One united differentiated classroom.

With all the things that we have been learning,

it may become hard to visualize how the classroom will run properly.

All this differentiation.

Different levels. groups. readings. assignments. assessments.

A lot of individualized planning for individual students or groups,

while trying to incorporate it all into one classroom can be hard.

However, I found a quote that I just adore and helps put it into perspective.

Yes, there is going to be a lot of different things going on.

However, students are going to be understanding the same standards and
reaching goals that are similar just varied to different levels.

Yet, most importantly; this is still ONE classroom!

All these different students form a community bond.

It should never begin to feel separated because of differentiated instruction.

The goal of differentiation is to help all students succeed,

which in turn should strengthen the classroom bond.

You should be able to walk into a classroom that's differentiated and have no idea.

You don't see separations between students because of the differentiation.

You see a united class, because all the students are understanding the content.

I feel that this is so important to remember.

Don't let differentiation break your classroom into sections,

because the real purpose is to bring it all together perfectly.

- Mallory

Fair isn't what you think.

In class, a quote was mentioned that I have been thinking about a lot.

I don't remember the exact wording; however, it was something along the lines of

"Fair doesn't mean everyone gets the same thing."

As we have been reading about curriculum/instruction and learning about tiering,

it has become more evident to me that this quote is so true and something I have been thinking about a lot.

We have discussed student's needs prior in the semester,
and we talked about how these needs should form our instruction.

No two children have the same needs;

therefore, it's just reiterating once again that their learning won't be the same either.

I guess the whole "fair isn't equal" is a hard concept that I am finally feeling more comfortable with.

With my siblings, for example, I give them the same amount of gifts on Christmas.
Give them the same amount of cookies when I make them. Yada yada.
Now it is all seeming kind of silly that I have done this for so long.

My brother is fourteen. My sister is three.

They don't need the same things. 

My sister wouldn't even know the difference.

Even if she would, though, it doesn't matter. 

Fair wouldn't be even in this situation.

I think the realization of this has helped me with the concept in the classroom.

Obviously, it is my instinct to provide whatever help necessary for someone to succeed.

However, no matter how much more I help, I won't think it's fair.

Part of me will have always felt guilty in a way for not giving the same time/resources to others.

Yet, I can finally say that it is clicking.

As long as I am helping EVERY child to reach their own level of success, then that is fair.

I don't have to give the same amount of time, same resources, same guidance to every student
in order for it to be fair, though. Because every child will require something different.

The "fair" part is that I am doing all I can to help every child succeed.

The outcome is what matters.

If every child succeeds, then it doesn't matter how much more or little effort it took for some students.

Hopefully that makes sense.

It is such an A-HA! moment for me today.

Yet it not always easy to articulate thoughts;

therefore, I hope it didn't seem rambling.

Just remember, fair isn't giving equally to all.

It's doing what you have to do with each individual student to ensure success.

The graphic below was perfect, or so I thought.

- Mallory

The next cog: Curriculum and instruction

It has been a bit since we have talked about the cogs,

but no fear - we have another cog to make our classroom work.

Curriculum and Instruction.

What a hefty cog!

 I mean, isn't that the whole purpose of schools?

To teach the children the curriculum.

Isn't that the whole purpose of differentiation?

To alter our instruction to ensure every student is understanding the curriculum.

Brace yourself, because this is a cog you need to understand.

There is so much information that we, as teachers, must teach to our students in a year.

The curriculum information expands with each passing year.

Therefore, as teachers, we are always racing to get through the information.

However, that is not beneficial for students.

Being forced to retain information so you can move to the next topic is not effective learning.

Therefore, this chapter in the book helps us understand what to do and focus on in curriculum.

As always, there's a few elements that tie in with this cog.

Important. Focused. Engaging. Demanding. Scaffolded.

We have to ensure that the information we are studying is going to provide a roadmap towards
expertise in a topic and help to build student understanding.It has to be important information
that will help to further the children's knowledge and give them a foundation to build upon.

Everything that we do has to be designed in a way to get us where we need to go. Both the
teacher and students must know how parts of their work contribute to a bigger picture of knowledge,
understanding, and skills. Therefore, the information has to be focused on on specifics.

We all know that our instruction must be engaging in order to keep the students attention on the
curriculum. Students have to find their work intriguing, so that they are absorbed into it and value it.

It also has to be demanding. We know that students have to be challenged in order to grow.
Standards for work and behavior must be set high, and there isn't "loose" time while in class.

Lastly, the instruction must be scaffolded. The teacher teaches for success. Therefore,
criteria for success is clear to students, then the teacher must provide a variety of supports to
ensure that the students are being guided to reach the criteria.

