Planning a Differentiated Unit
In the second half of the year I developed and taught an integrated unit around the theme of citizenship. The unit integrated both social studies and literacy content, focusing on the rights and responsibilities of citizens (social studies), and character traits of good citizens (literacy). I was no longer just planning one lesson in isolation or modifying a pre-existing lesson; instead, I came up with each of the lessons on my own. Furthermore, I taught to the whole class, rather than to one student or a small group of students. As such, I was able to put some of what I had learned about differentiation into practice. I developed lessons with the wide range of the needs of my students in mind, doing my best to ensure that I set each of them up for success.
Pre-Assessment
By this time I had learned from my small-group and one-on-one instruction that effective differentiation is only possible if you know your students well. Pre-assessment of some form is necessary. So for both literacy and social studies, I designed my first lesson in such a way that would allow me to get a sense of where my students were in terms of their level of understanding.
As an introduction to character traits I discussed the difference between traits and feelings. I then did a read-aloud, asking students to think about how the main character, Kevin, was feeling throughout the book. Afterwards we made a T-chart and listed all of the things that Kevin was feeling on the left side. Finally, I asked the students to identify a trait that would describe Kevin. They went back to their desks, wrote both their own name and a trait on a post-it, and placed their post-it on the right side of the T-chart. When everyone had done this I read aloud the traits that people had come up with, we discussed those that we thought might actually be more appropriate descriptors of feelings, and we moved them as such. I was able to look at the post-its and get a sense of which students seemed to grasp the idea of character traits and which students did not. The post-its we moved to the "Feelings" side said "ashamed," "scared," "broke apart," "silly," and "sad."
As an introduction to character traits I discussed the difference between traits and feelings. I then did a read-aloud, asking students to think about how the main character, Kevin, was feeling throughout the book. Afterwards we made a T-chart and listed all of the things that Kevin was feeling on the left side. Finally, I asked the students to identify a trait that would describe Kevin. They went back to their desks, wrote both their own name and a trait on a post-it, and placed their post-it on the right side of the T-chart. When everyone had done this I read aloud the traits that people had come up with, we discussed those that we thought might actually be more appropriate descriptors of feelings, and we moved them as such. I was able to look at the post-its and get a sense of which students seemed to grasp the idea of character traits and which students did not. The post-its we moved to the "Feelings" side said "ashamed," "scared," "broke apart," "silly," and "sad."
As an introduction to the topic of citizenship I discussed the concept of community through a story called It Takes a Village by Jane Cowen-Fletcher. As I read I focused the discussion around the idea of community. Afterwards I had the students go back to their table groups to create an idea web about community. I had them think about questions like, What is a community? What is an example of a community? Who is in a community? What communities are we a part of?
As I walked around during the discussions in table groups about community, I noticed that my students didn’t seem to have as much background knowledge on the subject as I had thought they would. The idea webs, my form of pre-assessment for social studies, showed me that my students needed a bit of explicit instruction around the idea of community. I was therefore able to make a decision in that moment to change my lesson. I chose to use the social studies texts in my classroom. My students read the section called ‘What is Community?’ in pairs, which offers a very direct explanation of what a community is and what makes up a community. Afterwards we had a discussion about what they learned and they added to their idea webs. Had I not assessed their prior knowledge through the use of the idea webs, I would not have known to spend more time actually teaching the concept of community before narrowing the focus to the role of a citizen in a community.
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Anticipatory Planning: Clustering Learner Needs
As I planned my two-week unit I applied Tomlinson & McTighe’s concept of anticipatory planning to the writing of my lesson plans. I thought about the barriers that some of the children in my class might face, and I planned to differentiate accordingly. Generally, I clustered learner needs into two categories: those who find the material too challenging and those who need a greater challenge or finish early. I wrote these accommodations into every one of my literacy and social studies lesson plans. Over the course of the two weeks I differentiated content, process, learning environment, and product. In the first week of my takeover I learned quickly that the quality and appropriateness of the accommodations had a huge impact on my success in helping my students understand the content. If my quick-finishers were left with meaningless or boring work, for example, behavior management became more of an issue and I was not able to offer the necessary supports to my students that found the material too challenging.
Character Baskets
One of the most important ways in which I differentiated in anticipation of learner needs was through the use of the “character book baskets” used for independent reading time. Early in the first week students browsed all five baskets, each of which held books that centered around a theme: friendship, family, community, overcoming obstacles, or school. I told them to think about which basket would be best for them considering the level of difficulty and their level of interest in the books.
Artifact 12
Artifact 12
These are the groups that I assigned.
