Saturday, May 3, 2008
THINK-pAIR-sHARE
This method gets even the shyest student involved in a one-on-one discussion with another student who may able to more freely share the shy students thoughts and comments with the whole class. Students are learning how to collaborate with other students at an earlier stage in their lives so as they grow older they will feel comfortable when they have do it either academically or professionally.
Make sure that you give them a topic or open ended question to discuss when using Think-pair-share with your students. You can also walk around the room assessing the student's comprehension, listening and speaking skills as they collaborate amongst each other. Allow the group discussions to be student directed and led.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Budgeting for Independence
A differentiated math activity my students completed this year was our Budget Project where students simulated living on their own and making real money decisions.
Students first came up with a brainstormed list of expenses they would have to pay if they lived on their own. Then they were given a fixed monthly income and asked to adjust their expenses accordingly. After this warm-up lesson, we begin the realthing.
Each group randomly selects an education level (ranging 8th grade graduate up to PhD) which has an income level associated with it (based on national average monthly income data). Each group then gets a list of possible options for their housing, transportation, communication, food, and other expenses. They have to accomplish several goals:
- Create a budget that includes all necessary living expenses without going over their monthly income,
- Include any extra expenses they can afford,
- Calculate taxes, electricity and gas, insurance, and other bills (given as percentages; for example electricity is 10% of their housing costs, gas is 15% of their car costs, etc.)
- Create a graph displays their major cost categories (housing, food, entertainment, etc.)
- Develop a written analysis to explain their decisions.
- Create a poster to display all aspects of their project.
- Deliver a presentation of their budget and field questions from the audience.
- Revise their decisions based on teacher and peer comments.
- Complete a self and peer analysis on their group contributions.
Students enjoyed this activity because it related to the real world and gave them the opportunity to step into an adults’ shoes and make decisions. They also quickly learned how to prioritize, how to apply percentage lessons from earlier in the year, and how to associate education with income level.
There is a great deal of differentiation in this just by looking at the goals, each of which play to a different strength. Everyone can have an opinion on decision making. There are options for strong mathematicians, artists, graph-creators, presenters, and writers, so that everyone can play to their own strength. There are also varying levels of difficulty based on how much income each group received!
Multiple Intelligences for Mathematics
For example, a bodily-kinesthetic learner could conduct the actual measurements throughout the room. A logical-mathematical learner could then record the data and provide the formulas for area / perimeter. A spatial and/or linguistic learner could create a PowerPoint slide incorporating the information gathered, including graphs and diagrams. Finally, an interpersonal learner could use the PowerPoint slide and present the groups' findings to the class.
This allows each student to use their own strengths to contribute to the group project. It also helps each student become more involved in the lesson, rather than just one or two students answering all the questions.
Creative Writing
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sun / moon Assessment Project Options
Differentiated Vocabulary Projects
How it works:
Each week my class creates a list of 8 to 12 vocabulary words that pertain to our current week's instruction. These words can be teacher created, pulled directly from curriculum, student created or a combination of the three. The students have a list of 20 vocabulary activities that range from alphabetizing the words to creating a crossword puzzle, to drawing a picture to define a word or creating flash cards. The students' then choose 15 of th 20 projects to complete before our vocabulary test on Friday.
The benefits:
I like this set of projects for many reasons but mainly because it differentiates for all different intelligences and it allows all of my students, regardless of their academic performance level to find projects that they complete and feel successful doing. It has helped raise vocabulary knowledge and it has also become a part of the routine that my students enjoy. Plus, its a great independent center project which frees up some time for me to meet individually with students. you can also use some of the activities to help build basic language skills with struggling readers such as syllabication and identifying nouns, verbs, etc.
I don't currently have a scanned copy of the project sheet but I will add it along with exemplars of student work so that you don't have to come up with your own 20 projects!
**I use this with my fourth grade class but it could easily be extended up through middle school or down to the third grade level.
Pre-Assessment Activity
For example, if a student selected "main idea and supporting details" as their topic, then they would have to explain what the main idea is, and how supporting details are used. The student could either write this and hand it in to the teacher, or explain it to another student. This simple activity gives students a differentiated option of their choice based on interest as well as learning style.