It is often overwhelming to me as I think of all the things that are required to be taught to the students.
The tests that students must pass. The topics they must be knowledgable on. The weight I have on
my shoulders to ensure that the students get all of the curriculum throughout the year. However,
this chapter really helped me to feel more comfortable about the issue. There is A LOT to teach.
Yet, if we follow these elements in our instruction then it is possible for the students to understand.
They will be able to get the most of the instruction and really internalize the curriculum.

I guess the important part is becoming comfortable implementing these elements into curriculum,
and ensuring that we are differentiating to allow every student to truly grasp the content in the curriculum.

May the odds be ever in our favor,

Mallory

Tiers to avoid tears.

We have dove down to learn more about differentiation in class.

I could not be more excited to get more in depth into it!

In class today, we talked all about tiering.

Get a mental image of something that's tiered..

source

Okay, maybe that helped give you a "tiered" idea.

(p.s: i wouldn't hate it if someone made me a cake like this.)

Back to tiering in the educational sense, though.

Tiering has to do with having a tiered (or layered) curriculum to help differentiate in lessons/activties.

We know that if you teach a lesson one way, it isn't going to reach all students.

It may be too low for them, too high for them, not connecting to them, too boring for them.

We need the perfect fit for every student to be able to succeed.

This is where the tiered planning comes into play.

We know that there are different ways to differentiate;
therefore, the tiers can be altered based off different things.

However, we did learn that tiering is only necessary and used for
differentiating readiness.

When tiering there are many things that you can adjust, though, such as:

- level of complexity

- amount of structures

- materials

- time/pace

-number of steps

- form of expression

- level of dependence

The last thing you want in your classroom is for students to break down in tears

(hence the title of the post) over being overwhelmed by a lesson/activity.

Nothing will be learned if they are not in their zone of proximal development.

Therefore, it is so important to plan out this differentiation for the students.

One content area can be covered in different tiers to reach all students accurately.

There was a graphic I found that I really thought showed how to plan a tiered activity well.

source

I feel that the flow chart above just gave me that much more support to understanding tiers.

Hopefully it is beneficial to you too in understanding how to plan tiered activities.

Tiering is essential, it really really is.

You have to make fair lessons/activities that all students will benefit from,

and tiering enables you to lay it all out and differentiate easily.

Get familiar with it, because it must be used in the class to be successful!

- Mallory

You need support too.

The last reading and post had me thinking a lot about support systems.

The support system that we are to the students is essential;

however, teachers need support systems too in order to succeed.

My best friend, Laurel (like Carl), posted a pretty great post about her support system.
Go ahead, check out her blog, but don't start liking her more or anything. ;)

Anyways, if you aren't going to go over to her blog, 

I guess I can tell you about her post.

Her blog post was from her heart.

A part all of us future teachers need to get in tune with.

She talked about how when we gain that connection with the parents and students,

we will be able to gain support systems through them too.

I think that's such a huge part for us to remember.

Parents know their children better than teachers will ever know them.

Therefore, to have the support of parents is going to be HUGE.

They can help us to help their children in the best possible ways!

Another thing Carl talked about was the support her family provides her.

As I said, after reading the text about support systems for students and then her blog post.
I couldn't help but think of the support system that I will have when I am teaching.

People have provided me with immense support my entire life;
however, my family has provided me with the very most.

I do not have any family here in Utah, except for my mom, little brother, and little sister.
My dad and both his side and my mom's side of the family live in Alabama still.
However, regardless of where I live, they will be a support to me as I am teaching.

On days that things are overwhelming, I can always pick up the phone and call my family.
They will be that support to encourage me to not give up even on the hardest days.
They will help encourage me to do all I can to help each and every student.
They will provide me with guidance on situations that I will not know how to handle.
They will be my rock, as they always have been.

You can't do stuff on your own.
It will drive you mad.
Lucky for me, I have a lot of family to make sure I never have to do it alone.

Another support system that I have found to love are my old teachers.
I LOVED my teachers growing up.
 I mean, I can only count on one hand the ones I didn't in 12 years of schooling.
I have continued to keep in contact with about ten of them over Facebook.
They have been a support system to me as I have gone through the program,
and I know that they will be such a resourceful support tool as I begin to teach.

Other supporters that I will have as I teach will be within the school;
take advantage of other teachers with years more of experience.
Take all the help you can get. It won't ever hurt to get help.
In the end, it will only help you and the students that you teach to get the most from every day.

Find your support system and use them.

- Mallory

Be a supporter.

As a teacher, when you get your class roster at the beginning of the year,
you are about to not only become an educator to each of the children on that list,

but you are also about to get the job to be a support system for every child. 

Whether it is academically or emotionally.

I feel that both of those apply to differentiation.

We do not know what will happen in a child's life when they are in our classroom.
In my scenario, my young step dad passed away suddenly of heart failure.
That knocks a child's work completely out of whack, and school often becomes hard.
Therefore, a student going through a traumatic time is going to require differentiation
in a lot of aspects of their education during that time frame.

