Week 2 Questions
Please respond to at least 3 of the following questions. Then respond to two of your peers.
- What type of differentiated instruction have you seen in the classroom?
- What topics are you thinking you might want to pursue for your lesson? How might you think about including differentiation within your lesson?
- What have you noticed about the structure of a lesson within the classroom?
- What management techniques have you observed/not observed that you might use within your lesson?
- What types of learning goals have you observed in the classroom?
• What topics are you thinking you might want to pursue for your lesson? How might you think about including differentiation within your lesson?
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about doing “What’s my Rule?” for my first lesson and the “Counting Up” and/or “Counting Down” strategy for subtraction during my second lesson. I will use differentiation by providing extra help to those who need it. I think I will try to provide an extra activity for those who finish first to do, and then I can go around helping those who are having difficulty understanding the concepts I taught. I might also use alternative assignments for the next lesson once I know which students may have special needs or extra assistance.
• What have you noticed about the structure of a lesson within the classroom?
I have noticed for the math lessons there is a lot of review about what they learned the day before, and a lot of repetition to understand more complex conecepts. For example, the students did the “Doubles Rap” every day of the week for two weeks while working on their “math super-powers” and strategies. Each day they learned a new strategy, but the y always reviewed and then worked on prior knowledge. They also usually began in one large group (where the real instruction took place) and then went to work at their desks. The students always had very specific instructions to follow as well.
• What management techniques have you observed/not observed that you might use within your lesson?
Ms. Decker sometimes counts down from three when students are getting off-topic or are too loud and tells them voices need to be off. The students always respond well. She also uses the “one, two, three, eyes on me” technique which seems to work well every time. She will also tell students they are on yellow or may go down to red if their behavior does not improve or if they are not being “leaders”. I think this is a great way to handle challenging behavior because the children really seem to care what color they are on or if they can get a star. It motivates them to work harder or to behave better.
What type of differentiated instruction have you seen in the classroom?
ReplyDeleteI noticed differentiated instruction right off the bat in the classroom. There are always options for the students. They are able to choose some what, what they want to write about, or what they want to draw (on their maps). The students were able to decide who they wanted to write in first person about for their personal narrative, they were able to pick where they were making a map of, but everyone had to do something with certain guidelines. This classroom is awesome to see differentiated instruction in because of the range in the room.
What topics are you thinking you might want to pursue for your lesson? How might you think about including differentiation within your lesson?
I am thinking that I want to pursue the topic of different reptiles in Africa for my lesson. I will be focusing on science and literacy with this lesson because I will be having the students write a personal narrative about the reptile of their choice. I will use differentiated instruction because I will give them different templates to use along with different options for resources and different reptile choices. I will also leave some freedom in what they would like to write their personal narrative about so they are able to make the choice of what they want to write about the animal rather then requiring them to put all just information I ask for.
What have you noticed about the structure of a lesson within the classroom?
What management techniques have you observed/not observed that you might use within your lesson?
I have noticed the "1,2,3 eyes on me" to get the students attention and I think that I will definitely use this technique with the students during my lesson if I need to get their attention for more directions. I really like the technique of giving students the warning of "being on yellow" and the students know now that if they are on yellow the next time they act out they will have to stay in for recess, all the teacher needs to do is say "you're on a yellow" and the students know they need to make a change in their behavior. I also will use the "first things first" technique to encourage the students to stay on task with what they need to complete for the lesson, for example if they want to draw a picture for their story, encourage them to write their story first because that would be putting first things first.
@Amanda- I love your idea for your lessons, it is so true we will all have to pay attention to the first lesson and prepare for the second after knowing a little bit more about the abilities and needs of the students.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed that the structure of a lesson is very similar for what she does with literacy. They review all of the time what they talked about and what to remember. Also there are reminders throughout the room.
The way she gets the students attention is great! I think we all are learning a lot from these observations! I think they are great and will probably use these techniques in my classroom too!
Here is Melanie's Response. She couldn't get it to post, so I am posting it for her.
ReplyDeleteSo far, I have noticed that there is a little bit of differentiated instruction. I noticed that the first graders get different instruction than the second graders. The instruction is very similar but the second graders tend to have harder problems or more problems. In class we have been working on the topic “Africa”. I think since we are working on this topic I will base my lesson on “Africa”. Also, I come in the morning and in the morning the teacher does literacy work so I will also base my lesson literacy. The lesson will be based on literacy but have a theme of “Africa”. I’m not quite sure how I will include differentiation within my lesson. I might use a visual lesson for my first lesson though so all students are understanding what we are learning and what we will, later on, be doing by ourselves. I will do this visual as an example of what the students will do later on because I have noticed that the teacher has done this with her lessons and it helps the students understand what they are expected to do. The teacher then does the visual class work and then has the student do their own work. I will structure my lesson very closely to the one done in class. For management I have observed the teacher do a green, yellow and red system. If a child is behaving the child is on red but if the child does something wrong they are on yellow and if that wrong behavior continues they go on red which leads to a consequence. The teacher also has a “Blurt” system, where she records blurts and if the students have few blurts they are rewarded but if they have lots of blurts their reward is taken away. I do like this system and will probably stick with it but if I do decide to change the management techniques I would probably do a visual management technique where the child/children see if they are acting like they are expected.