Observation Week of 10/30 - Differentiation
Unfortunately, this week I was only able to be in my observation classroom for one day, and during this day the students in this 6th grade classroom are still working on their Ancient Egypt unit. They are learning about Ancient Egypt's society class structure, but today they were working on learning the material independently on their own.
Their teacher started class with a short introduction about expectations, learning goals, instruction, and homework, then the students began their work. They were to log into their online social studies textbook on their chrome books and read through the text, but as they went on each page there were interactive games, notes, charts, and quizzes to complete. I thought this was a really interesting and genius way to get students to be able to work through and learn the material on their own, as they each wanted to complete all the interactive activities because they were fun! They worked on this the whole class as it took up a lot of time because they had to work through six sections of the textbook, some of which they had already previously started, but anything not done was homework and due the following day.
Another fun thing that happened was that the principal of the school and some of the administration stopped by to observe, and I got to briefly chat with them. They asked me how observing was going, how I liked it, if I was excited to be a future educator (and I am!), and how it felt being on the teacher side of things vs. the student. They were all extremely kind and welcoming, and I enjoyed getting to meet and talk to them.
Another fun thing that happened was that the principal of the school and some of the administration stopped by to observe, and I got to briefly chat with them. They asked me how observing was going, how I liked it, if I was excited to be a future educator (and I am!), and how it felt being on the teacher side of things vs. the student. They were all extremely kind and welcoming, and I enjoyed getting to meet and talk to them.
This week in the classroom I focused on observing and learning about differentiation to accommodate different learning styles within the class. What I learned this week was that even when you think you might not be observing differentiation in the classroom, teachers are always working behind the scenes to accommodate for different student's learning styles and needs.
My observation teacher talked with me about that the four different ways in which she looks at differentiation in the classroom; content, process, product, and learning environment. For the content, she designs activities for students depending on their different independency and intellectual levels. For the process, or delivery of materials, she creates activities off of the different types of learners; visual (like use of physical textbook), auditory (like listening to an audiobook of the textbook), and kinesthetic (like an interactive typing activity through the online textbook). For the product, she creates projects where there is a variety of choice based on multiple intelligences levels; for example, a scrapbook, research paper, or pictures/drawings. For the learning environment, she will group students differently depending on their learning style, responsibility, and independency. She'll group students individually if they are able to handle a higher level of material on their own, she'll group students in partners who need help bouncing ideas and content around, and she'll even work in a small group with students who need more help, working through the material with them.
Overall, this week I learned a lot about how to differentiate content for students, and the importance of it for the success of the students. I'm excited to process all this more, and come up with some of my own ideas and activities for differentiation to work into my own future lesson plans!
My observation teacher talked with me about that the four different ways in which she looks at differentiation in the classroom; content, process, product, and learning environment. For the content, she designs activities for students depending on their different independency and intellectual levels. For the process, or delivery of materials, she creates activities off of the different types of learners; visual (like use of physical textbook), auditory (like listening to an audiobook of the textbook), and kinesthetic (like an interactive typing activity through the online textbook). For the product, she creates projects where there is a variety of choice based on multiple intelligences levels; for example, a scrapbook, research paper, or pictures/drawings. For the learning environment, she will group students differently depending on their learning style, responsibility, and independency. She'll group students individually if they are able to handle a higher level of material on their own, she'll group students in partners who need help bouncing ideas and content around, and she'll even work in a small group with students who need more help, working through the material with them.
Overall, this week I learned a lot about how to differentiate content for students, and the importance of it for the success of the students. I'm excited to process all this more, and come up with some of my own ideas and activities for differentiation to work into my own future lesson plans!
Differentiating lesson content seems to be one of the most important, and most complicated teaching responsibilities. How truly interesting! Content. Process. Product. Environment. How wonderfully valuable is a teacher who can put all these things together effectively. And all those different learning styles, intellectual levels, and personalities. Wow!
ReplyDeleteSeeing this sure gives me new respect for teachers, and the in-depth thought and student analysis that's required to put together an all inclusive lesson plan. Patience and serenity needed! Big time!