

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/106048/chapters/How-Students-Acquire-Social-and-Academic-Language.aspx

Helping Your Students Become Problem Solvers

Helping Your Students Become Problem Solvers!

In order to become a problem solver, our students need to experience productive struggle and practice using what they know to persevere in solving a problem. What do we mean by productive struggle? Productive struggle is when a student is actually struggling with a problem or task; it's not easy for them! They should have some skills and tools to pull from in order to allow some success, but this task is not practice, this is an application of what they have already learned. We can go into productive struggle more on a later date! 

This will help us build problem solvers by addressing one of our Standards of Mathematical Practices: 

Standard of Mathematical Practice #1 - Make sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving them.

One way to do just this, is by taking the well known gradual release model, "I Do, We do, You do" and making a small tweak! 

"YOU Do, We Do, I Do" 

Warm-up: Always be sure that the students have the background knowledge and the skills necessary to apply to a new situation. If you aren't sure, start with a warm-up that can activate their prior knowledge and remind them what they already know that can help them. Get those math brains going! 

You Do: Provide the students with a problem they have never seen before that asks them to apply what they already know in a brand new situation. Choosing and crafting the right problem is key here as you don't want to cause frustration. Students should know just enough to be able to struggle through and feel that proud feeling of accomplishment at the end! If you notice some students reaching a point of frustration, have some prompts in mind that can frame their thinking and move them forward in the problem without causing them to shut down. But, do your best to NOT show them or tell them how to solve. 

Debrief: Have students either share with a partner and/or share as a whole class to discuss strategies and how some students overcame certain challenges. Highlight interesting thinking, regardless of if it led the student in the right direction. Sometimes letting students explain their thinking and realize an error in logic on their own can be very powerful to that student as well as the whole group! 

We Do (students): Ask students to complete a similar problem or a different problem with a partner. Allow students independent work time first to try to apply what they just learned from the debrief, and then call students together to compare their work and the strategies they used. 

We Do (whole class): The "We Do" portion can be considered "we" as in partners or "we" as in whole class. It depends on what you think your students need. If students are struggling, you could pose a problem to the group and have them help you solve problem as a class in order to keep the task on track. 

Debrief: Similar to above

I Do: Now, take all the great thinking that the students shared and synthesize it into something concrete. If there is a specific algorithm or solution method you wanted to highlight, then connect it back to the student or students who shared those ideas. Some of the students in the class may not be totally clear at this point, they may have some ideas of how to solve the problem, but it's not solid. So, the teacher's purpose for modeling is to solidify understanding and clarify the steps that the students may have already discovered on their own! 

Problem Solving Vs. Explicit Instruction

When to Use Problem Solving: (You Do, We Do, I Do)

- The students have skills that can be applied to a new situation. 

- It's more about the thinking and not as much about the strategy being used. 

- There are multiple strategies that could be used to solve a problem. 

When to Use Explicit Instruction: (I Do, We Do, You Do)

- Students do not have the background knowledge to be successful. 

- You want to model your thought process in order for students to follow a similar thought process. 

- You want to model a process that students are struggling with. 

- Students must utilize a specific strategy that is brand new to them. 

So, next time you're sitting down to plan a lesson, ask yourself if this is an opportunity to let the students practice being problem solvers! 

What do I do with this Running Record?

The running record is a helpful tool in determining an appropriate text complexity level for your readers. The miscues tell you what "tools" the student is using when he comes to a word he doesn't know.  They also tell you which "tools" he isn't using when he finds such a "road block."  This information is helpful to the teacher. It tells the teacher the student's strengths and it tells the teacher where s/he can help the student improve reading. 

Once the running record is complete teachers can analyze to see which of these 3 "tools" (strategies) the student is using to figure out the unknown words:


M = meaning.............(semantics) 
                                           Is the student trying to make sense of what is being read?
                                          what word would make sense here?
                                          read it the way the child read it / does it "make sense?"
S = structure................(language / syntax)
                                         read it as the child read it / does it sound like the child 
                                         would "talk"?
                                         did the child furnish a noun, adjective, or an -ing word?
                                         does it "sound" right?
V = visual....................(letter-sounds)
                                          Does the miscue look similar to a word in text?
                                          Does it have the same beginning sound?
                                          did he try to "sound it out?" even if he only got
                                                  the first letter-sound right
                                                  does it "look" like the word (beginning, middle, and/or end)
SC  = self corrections........(self monitoring)
                                          this is a sign that reader is monitoring his reading
                                          working actively to make sure everything fits
                                          using semantics, structure and visual cues

Let's look at some examples:

 
Is he using:M - yes  (could make sense)
S - yes (both are nouns)
V - no (no attempt to 'sound out' the word, not even the beginning sound is the same)


How to Help:This student is "reading for meaning."  He probably loves his books and happily discusses their content with you.  But, he is not attending to print.  We might say he is relying on meaning at the expense of visual clues.

