Graphic Organizers

Some of my favorite graphic organizers were the following for the following reason. The first is interactive notes. I really like this style because I am wanting to teach older grades and this seems like one that older children could easily look at and determine the story through a simple list. The "Know, Understand, and Do" chart. I really like this just because too often the students know something, but they don't know what to do with that information afterwards. This helps students to make connections with the text. I also like that this has task specific, or generic rubrics so that children that just did it and that is an accomplishment for them while other students did an amazing job being specific get graded differently. I also really liked the contract example because it makes the students accountable for their own actions.

Tiering more specific

I really liked the different forms of tiering. Many of the types in the book were tiered except that they were the students' decision rather than the teacher.

Tiering

Wow! Through reading this, I realized that there are many different ways to differentiate. Some seem impossible to do while others make it seem doable, this is how tiering made me feel. It is something that, as teachers, we can prepare one lesson, but they can be on very different levels and help several children all at once. I really enjoyed reading this because it did not seem so overwhelming.

Chapters 5-6

I found this week's reading to be extremely interesting. Yesterday I was actually talking with my cousin who is a junior in the program about this exact thing. She was asking me how you determine what a child actually needs to retain knowledge, and what is busy work for both the student and the teacher. As the book discussed curriculum today is very demanding, so we need to find ways to engage the students. One thing that I really liked were the "I" statements under engaging. I thought these were interesting because it was never, "This is what teacher wants me to do." It was always, "This is what I want to do." That brings the curriculum to life for every student. I also really liked chapter 6. It talked about using the curriculum to fascilitate students' needs. In my opinion, this is what differentiation is all about, taking the state's core curriculum and modifying it to fit our classrooms.