There are many of my elementary school teachers that I hold dear to my heart for this reason.

They were a support to me when things were falling apart in my life.

However, they did not just support me with my emotional well being during these traumatic times.

They also supported me and helped me to continually to grow academically at the same time.

They adjusted assignments to not be overwhelming for my already fragile mind.

They provided me with assistance on days that emotions were high.

They gave me tools to catch up/stay on top of information when I missed on days I was upset.

They provided me support in a variety of different ways.

They NEVER gave up on me or let me fall, which resulted in my success.

A main way that the text talks about being a support is obviously through academics.

We know that students learn and grow when they tackle work that
is a bit beyond their capacity to complete independently. 

Therefore, in order for them to become successful, they need support.

Simple enough, right? That's your job as a teacher.

However, I can imagine that providing support to 30 students can become a challenge.

Yet, a verbal guide is not always the type of support a student needs.

The text gives some great tools to help support the students with their work, though.

Provide:

- A variety of materials can help support learning on a certain topic.

- Graphic organizers to help structure and extend thinking.

- Survival packets that distill key information, ideas, vocabulary in a unit to help students master material.

Provide anything that you feel will be a support to the students.

You know each student individually; therefore, you know the differentiated support that can help them.

I cannot stress enough that we must be prepared to be that support system for them.
We don't realize how big of an impact we are in their lives and how much of a difference we can make.
You don't want to be the teacher that students look back on and say only made the situation worse.

- Mallory

Environment matters.. A LOT.

Ever since I can remember, I have planned how I will want my classroom to look.

I have contemplated between many themes that could attract students and tie in to curriculum creatively.

I have thought of what the cute slogans on my bulletin boards will be.

 I have thought of organizational ideas to make sure everything has a place.

What I am saying is, I have thought a lot of the environment of my classroom.

The physical environment, that is.

After entering the program, and more specifically, this class, I have thought more of the environment.

However, my thoughts are no longer just directed to color schemes and catchy bulletin boards.

The text said something that I really liked,

"Environment will support or deter student's quest for
affirmation, contribution, power, purpose, and challenge in the classroom."

Therefore, the walls and bulletin boards can reveal much about the wonder of learning.

However, there is much more to consider.

I will also be in charge of setting the affective environment of the classroom. 

Finding time to speak to all students, using an excitement in my voice, and using a positive demeanor
are all ways that I am going to ensure that the students have a positive environment in my classroom.

It has been ten years since I was in fourth grade; however, to this day,
I could tell you distinct traits of my fourth grade teacher and her classroom?

Unfortunately, her classroom was not one with a good environment.

I cannot tell you, though, one thing that we learned that entire year.

It's ironic that the one class that had a horrible environment is the year I took NOTHING away academically.

This is a testament to myself that environment matters.

Both the physical and the affective environments are essential to engage students and help them grow.

I would never want to be the teacher that the student remembers ten years later for negativity.

I want to be the teacher that the students remember for being loving, exciting, challenging,
and and important factor to their success throughout their education.

I am sure that's how each and every one of you wants to be remembered too.

Therefore, put forth the effort from the beginning.

Go above and behind to make your classroom environment the kind that the students love to enter.

- Mallory

The real nitty gritty on flexible grouping.

As we have been discussing hallmarks in class,

they have all been weighing on my mind so heavily lately.

I was having a discussion with a friend about a few of them, 

and she said something that just rubbed me the wrong way. 

"Flexible grouping is great because it makes it easier on the teacher because you are just grouping off ability."

WHAT? no.

Maybe I am a little confused on the whole concept (correct me if i am, please.) but I was under
the impression that differentiation is for STUDENTS not the TEACHERS' benefit.

Obviously the teachers WILL benefit from differentiation, because it helps them to better help each student.

However, making instruction easier on the teacher is not the purpose of differentiation.

Flexible grouping is not just on ability levels and grouping highs togethers and lows together.

In my eyes, the goal of flexible grouping is to provide students with MANY different
kind of groups to interact with other students in meaningful ways that help them in meeting learning goals.

No two groups are ever going to look the same in classrooms,

and that's because no two students are the same.

Differentiation is based on your students individually.

You know the students; therefore, only you can really implement flexible grouping in your class.

Flexible grouping requires thought, though.

It is not just throwing together groups and calling it "flexible grouping".

If it isn't grouped with a purpose of some sort, then it is just grouping.

However, flexible grouping is so essential in classrooms and can be utilized constantly.

Literacy groups and math groups can both be flexibly grouped by learning style and readiness.

You can even use flexible grouping with centers and other activities in the classroom.