Students wrote their top three choices for baskets. I assigned them to a group based on those choices and based on where I thought there were the most books at their independent reading level. I spent a lot of time in the weeks leading up to my takeover finding the most appropriate books. I needed books that had strong or clearly defined characters. I also needed books that ranged in reading level from kindergarten or 1st grade to about 4th grade. I wanted to ensure that each basket had enough books at each reading level that students could choose baskets according to interest. The character baskets were the centerpiece of my literacy lessons for all two weeks, as all of the independent work that students did in their character response packets was in response to a book from their basket. It was therefore very important that the books be accessible to all, so differentiating content was essential. Artifact 13
Lesson Planning
On day three of my takeover I taught a literacy lesson on the concept of providing evidence for a claim about a character’s trait. I modeled the use of a graphic organizer during a read-aloud of David Adler’s biography of Lou Gehrig that prompts you to identify a trait and then provide “proof” from the text or illustrations. During independent reading time, I asked students to think about a character trait they would use to describe one of the characters in their book, as well as the “proof”. They each had a copy of the same graphic organizer in their character response packet, and I asked them to fill it in for at least one trait. In my planning I had anticipated that this would be relatively easy for some students, and a real challenge for others. I told the class that if they still had time they could identify a second trait for the same character and the proof. For those who were struggling I decided that I would identify either the trait or the evidence, and ask them to provide the other half. In this case, I differentiated both product and process.
For the second week of my takeover I planned a literacy lesson on character change over time in which I differentiated both the process and the learning environment. Everyone read the same story and was assigned the same page of their character response packet. However, the students who I anticipated would need some support were assigned to a small group with either my classroom mentor or me. The students who could stand to be challenged worked independently. |
At the bottom of this lesson plan is the 'Accommodations' section, which I have highlighted. (Artifact 14).
At the bottom of this lesson plan is the 'Accommodations' section, which I have highlighted. (Artifact 15).
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Adjusting in the Moment
There are times when no amount of planning is enough to create the perfect lesson. Sometimes things just don’t work out as you had planned—students don’t react the way you thought they would, supplies or materials are not available or appropriate, or you as the teacher are just having an off day. Whatever the reason, it is important to be able to be flexible in these situations. Good teachers are able to adjust their approach in the moment.
Towards the end of my second week of takeover I taught a math lesson that I learned a lot from. The lesson went well up until the end of math workshop time, when a group of 6 or 7 students finished all of the work that was assigned for the day with 15 minutes to spare. After checking their work I confirmed that they had not only completed the work, but they had done so carefully and thoughtfully. I had not anticipated that so many of them would finish that quickly, and I did not have anything for them to do. Furthermore, a number of students were having a difficult time grasping some of the concepts from that unit and were barely getting through the first few questions much less the 4 pages of work that were assigned.
The unit that I was teaching at the time focused on the concept of grouping tens and ones in solving addition or subtraction problems. The students had become accustomed to solving word problems about children buying stickers from “Sticker Station,” either in strips of 10 or in singles. For those students who had finished early, the story problems were getting a bit repetitive and a bit easy. So that day I decided to try something new. I took those students aside for about 2 minutes and explained that I wanted them to write their own sticker story problems. I advised them to use the problems in their math book as a guide or model, but told them that they could make up the names of the children and the amounts of strips and singles. I instructed them to write but not solve the problems, explaining that once they had written two they would swap papers with someone else so that they could try to solve each other’s.
The students loved making their own story problems, and they loved trading and solving each other’s even more. Most importantly, they took it seriously and created questions that were appropriate but also a bit more challenging than the ones from the book. That night I typed up a more formal worksheet for students to use to get started creating their own problems. The next day, I explained it to the entire class and assigned it again as extension work.
Towards the end of my second week of takeover I taught a math lesson that I learned a lot from. The lesson went well up until the end of math workshop time, when a group of 6 or 7 students finished all of the work that was assigned for the day with 15 minutes to spare. After checking their work I confirmed that they had not only completed the work, but they had done so carefully and thoughtfully. I had not anticipated that so many of them would finish that quickly, and I did not have anything for them to do. Furthermore, a number of students were having a difficult time grasping some of the concepts from that unit and were barely getting through the first few questions much less the 4 pages of work that were assigned.
The unit that I was teaching at the time focused on the concept of grouping tens and ones in solving addition or subtraction problems. The students had become accustomed to solving word problems about children buying stickers from “Sticker Station,” either in strips of 10 or in singles. For those students who had finished early, the story problems were getting a bit repetitive and a bit easy. So that day I decided to try something new. I took those students aside for about 2 minutes and explained that I wanted them to write their own sticker story problems. I advised them to use the problems in their math book as a guide or model, but told them that they could make up the names of the children and the amounts of strips and singles. I instructed them to write but not solve the problems, explaining that once they had written two they would swap papers with someone else so that they could try to solve each other’s.
The students loved making their own story problems, and they loved trading and solving each other’s even more. Most importantly, they took it seriously and created questions that were appropriate but also a bit more challenging than the ones from the book. That night I typed up a more formal worksheet for students to use to get started creating their own problems. The next day, I explained it to the entire class and assigned it again as extension work.
The front and back sides of one student's sticker story problems. She traded with a classmate, who has solved the first two problems. (Artifact 16).
Assigned work for math workshop.
Over the course of the next few days many of the students, not just those 6 or 7 that finished quickly early in the week, got the chance to create and solve story problems. During math workshop I assigned the create your own sticker story problems as extension work, to be completed after everything else was done. Because those students were engaged in meaningful and challenging work, I was able to work intensively with individuals or small groups who needed that support.
Artifact 17