Differentiated Instruction

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Classroom Management Chatboard

Differentiated Instruction

by Alyssa

Mar 5, 2012

How does differentiated instruction effect classroom management? Overall, is it beneficial or does it create a new challenge?

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(5)

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William It is beneficial, but it takes work. Most beginning teachers I know try to hit the middle of the road students. The top get bored and the lower ones are so lost that they act out.

One strategy is to have some targeted, small group instruction during independent practice. Another strategy is to use worksheets with tiered problems, so that ...See More

Mar 7, 2012

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marjoryt I used to work in a grade 4-12/GED alternative school as the English teacher for grades 7-12 and GED. It was a really tough crowd - gang members, various learning disorders, mental problems, remediation. Among other problems I found my students were operating 3 & 4 grades below age group, with age group, and 3 & 4 grades above age group (so...See MoreI used to work in a grade 4-12/GED alternative school as the English teacher for grades 7-12 and GED. It was a really tough crowd - gang members, various learning disorders, mental problems, remediation. Among other problems I found my students were operating 3 & 4 grades below age group, with age group, and 3 & 4 grades above age group (some behavior problems are caused by the students just being so desperately bored with content).

In order to remediate, teach, and extend learning, I used a "form of" this, modified for the realities of my classroom. For instance, no computers (had been thrown at previous teachers), no group work (I had a student stab another student with a pencil), no take home textbooks (students threw them out of the bus). Taking old textbooks, workbooks, my own materials, materials I found on teachers.net and the internet, I developed packets - 5 to 20 pages of activities ranging from fill in the blank to proofreading and composition all on the same topic. I might have 2 4th grade activities worth 4 points each ranging up to 3 college activities worth 75 points each. At the beginning of the week, all students participated in the "opening ceremonies" where I showed them the lesson plan and gave a lecture - all students took notes. From there, students reviewed the packet and planned their individual activities - they had to choose activities worth at least 100 points, with up to 50 bonus points. Every day, I'd welcome students into the room, ask them "What are your plans today, and how can I help you finish?" The students would tell me what activities - if they'd had a rough night (some were coming from jail or foster homes), they might say, "I'm going to start easy with page 3, then bounce into page 8." Or, they might say, "I want to do a poster; can I have the supplies box?" Because the students chose their activities, and because my job was to help explain or ease them over problems, there was very little conflict. At the end of the week, they submitted the packets and did the unit evaluation (alternating essay or test); this meant there were two grades per week in the gradebook. Attitudes changed dramatically! In fact, at one point, I went an entire 9 weeks without a single discipline referral, while my fellow teachers with exactly the same students were averaging 2 to 4 referrals a day. My students were really, truly quiet - they wanted to finish. Even better, the students saw dramatic improvement in grades and in learning. We TABE tested pretty frequently, and it wasn't uncommon to see students improve an entire grade within 1 semester. My GED students learned their content and passed their GED Reading, English, and composition portions.

Once the packets were established, my work was pretty easy - I toured the room all period, spot grading and advising and praising. The only bad things about this were: 1) it used a LOT of paper. 2) I had to really think and learn about multiple intelligences to provide those activities. 3) There was a learning curve for each student as he/she joined the class. 4) Planning those packets could be like pulling teeth. 5) Storing the work became its own issue; we ended up with each student getting his/her own hanging folder, and each class getting a plastic file box. Students became extremely proprietary about their folders, sometimes asking to review their work and wanting to discuss good and bad grades. About once a month, we'd take 15 minutes to discuss the process - what worked, what didn't, what the teacher, the principal, and the students could do to improve. Based on the results, the students convinced the principal and the superintendent to get a set of handbooks and a better set of dictionaries, so they could do more activities. I learned the students loved sentence diagramming with colored pencils, and they wanted credit for at least trying college level work.

If I did this again, I'd begin working the first day of summer, and set deadlines to have a packet planned every 2nd day. I'd reserve a whole week just for the copying process, and create the storage place. Certainly, this would be MUCH easier with computers.