A teacher might ask this student to look again at this sentence.  She might point to the beginning sound and ask the child what the word might be....one beginning with the /s/ sound....  She would encourage him to blend the beginning sound and look for the smaller word "or" within the larger word.  She might put him in texts that have more "decodable" words to better focus his attention on using his alphabetic principle (phonics skills).  She might encourage him to write more where he would have to look more closely at how words are spelled. She might ask him which page he likes best and then re-write one of those sentences on a sentence strip, have him read it, then chop it up and mix the words around to see if he can reassemble the words into a sentence (keeping it game-like and fun).


 
Is he using:M - no (houses don't trot away!)
S - yes (both are nouns)
V - yes (look similar / beginning sound is same / although he obviously isn't very good at decoding, he is attempting to use this cueing strategy and we must give him credit for trying to use it.)


How to Help:This child seems to be relying on visual cues at the expense of meaning.  He is not using semantics.  We might say to him, "Let's re-read that sentence....you said___, does that make sense?"  Keep it light and fun.  Don't make the reader feel bad.  It is a risk-free setting.  We are all in a learning mode. But we DO want to draw this student's attention to "making sense" as he reads.
 
It's also important to periodically ask "Does this make sense?" when the reader has not made a mistake so that he doesn't understand it as a signal that an error has been made. It's important to develop a sense of self-monitoring with the reader.


 
Is he using:M - no (nonsense words do NOT make sense)
S - no (usually if nonsense word, usually syntax not being used either)
V -yes (he is trying to 'sound it out' using the decoding strategy even if he still needs to look a little more closely)


How to Help:Similar to the one above.  A teacher might say to this child, "Let's re-read that sentence...You said____, does that make sense?"  You can clearly see here that this student could use some more reading "tools" in his toolbox.  This child is over-relying on phonics; he needs to begin using semantics and syntax so that he can identify that word more quickly and move on.


 
Is he using:M - possibly / use your BEST judgement and be able to tell why you made that informed decision. 
Teachers do not always agree but they are usually close and they try very hard to stay consistent from child to child.
S - yes  (notice the -ing /seems to be some attempt)
V - yes (begins with "s" and ends with "ing" /indicates some use of decoding or letter-sound strategy)

How to Help:A teacher might draw this student's attention to the beginning of the word, looking more closely and noting the word begins with "sh" / she might also point out that the sentence doesn't sound quite right.... or she may wait until this reader comes to another "roadblock" where it may be more obvious the reader is not using semantics before she makes her point. Teachers are selective about when best to make their move.



Look for patterns in the reader's behaviors. Does the reader self-correct when meaning is disrupted? Is the reader relying too heavily on visual cues or not enough? Is the meaning of the passage being preserved? Interventions should be based on whether the student's miscues are significant to the whole meaning of the reading and the reader's greatest area of need. 

Sources:

Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System
Maury County School District- "What is a Miscue Analysis?"

PIES!

It is about that time of year again for some yummy apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie...mmmmmm!  That's not exactly the type of PIE that I am going to introduce you to today!  

PIES is an essential part of the Kagan structures and is helpful when looking at lessons to decide if it is an engaging activity for all students.  Let's start with the basics of what each letter represents!
P=Positive Interdependence
This actually consists of two parts.  First, positive correlation where the success of one student is linked to the success of the other.  The best way to think of this is to think of two mountain climbers.  If one gets a good grip, he can better pull up the other.  When students' outcomes are linked, it encourages achievement and support amongst the students.

Second, interdependence means students are mutually dependent on one another.  Picture two kids who want to build a skateboard.  One has a board and the other has the wheels.  Only if they work together can they reach their goal.  Each student knows and feels they cannot do it alone, but can do things together.
I=Individual Accountability
This occurs when an individual student is held accountable for some public display.  This eliminates the feeling that it is okay to hide and not be involved.  If we are going to gain in achievements for all students, each student must be held individually accountable for his/her own contributions and learning.
E=Equal Participation
If students are actively participating, they are processing the content, and are engaged and learning.  If they do not participate, learning is not guaranteed.  Participation is not voluntary.  Everyone must participate equally.  Again, this eliminates the feeling that it is okay to hide or to hog the conversation.
S=Simultaneous Interaction
If we are having students sequentially responding to questions, where only one student is answering a question.  You are typically only having 1/30th or 3.3% of the class participating at a time.  When you are using a structure like Timed Pair Share, you are having 1/2 or 50% of students participating at one time.  Huh?!?  Would you rather see that 3% or 50% of your students are learning and understanding what has been taught.

By using PIES in your classroom, you are ensuring that your students are cooperatively learning and are truly engaged in their education.  When we go through new structures, try to think about how each of these components fit in.  I also challenge you to look at one of your own lessons and see if you have PIES throughout the lessons.

Great Video on Language Acquisition...

It's from the 80's but still very relevant!!!