Responding to Student Needs

 

As a teacher I will

• make sure I teach and students will learn what is genuinely of value in a subject matter
• pique students curiosity about what we explore, capture their interest, and help them see daily that learning is inherently satisfying
• call on students consistently to help them become more than they think they can become through dedicated work; and
• be their partner, coach, mentor and taskmaster all along their learning journey

Work is important, focused, and engaging, and I will remember to:

• Focus students products and lessons around their significant problems and issues 
• Use meaningful audiences - Keep in mind the ages of the students, and what interests them? 
• Help students discover how ideas and skills are useful in the world  
• Provide choices that ensure focus and enthusiasm in students learning  
• Look for fresh ways to present and explore ideas. To keep learning fun!  

 

Work is demanding and scaffolded. As a teacher I will:

• Use tiered approaches and differentiate
• Incorporate complex instruction to challenge students
• Use a variety of rubrics to guide quality and assessments
• Provide learning contracts at appropriate times
• Aim high, for myself and my students
• Take a “no excuses” stance. Work hard and play hard!
• Be computer savvy - Have a class website
• Help students realize success is the result of hard work and effort
• Use the new American lecture format
• The lecture is well organized to clearly present key knowledge, understanding, and skill
• Provide students with a blank graphic organizer that follows the flow of the lecture
• Guide students in completion of the organizer as the lecture progresses
• Stop often during the lecture to ask students to review ideas, make predictions about what will come next, and make links with past knowledge or their lives

• Designate a “keeper of the book” or “helper for the day” to record the date, a list of homework or other assignments, and the important knowledge, understandings, and skills explored in class during that period
• Directly teach strategies for working successfully with text
• Use think alouds
• Use small group instruction as a regular part of instructional cycles
• Establish peer networks for learning within a classroom community
• Promote language proficiency for all students
• Team with resource specialists within the school
  
  
   

 BLOGS

Link to Dr. Nancy Peterson’s Blog

and classmates blogs too!

http://inspiretoteach.blogspot.com/

Curriculum and Instruction

The Vehicle for Addressing Student Needs

IMPORTANT, FOCUSED, ENGAGING,

DEMANDING, SCAFFOLDED 

Curriculum that is important will help students know what we study:

• Is essential to the structure of the discipline

• Provides a road map toward expertise in the discipline
• Is essential to building understanding in the discipline
• Balances knowledge, understanding, and skill

Curriculum and instruction that are focused will cause students to understand that whatever we do in class:

• Is unambiguously aligned with stated, essential learning goals
• Is designed to get us where we need to go
• Both the teacher and students know why we are doing what we are doing
• Both the teacher and the students know how the parts of the work contribute to a bigger picture of knowledge, understanding, and skill

Curriculum and instruction that are engaging will help students come to understand that:

• They will most often find meaning in the work
• They will most often find the work intriguing
• They see themselves and their world in the work
• They see value to others in the work
• They find that the work provokes their curiosity
• They find themselves absorbed by the work

Curriculum and instruction that are demanding include the following:

• Guide students in working and thinking like experts
• Place the level of difficulty of work just beyond the reach of the learner
• Make student growth nonnegotiable
• Establish high standards for work and behavior
• Eliminate “loose” time

Curriculum and instruction that are scaffolded include the following:

• The teacher teaches for success
• Criteria for success are clear to students
• Criteria for classroom operation and student behavior are clear to students
• Varied materials support growth of a range of learners
• Varied modes of teaching support a variety of learners
• Varied avenues to learning support a variety of learners
• Small and large group instruction focuses on varied learner needs
• Varied peer support mechanisms are consistently available
• The teacher uses modeling organizers, and other strategies to point out success

The Cogs of Differentiation

Now that I have read and learned about the three cogs to differentiation; what the students seeks, the response of the teacher, and curriculum and instruction, the vehicle to learning, I see the need to incorporate all three elements. In order to differentiate in a classroom, it is vital to have all three cogs working simultaneously with one another. When both the students and teacher have a clear understanding of their responsibilities in the classroom, and where their needs are being met the teaching and instruction can have the attention in which it requires.

TOOLBOX ITEMS

Graphic Organizers

 

Evaluation Checklist

 

Developing Clarity About Learning Goals

• Know
• Understand
• Be Able To Do

Learning Menus

• Main Course - You must do everything in this section
• Side Dishes - You must do at least two of these
• Desserts - You may do one or more of these if you’d like to

Think - Tac - Toe

 

RAFT Activities

• ROLE, AUDIENCE, FORMAT, and TOPIC
   

Tiering

 

Complex Instruction

 

Task - Specific and Generic Rubrics

 

Learning Contracts

 

Think Dots

 

Multiple - Entry Journals

 

Teacher Response to Student Needs

Rationale to Practice

The Classroom Environment

Environment will support or deter the student’s quest for

affirmation, contribution, power, purpose, and the challenge

in the classroom.

Strategies to Build Positive Environments:

• Study Students’ Cultures  
• Convey Status - Teachers need to commend each student in legitimate ways  
• Make a Room for All Kinds of Learners  
• Help Students Know About One Another - Morning Meetings   
• Celebrate Success 

Communication in the Classroom

Teachers and students need to communicate effectively and efficiently,

that communication improves learning, and that everyone in the class shares

an evolving understanding of why the classroom operates as it does.

Roles of Communication:

• Build a group identity
• Ensure that the teacher has ways of getting to know students better
• Enable the teacher to share his or her thinking about teaching
• Provide a shorthand for quick communication among members of the classroom community
  

   

Guidelines for Classroom Observation

Classroom guidelines are generally best conceived not as arbitrary rules recorded on paper, distributed to students, and discussed on the first day of class, but as agreements forged to ensure a classroom that supports maximum success for each of its learners.

1. We will show respect for people, their ideas, and their property
2. We will work hard to ensure our own growth and to assist the growth of others
3. We will persist, even when things are difficult and uncertain
4. We will accept responsibility for the quality of our work and for our behaviors and actions
   
   

    

Classroom Routines

Routines ensure that students understand how the class will begin and end,

how to keep records of their work, how to move around the classroom in acceptable ways,

how to use time wisely, how to figure out where they should be and what they should be doing

at any given time, where to put work when they finish,

how to get help when the teacher is working directly with others, and so on.

• Use visual cues
• Pre-establish groups
• Use goal card regularly
• Teach for smooth transitions

Support System

Supports for Learner Success:

• Vary materials
• Use graphic organizers to help structure and extend thinking
• Provide survival packets
• Use participation prompts
• Build language bridges

 Shared Responsibility in the Classroom

It’s important for teachers to make clear that they are counting on each student

to work with them as a team to improve the class every day.

Shared Responsibility:

• Use evaluation checklists
• Involve students in scheduling decisions
• Engage students in assessing their own progress
• Help students learn to set their own academic goals