Mar 30, 2012

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longtime admirer of marjoryt marjoryt: I love this idea, but one question - Did you hand out the folders and collect them yourself? The reason I ask is that when I tried a system where each kid (tough group of high schoolers) had a folder with his/her name on it that I kept in a file box, I couldn't let them retrive their own folders because the folder belonging to the highest...See Moremarjoryt: I love this idea, but one question - Did you hand out the folders and collect them yourself? The reason I ask is that when I tried a system where each kid (tough group of high schoolers) had a folder with his/her name on it that I kept in a file box, I couldn't let them retrive their own folders because the folder belonging to the highest achieving student disappeared. When I tried delegating the passing out job to students that I carefully selected, an emotionally disturbed student took the folders from my appointee and began passing them out himself. I realize that I should have tried to immediately find him some other job (not that taht would have worked) but before I got that far I asked the student to give the folders to me or back to the student he had gotten them from. I didn't think it was unreasonable for me to have control over who had their hands on the folders, but he considered it a major affront. He reacted by kicking a hole in the wall, storming out of the room, and from that day forward, he was determined to undermine my teaching in any way he could. I was a rookie teacher at the time and did not know how to deal with such an angry, explosive student. In retrospect. I think I should have given this boy some small job every day and handed out the folders myself, but in a class of 30, I was trying to speed things up a bit. Amazing how something that should be so simple can get so complicated so easily.

On 3/30/12, marjoryt wrote: > I used to work in a grade 4-12/GED alternative school as the > English teacher for grades 7-12 and GED. It was a really tough > crowd - gang members, various learning disorders, mental problems, > remediation. Among other problems I found my students were > operating 3 & 4 grades below age group, with age group, and 3 & 4 > grades above age group (some behavior problems are caused by the > students just being so desperately bored with content). > > In order to remediate, teach, and extend learning, I used a "form > of" this, modified for the realities of my classroom. For > instance, no computers (had been thrown at previous teachers), no > group work (I had a student stab another student with a pencil), > no take home textbooks (students threw them out of the bus). > Taking old textbooks, workbooks, my own materials, materials I > found on teachers.net and the internet, I developed packets - 5 to > 20 pages of activities ranging from fill in the blank to > proofreading and composition all on the same topic. I might have > 2 4th grade activities worth 4 points each ranging up to 3 college > activities worth 75 points each. At the beginning of the week, > all students participated in the "opening ceremonies" where I > showed them the lesson plan and gave a lecture - all students took > notes. From there, students reviewed the packet and planned their > individual activities - they had to choose activities worth at > least 100 points, with up to 50 bonus points. Every day, I'd > welcome students into the room, ask them "What are your plans > today, and how can I help you finish?" The students would tell me > what activities - if they'd had a rough night (some were coming > from jail or foster homes), they might say, "I'm going to start > easy with page 3, then bounce into page 8." Or, they might say, > "I want to do a poster; can I have the supplies box?" Because the > students chose their activities, and because my job was to help > explain or ease them over problems, there was very little > conflict. At the end of the week, they submitted the packets and > did the unit evaluation (alternating essay or test); this meant > there were two grades per week in the gradebook. Attitudes changed > dramatically! In fact, at one point, I went an entire 9 weeks > without a single discipline referral, while my fellow teachers > with exactly the same students were averaging 2 to 4 referrals a > day. My students were really, truly quiet - they wanted to > finish. Even better, the students saw dramatic improvement in > grades and in learning. We TABE tested pretty frequently, and it > wasn't uncommon to see students improve an entire grade within 1 > semester. My GED students learned their content and passed their > GED Reading, English, and composition portions. > > Once the packets were established, my work was pretty easy - I > toured the room all period, spot grading and advising and > praising. The only bad things about this were: 1) it used a LOT > of paper. 2) I had to really think and learn about multiple > intelligences to provide those activities. 3) There was a > learning curve for each student as he/she joined the class. 4) > Planning those packets could be like pulling teeth. 5) Storing > the work became its own issue; we ended up with each student > getting his/her own hanging folder, and each class getting a > plastic file box. Students became extremely proprietary about > their folders, sometimes asking to review their work and wanting > to discuss good and bad grades. About once a month, we'd take 15 > minutes to discuss the process - what worked, what didn't, what > the teacher, the principal, and the students could do to improve. > Based on the results, the students convinced the principal and > the superintendent to get a set of handbooks and a better set of > dictionaries, so they could do more activities. I learned the > students loved sentence diagramming with colored pencils, and they > wanted credit for at least trying college level work. > > If I did this again, I'd begin working the first day of summer, > and set deadlines to have a packet planned every 2nd day. I'd > reserve a whole week just for the copying process, and create the > storage place. Certainly, this would be MUCH easier with > computers.

Apr 23, 2012

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Christina In an ideal educational world, differentiated instruction would not affect classroom management. Unfortunately, that world does not seem to exist... yet! The truth is, anytime one student feels he/she is being treated differently or perceives another is being treated differently, it could disrupt class procedures, class management, etc. A suggestio...See More

Jul 13, 2012

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Dawn On 3/05/12, Alyssa wrote: >> How does differentiated instruction effect classroom >> management? Overall, is it beneficial or does it create a >> new challenge?

Differentiated instruction means that every child gets what they need. This means that students may be participating in different activities during the course of ...See More

Jul 26, 2012

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