Personification
1. The wind sang her mournful song through the falling leaves.
2. The microwave timer told me it was time to turn my TV dinner.
3. The video camera observed the whole scene.
4. The strawberries seemed to sing, "Eat me first!"
5. The rain kissed my cheeks as it fell.
6. The daffodils nodded their yellow heads at the walkers.
7. The water beckoned invitingly to the hot swimmers.
8. The snow whispered as it fell to the ground during the early morning hours.
9. The china danced on the shelves during the earthquake.
10. The car engine coughed and sputtered when it started during the blizzard.
Citizenship DI activity
Planning with MI in Mind
1) Using story-telling skills recite a story or poem dealing with measurement/conversions.
2) Making/drawing a poster demonstrating their understanding of measurements
3) Bringing examples from nature where measurements are involved
4) Create diagram /chart explaining measurement conversion
5) Preform a rap or jingle designed to help other student remember the basis rules of conversions
6) Perform a skit showing the importance of measurements and their uses
7) Write a story where measurements are involved
8) Conduct a round-table discussion of measurements/conversions or the metric systems in today's society
Learner Outcome: student have choices and can therefore choose tasks that are in-line with their preferred intelligence. Indirectly, their understanding and achievement both improve.
Differentiated Literacy Centers
Hello, my name is "they"
It is because of this deep personal connection that humans have to their name, that I came up with this idea. Every day, I ask my students if they would like to volunteer and change their name to one of the week's sight words. During the entire day, the volunteer assumes the sight word as his or her name and wears a sign around the neck with the sight word on it. Fellow classmates will refer to the student by the sight word (not the student's name). During read-aloud, the volunteer may wave his fist in the air and holler "whoo... whoo... whoo" if the sight word is used in the story.
Students who volunteer to adopt their sight word name become much more aware of the use of the particular word in speech and literature and make it their personal mission to advocate for the word -- teaching other students to know it, read it, and learn how to spell it.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Carousel Walk
I think this strategy works well for my students to see other ideas as well as gives them time to share their ideas before having to write anything formally. This works great as a review for a test.
Self Reflections
I have students fill out self reflections every few days - maybe once or twice a week - to have them think about how they are doing in class and see their own progress. These self reflections also remind students of my expectations for their class work, conduct, etc. They can be modified to include whatever you want students to focus on. I basically make a table in Microsoft Word with headings for five days so they can be re-used, and each row is for a different topic like "I did all of my assignments in class" or "I followed classroom rules." Then, in each box, students give themselves a 1, 2, or 3. It's quick and easy. I let students write any questions or comments on the back, and that lets me get feedback from the students and to hold some private conversations that I wouldn't normally get in a science class (about any topic they want).
Download the sample here: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/DownloadDoc.aspx?doc_id=528901
Teaching Strategies for ESL studnets DI
Display a bilingual word wall for every subject area with graphics or illustrations
Provide opportunities to ESL students to use the computer as a tool to do research in their native language
Use the computer to encourage and maintain writing skills
Model for students and use step by step instruction in English
Listening centers with books on tape
Read illustrated stories - This is a very useful teaching tool, especially helpful to differentiate instruction when working with ELL students or students who a slow readers.
Use high interest literature that reflects on students’ culture
Use charts, graphing organizers, illustrations and pictures
Use manipulatives and real objects
Assign a “bilingual buddy” during cooperative learning activities
Use role playing and reader’s theater to help with fluency
Use the computer as a tool of writing
Use cognates (words that are spelled and pronounced similar to both languages and have the same meaning)
Product Choices Chart
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Research Folders from Ruby Payne
I have used these folders several times with social studies projects and have had fabulous results.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Perimeter and Area
Differentiating for ELL students
When the groups are back to their original word, collect the poster papers, and review the correct definitions of the words. What is so impressive is that students will eventually find the definitions of the words, since they build off of the ideas of the groups that go before them. It is such a valuable activity because it teaches students that words can be decoded, and it makes them problem solve when they come across an unfamiliar word.
This activity is a great way to differentiate for English Language Learners. It also works well for kinesthetic learners, who enjoy being able to move around the room.
Differentiate by interest
Differentiation Strategies
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Using Google Translate for ELLs
To make things a little simpler for my ELL students, I have been using Google Translate (www.google.com/translate). You can click on the title of this blog entry to get an idea of what this blog would look like translated in Spanish. My ELLs have been noticeably happy since I started adding this into my class, and I've made great use of the two classroom computers sitting in the back of my room.
In a perfect world, we can create an agenda for our classroom using MS word (just save as HTML), publish that to a simple blog, and then use Google translate to allow the ELL students to see what's happening that day. The goal would be to get the students independent, so that they know where to reach their own content. Have fun on Google translate!