Differentiation
Differentiation
Without doubt after week one on teaching practice I learned that differentiation is a must in each lesson you have. When you think about it on average I have twenty students in all my classes. So that means I have up to a possible twenty different learners in front of me in each lesson- sounds complex doesn’t it! Diversity in the classroom is a must; what works for one student may not work for another (Kyriacou, 2007, p 46). Differentiation in the classroom can be depicted through a SEN student(s), boy’s vs girls, multiculturalism and finally inclusion. When you have all of these concepts in a lesson my problem is, where do you start. Let’s face it, I have only three weeks down and three weeks to go and being honest if I achieve a fraction of what I aim for, that is what I call being realistic.
In the context of education today,
“We define differentiation as a teacher’s reacting responsively to a learner’s needs. A teacher who is differentiating understands a student’s needs to express humour, or work with a group, or have additional teaching on a particular skill, or delve more deeply into a particular topic, or have guided help with a reading passage- and the teacher responds actively and positively to that need” (Tomlinson & Allan, 2000,p 4).
Differentiation is “simply attending to the learning needs of a particular student” (Tomlinson & Allan, 2000, p 4). For example in one of my TG classes I have a student that is ADHD. The student does miss quite a bit of class time however when he is in class he wastes a lot of time. Some days he wants no help from his SNA, who during my monitoring time I make it my business to teach him individually. At first I thought this was extremely unfair on the rest of the class so I reflected on the issue with some co-operating teachers as well as the whole SNA’s in the school. So when I give an explanation on the board I hand the student out a page with the key steps clearly outlined on it for him to read himself because he does not really listen to the explanations. The student however works at his own pace and suprisingly catches up with the rest of the class in the second half of the lesson once he gets settled and in the zone. I have to agree with Kyriacou on this strategy by differenciating the student in terms of his pace (Kyriacou, 2007, p48). Overall this class is quite challenging as I have three students that are really fast and work at their own pace, then I have a student that is only in once every week if I am lucky, then I have the majority of the class at another level and finally I have the ADHD student at another level. As I am doing developments with the class I find getting the weaker students and the ADHD student with his SNA to cut their developments out to make the 3d shape a good strategy to help them understand and visually see are they correct or incorrect. As I cant get them to make models every day, I sometimes get the fast students to work together in a group to make models of some of the questions. These models can then be used to illustrate to the weaker students what the development should look like as well as help the students to visualise the object in 3d because they dont really understand it from solidworks they prefer the physical model which they can touch and examine. However this strategy of having 3d models and key steps outlined for the ADHD student was not the first thing I tried and that worked. The point Im making is that you have to try something and then evaluate it and discuss with SNA’s or the co-operating teacher to see did it have an impact.
The process of differentiation is so complex that it requires you to “focus upon the teaching plan, the teaching and learning interaction and then an evaluation of what took place” (O’Brien & Guiney, 2001, p 3). These outcomes are “valuable” (O’Brien & Guiney, 2001, p 3) for one to progress.
Bibliography
O’Brien, T., & Guiney, D. (2001). Differentiation in Teaching & Learning. London: Continuum Books.
Kyriacou, C. (2007). Essential Teaching Skills. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.
Tomlinson, C. A., & Allan, S. D. (2000). Leadership for Differentiating Schools & Classrooms. Alexandria: ASCD.
Differentiation
Without doubt after week one on teaching practice I learned that differentiation is a must in each lesson you have. When you think about it on average I have twenty students in all my classes. So that means I have up to a possible twenty different learners in front of me in each lesson- sounds complex doesn’t it! Diversity in the classroom is a must; what works for one student may not work for another (Kyriacou, 2007, p 46). Differentiation in the classroom can be depicted through a SEN student(s), boy’s vs girls, multiculturalism and finally inclusion. When you have all of these concepts in a lesson my problem is, where do you start. Let’s face it, I have only three weeks down and three weeks to go and being honest if I achieve a fraction of what I aim for, that is what I call being realistic.
In the context of education today,
“We define differentiation as a teacher’s reacting responsively to a learner’s needs. A teacher who is differentiating understands a student’s needs to express humour, or work with a group, or have additional teaching on a particular skill, or delve more deeply into a particular topic, or have guided help with a reading passage- and the teacher responds actively and positively to that need” (Tomlinson & Allan, 2000,p 4).
Differentiation is “simply attending to the learning needs of a particular student” (Tomlinson & Allan, 2000, p 4). For example in one of my TG classes I have a student that is ADHD. The student does miss quite a bit of class time however when he is in class he wastes a lot of time. Some days he wants no help from his SNA, who during my monitoring time I make it my business to teach him individually. At first I thought this was extremely unfair on the rest of the class so I reflected on the issue with some co-operating teachers as well as the whole SNA’s in the school. So when I give an explanation on the board I hand the student out a page with the key steps clearly outlined on it for him to read himself because he does not really listen to the explanations. The student however works at his own pace and suprisingly catches up with the rest of the class in the second half of the lesson once he gets settled and in the zone. I have to agree with Kyriacou on this strategy by differenciating the student in terms of his pace (Kyriacou, 2007, p48). Overall this class is quite challenging as I have three students that are really fast and work at their own pace, then I have a student that is only in once every week if I am lucky, then I have the majority of the class at another level and finally I have the ADHD student at another level. As I am doing developments with the class I find getting the weaker students and the ADHD student with his SNA to cut their developments out to make the 3d shape a good strategy to help them understand and visually see are they correct or incorrect. As I cant get them to make models every day, I sometimes get the fast students to work together in a group to make models of some of the questions. These models can then be used to illustrate to the weaker students what the development should look like as well as help the students to visualise the object in 3d because they dont really understand it from solidworks they prefer the physical model which they can touch and examine. However this strategy of having 3d models and key steps outlined for the ADHD student was not the first thing I tried and that worked. The point Im making is that you have to try something and then evaluate it and discuss with SNA’s or the co-operating teacher to see did it have an impact.
The process of differentiation is so complex that it requires you to “focus upon the teaching plan, the teaching and learning interaction and then an evaluation of what took place” (O’Brien & Guiney, 2001, p 3). These outcomes are “valuable” (O’Brien & Guiney, 2001, p 3) for one to progress.
Bibliography
O’Brien, T., & Guiney, D. (2001). Differentiation in Teaching & Learning. London: Continuum Books.
Kyriacou, C. (2007). Essential Teaching Skills. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.
Tomlinson, C. A., & Allan, S. D. (2000). Leadership for Differentiating Schools & Classrooms. Alexandria: ASCD.