Archive for October 2015
Show What You Know
When we think about measuring what students know and are able to do, we typically picture a traditional paper and pencil assessment scenario. Often the students are asked to take a quiz or test on some topic that has been taught and we use the paper to figure out if they know what they should.…
Read MoreDifferentiation = Achievement
Effective teachers are always working to reach the spectrum of readiness, learning styles, and backgrounds of their students, so each will make positive progress over time and grow as learners. Our children come with a wide array of needs, so an educator has to decide how to differentiate in the classroom to spark the meaningful…
Read MoreHow to Differentiate Content
Getting started with differentiation can seem overwhelming at first. Carol Ann Tomlinson, faculty member at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, suggests that teachers should start small and then add on incrementally over the years. Yes, it takes years to become a true expert in differentiation! One way to start small is…
Read MoreExplaining Differentiated Assignments
As teachers we want to meet the needs of all of our students. This is difficult when there are many different learning levels and styles in our classrooms. We know that differentiated instruction works, but how do we tell parents what this actually means? How do we explain differentiated assignments? Our goal in the classroom…
Read MoreOnline Support for Differentiation
Our students are each unique and each comes with individual needs, learning styles, varied backgrounds, and interests. To be effective in our classrooms we must differentiate instruction to respect the specific learning needs of each of our young learners. As Carol Ann Tomlinson puts it, “Differentiation is responsive teaching rather than one size fits all…
Read More2 Quick Tips for Math Differentiation – Defeat the Dilemma
A strategically planned math lesson can come to a halt when one student finishes (because the task was too easy) while another struggles to know where to begin. Teachers are faced with the challenge of meeting the various developmental needs of students daily. Differentiation is a philosophy grounded in knowing the students’ needs and responding…
Read MoreDifferentiating in Math
For years mathematics focused on finding the correct answer. How students arrived at that answer was not addressed. This has begun to change. Teachers are starting to confer with students one-on-one to see their thinking, and more emphasis is being placed on a student’s individual problem solving methods. Conferring with students in any academic area…
Read MoreDifferentiation – What It Is and What It Is Not
In the field of education we know that one size does not fit all. Teachers must be aware of the developmental readiness, varying background knowledge, learning styles, and interests of the divers students in the classroom. Effective teachers use meaningful tasks to deliver content, modify processes, and create open-ended assessment measures to gain information and…
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