To make it simple, flexible groups
- are fluid

- are ever-changing

- do not pigeon-hole students into one "advanced" or "struggling" group

- are NOT based only on ability

- can be based on interested, readiness, learning styles, or randomly designed

- allow for small group, collaborative, or independent work

Flexible grouping provides students the opportunity to work with other students in meaningful ways.

Therefore, if you are just grouping based on ability to "make it easier on you" then you are hindering your
students' abilities to grow, which in turn is hindering your classroom as a whole.

- Mallory

Teachers: What you do matters.

Hi ho, hi ho, off to the next cog we go!

Teacher response is what's next, y'all.

Chapter three is all about 

Teacher Response.

Y'all just know how much I love these cogs.
They just CLICK for me.

They all tie into together to make the class move properly.

Last cog we talked about the students' needs.
Now i is how a teacher can respond to the student's needs.

Again, there's 5 elements that sum it up.

Invitation. Opportunity. Investment. Persistence. Reflection.

After reading these, I feel like most of these are things people do out of second nature.
At least most people, that have a heart, you know. 

However, for all of you no-hearters out there, here's what you have to do!

You have to show the students that you have a respect for them and for who they can become.
Get to know them, show you have time for them, and make them feel needed in the classroom.

You have to give them opportunities to feel important. Assign certain tasks to them one day.
Make sure that they know you chose that role for them because you know they are a great fit.

You have to work hard to make sure that they know you want them to succeed.
They have to know that you will do all you can to find the path that suits them best.

You have to figure out what works best for each student. Like I talked about in my last post,
every student needs individual growth and a class can't succeed without every child succeeding.
Help students accomplish goals, but also understand there is no finish line in learning.

You have to observe how students are learning. If you see something that needs adjustment, adjust.
You have to form a partnership with the students and continually work at it.

It's another one of those things, it seems so simple when reading it.
It's like, well duh - that makes sense.
You want students to feel loved. You want them to succeed.
Therefore, it would seem to me, that you would do all in your power to help them.
You know their needs, now you just have to help fulfill those needs.

Students can succeed and they will, but they can't do it alone.

- Mallory

Only as Strong as Your Weakest Link.

The other week, I gave you a little overview on Hallmarks.

Now I am finally getting around to talking about the Hallmark that my group presented on today.

4. Individual growth is emphasized as central to classroom success.
^ that's the awesome Hallmark that we got to discuss ^

The whole essence of this hallmark is that our focus, as teacher, needs to be on helped each
student to achieve their "personal best." Each students has to have goals that are personal to them,
and in that, will challenge them. The teacher must find a way to help individual students and
their parents realize student growth without any comparisons or competition of other students.
A classroom is based on student growth. Not just one student's growth but every student.
There cannot be class growth without individual growth for every single individual.

I was not able to be in class today; however, my group and I put a lot of thought into our presentation.
This is such an important hallmark; therefore, we really wanted to help others understand it.

To portray the importance of what this hallmark means to our classmates, we went with the analogy:

Your class is only as strong as your weakest link.

Now for the apply part that we put together to really help it click to our classmates.

We have strips of papers that every student writes a strength and weakness they exhibit.
After each strip is completed, we compile all of the strips into a chain.
This chain is our classroom. It is filled with different individuals.

All of which have different strengths and weaknesses.

Therefore, they all will have different goals and different growth along the way.

By tearing one of the links in the middle of the chain, it shows that it has an effect on the whole chain.
One student struggling can affect our entire class.
Therefore, it is essential to work off of those strengths and weaknesses and build individual goals.
Goals that will allow every child to be successful.
A strong chain is the only way that it will stay together.


When choosing the hallmark that I wanted to present on, this one stood out for a reason.
In field last semester, I was in an amazing Kindergarten class.
The teacher showed use of this hallmark in her classroom.
The students were all working towards "alphabet crowns" and "math wizard awards."
(Alphabet crowns is when they can write and say each letter, upper and lower case.
Math wizard is when they can count to 100 while pointing to each number.)
There was a bulletin board in the classroom to show the progress of the students.
Yet it was not a competition for them.
She pointed out that everyone will get it at different times and that is okay.
Whenever a student would get one of these awards, the whole class would stop what they're doing
and they would give a round of applause for the student that achieved the award.
It was such a heartwarming thing to see these little 5 year old so happy for the other students.
This was something they all were achieving as a class; however, they had their own time frames to succeed.
You could tell that they didn't see it as a competition, because students would always show me the
board and tell me how almost everyone has it.
I felt this was a wonderful way for the teacher to implement this hallmark.
These are two objectives that the entire class has to meet, yet she knows that each student is going to
progress at a different rate and that their success is just as important as any other student.

This is such an important thing for teachers to be aware of for their classrooms.
Remember: Your class is only as strong as your weakest link.

- Mallory