One of the elements that Heacox describes is student responsibility. In
fact this aspect is critical in the differentiation model. However, not
all students are experienced with this. Explain the importance of
student responsibility in the differentiated model and describe how you
can build that into your classroom learning environment. Read through
the management structures Heacox describes in chapter 8, select one that
you think has the potential for being most successful and one that you
will not attempt. Please explain your selections.
My degree is MAP P-3 so I work with primary grades. It is a huge responsisbility for primary educators to build a strong foundation of responsibility in our students. Teaching and modeling responsibility is crucial for young students. They are pretty much a blank slate at this age craving information. Heacox discusses several great class management structures. The one that I feel would work best for my teaching style would be workstations. Giving students a choice and responsibility helps to build their confidence and to ultimately help them be successful. Workstations are the norm in primary grades and are effective in differentiated instruction. Refering back to Chapter 6 workstations are a great way to teach routines and procedures. This in turn advocates independance and student responsibility. One management structure I would most likely not use would be the clock buddies. At the grade level I will be teaching I find clock buddies to be a little daunting. I would find this to be more appropriate for older students. In reading through Chapter 8 I also discovered some great resources such as workfiles and having a student office area. These resources will be of great assistance to me as I get back into the classroom.
ReplyDeleteOn the classroom managemanet continuum I placed 2 x's in the middle and all others were on the far right. I feel very comfortable with differentiation and find it to be crucial in meeting the needs of all students. Kristy Estes
Due to lots of factors, SO MANY of my students struggle with independence and responsibility. This is always one of my main goals for the school year. In order to manage many groups of students working on different tasks, some level of independence is a must; I try to encourage this by stating clear expectations upfront and also using the "ask three before me" strategy. This helps to eliminate simple questions that can be answered by a peer. I also thought about the questions on pg. 120 and think these would be great to teach explicitly at the beginning of the school year.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Cyberstations are a great management structure, if students can use the technology correctly and have appropriate resources. I am drawn to this strategy because our school system launched a one-to-one technology initiative last year, so all of my students have a Nook to use at school/home. The students are very motivated to learn when they are allowed to use the Nook, so this is something I am continually trying to implement in my classroom when appropriate. With each student having their own device, it allows students to work independently or collaborate with a partner/group all working on the same or different aspects of the task. I am looking forward to using the Nooks/Cyberstations to differentiate instruction even more for students this year.
Like Kristy, I will likely not use Clock Buddies, as it seems a little too complex for elementary minds! I do think, however, that if set up correctly, it would be an effective tool for students to work in various but set groups for different tasks. I prefer the ideas discussed in chapter 6-- having students' names on magnets or popsicle sticks and moving them around on the board to keep up with where students should be, what they should be working on etc.
Wow that is great that your students have a nook to use. I wish my students had some type of technology device to use. I think I could do a lot more with something like the Cyberstations if they each had their on device to use.
ReplyDeleteI think student responsibility is very important when using differentiated instruction. However, classroom management must be put in place before you can allow your students with responsibility. The best way to have good classroom management is to provide lots of teaching and modeling for students. I usually spend the first few weeks of school establishing my classroom management. I do a lot of modeling of exactly what I expect of my students.
ReplyDeleteWorkstations are what I use in my classroom. Workstations allow students to have that responsibility and engages them in learning. I use the "I do, we do, you do" procedure when we first start using workstations. My students have a folder that has a rubric in it, and they know what is expected of them. They take their folder to each workstation and use it to record their answers or use it for a journal. I use a system sort of like the one mentioned in chapter 6 about using popsicle sticks and moving them around on the board when my students are doing workstations. This helps the students and me to know where everyone is supposed to be and what they should be doing.
Like the others, I will probably not use the clock buddies. I thought is was a little to confusing especially for the younger grades. I think it would be good to use in the intermediate grades. I think those students would understand how to use it better.
Is anyone else having troubling submitting the collaboration assignment? It keeps saying google drive error on both of my computers. Kristy Estes
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DeleteKristy, I had some trouble with it (mostly due to my unfamiliarity with google docs). I accidentally restored a previous version when trying to figure out how to get back to where I could edit the current version. I hope mine saved. Did you ever get yours to work? I use firefox as a browser rather than internet explorer. I find that a simple browser change solves some of my problems.
DeleteI think I finally got mine to post recently.
DeleteStudent responsibility is HUGE in the classroom, and hand-in-hand with that is classroom management. Like everyone else has stated I have noticed students in my classroom that struggle when given independence or responsibility. Well established routines and expectations are a must a the beginning of the school year. Even if it takes two weeks of working on procedures, it will make the year a much happier one (as most teachers early in their career, I have learned this the difficult way).
ReplyDeleteOne strategy that I would consider using in my classroom would be "Anchor Activities." There are days that I have students that finish assignments or group work early. If not carefully managed these students distract others around them. Anchor activities would provide them with a prescribed list of activities that can be completed when work is through. The major decision would be if the activities would be worth points or not, and how many activities a student would be required to complete in order to get those points.
A strategy that I would not use would be "Across-Grade Grouping" because I teach gifted social studies, across-grade grouping will not work in my classroom. A different period of social studies is taught at each grade level, and while themes may be similar in middle school, the individual material is not.
Student responsibility is something that all teachers grapple with. It is just part of the job. While student responsibility is critical in the differentiation model, differentiation is also a way to promote and teach responsibility.
ReplyDeleteI would use anchor activities and cyberstations in my room. I teach in a gifted classroom and my curriculum is largely mandated by student interest. Cyberstations are ideal for today's student, particularly gifted techies. Also, anchor activities can easily designed based on student interest needs.
I would probably not use across grade grouping or partnerships since it is a three hour a week gifted class. I might could do across class grouping. We try to group classes as we schedule.
I think student responsibility is very important part of differentiated instruction. Student responsibility is not something that happens automatically. I think you must have the right classroom management put into place before you allow your students to take responsibility and independence in your classroom. I agree with what many have said and that is that providing clear instructions and examples as well as modeling is one of the best ways to achieve classroom management.
ReplyDeleteI think this book had some great management structure ideas. I would definitely use workstations and clock buddies. Workstations are great because you can assign students to rotate through a specific set of activities designed to respond to their needs. There are so many things you can do with centers, allowing the students to move around the room and collaborate is always a plus too. I have used clock buddies before in a lesson I did during my student teaching and it worked out great! I may have used it a little differently than how the book descibes it (it sounds more complicated in the book). The students really enjoyed using clock buddies and like the centers, it allowed them to get up and move around the classroom and discuss with people in their class.
The structure I would probably not use is Across grade grouping. I think this would be difficult to plan because every grade level is on diffferent schedules. I do not really like the idea od constantly moving the child out in and out of their classroom.
Its nice to have a couple of MAP alumni in this class. Student responsibility is a great topic. It was wonderful to read Elizabeth's success story, thank you for sharing. The key are workstations and training. You have to be willing to train your students and provide them with the avenues through which they can be successful. During the 3rd module you will read about Learning Contracts. They seem silly, I know, but they are very effective. As with everything we have discussed this semester start small and train your students how to be successful. Remember, you cannot assess their thinking if you have not trained them how to think.
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