What Does The Fox Say?!

Recently, this video has blown up social media.... 

While many people (myself included) find this video comical, this leads me into the topic of this post...what does the Fox Say?

The book, Fulfilling the Promise of a Differentiated Classroom by Carol Tomlinson frequently visits the idea of a student being a fox, that needs to be tamed. The students (or foxes) need to be tamed through patience, time, and listening. As teachers, it is our job to discover what the fox REALLY DOES SAY! Every fox will NEED different things....every fox will SAY different things. With 30 foxes to teach, tame, and understand, it is a daunting and difficult task. But at the same time, it is the most rewarding and fulfilling job that probably exists on the entire planet. And so it remains...the question we will have to ask ourselves day after day, year after year, student after student is??? What does the fox say!? 

Teaching, no Greater Call

I know this post doesn't deal directly with differentiation in the classroom, but I feel it necessary to share. Tonight I went to the Imagine Dragons concert with some of my family. I thoroughly enjoyed the concert, some thoughts kept crossing my mind. This young band is living their dream. They have worked so hard to get to where they are today, but they wouldn't be where they are without one person; The first person to believe in them. These rock stars were once young children, sitting in classrooms, with their life and dreams ahead of them. They dreamed of nothing more but to sing to an arena of screaming fans. They must have learned at a young age, that hard work reaps rewards. Our students are the future society. As teachers, we may be the only person who believes in our students and encourages them to pursue their dream. Be the one. Teach them the power or hard work. Instill in each one of them the capability of hard work and confidence in their efforts to dream, and I never, ever give up. I'm rambling a little bit, but those are my thoughts for the night.

Chapter 6 Reading Response: Responding to Student Needs

When we respond to student needs, we help build the student's sense of self-worth. When work is scaffolded to their current ZPD, the student finds themselves succeeding at things they didn't think was possible. How do we ensure this is happening for all students? This chapter provided clear steps and instructions on how to do so. Student work needs to be:

1. important
2. focused
3. engaging
4. demanding
5. scaffolded

A child is most successful when they feel affirmed, and that they can accomplish anything they set their mind to. A student will feel like work in important when we connect their academics to their own lives, work becomes engaging and important, in their mind. When work is accommodated based on learning tiers and language development, it is focused on their individual capacity. Additional strategies suggested are:

• Focus student product around significant problems and issues
• This can be in the school, community, etc. 
• Use meaningful audiences
• Help students discover how ideas, and skills are useful in the world
• Provide choices that ensure focus
• Look for Ways to present and explore ideas

How do we make work demanding and scaffolded? 

This is often a question teachers ask themselves, especially with a wide range of readiness and ability levels in their classroom. The book suggests quite a few strategies, butI will only discuss my favorites.

• Aim High
• Provide tasks that we genuinely believe to be beyond them, and then set out to ensure their tasks. All tasks require serious thoughts. 
• Ad long as you develop a community where the students know that YOU believe in them, and that they believe in themselves, I truly believe academic miracles will take place. 
• Help students realize success is the result of effort. 

The last is my favorite: "Help students realize success is the result of effort." Our society is one of entitlement. Those members of society who work hard, will be the most successful. I cannot control anything, except for what happens in my classroom. I will make sure that ALL students will reap the benefits of working hard, and will see that as long as they put in the effort, they can accomplish anything. 

Differentiation from the Perspective of a Teacher

The other day, I had a fabulous idea! That idea was to interview friends of mine via social media to ask them a few different questions about differentiation in their classroom. Below is a compound summary of my results:

Question 1
What does differentiation mean to you?

Differentiation is pre-assessment, post-assessment, and re-assessment. It is meeting kids where they are. It takes a lot of planning, planning, planning! Delivering instruction through different mediums and different ways so it is assessable and engaging to each student. Differentiation is hard, and takes serious commitment. It is taking your good, Tier 1 or whole group teaching and adjusting it for a small group or individual.

Question 2
What does differentiation look like in your classroom?

Differentiation looks like seating charts, and then adjusted seating charts, and then re-adjusted seating charts. Students are given different spelling lists or reading books. Tests and assignments are adapted by length to accommodate both the high and low students. It looks like behavior contracts. It looks like private conversations between teacher and student to settle a classroom dispute. It looks like spending extra time in small group, or one-on-one to ensure a student grasps a concept.

Question 3
What is the hardest part about differentiation?

Every teacher replied that the hardest part about differentiation is the TIME it takes. Along with that, the creativity to come up with activities that will engage the students.

Question 4
How have you seen differentiated instruction change the life of a student?

"The most profound change I saw was for a fourth grader a couple of years ago who has severe dyslexia. She started the year on a beginning of first grade reading level. I tutored her 4 days a week for about 20 minutes the whole year and coordinated with her teacher so we were doing the same thing for her. She made a whole year progress after not progressing for 3 years. It was a great testimony for teaching the child not the curriculum. Differentiation is challenging, but so worth it."

"A few years back I had the opportunity to teach a very small class of ELL students. All I had to focus on was reading & language arts. I was able to differentiate each and every activity. Although the students came to me with limited English skills, by the end of the year many of them were able to read many basic sight words and successfully segment and blend phonemes. Many were able to write complete sentences and read pre-primer / primer level books. Some were even able to rhyme (a very difficult skill for ELLs) When they went to First Grade they were confident in their skills and many have progressed out of ELL since then."

"I have seen students work their way out of special ed. classes via co-taught classes. I have seen students feel successful. I have seen students gain self-confidence."

A BIG thank you to Nadine Heifert, Hayley Fugal, and RaeAnn Hurst for their thoughts, and allowing me to use them for this post.

Teaching is Collaboration!

I spent the afternoon reading a few blogs that my fellow classmates have created. I would like to discuss a few of them. I loved how Leah Lott referenced the baseball analogy that was in Chapter 1 of the reading. I also loved that, and referenced it here. Talent is what you have, effort is what you give." If more teachers instilled this into their students- that learning takes effort- that would be awesome.

I LOVED Brooke's idea about being a "post-it" note teacher. We want to really be able to say we REALLY know our kids- but with 30+ students, it is really easy to forget or mix things up. Posting yourself a note about the students you observe is a great idea to track your thoughts, so you can record them on a later date.

Teaching is collaborating- it just is. There isn't a teacher out there who doesn't collaborate in one way or another. Reading each others blogs is a form of collaboration. We are able to use their ideas to benefit our classroom and meet the needs of our students. It isn't a competition about who is the best teacher-- it is ALL about the best interest of the students.

"The Business of Schools"

..."The business of schools is to design, create, and invent high-quality, intellectually demanding work for students....work that engages students, that is so compelling that students persist when they experience difficulties, and that is so challenging that students have a sense of accomplishment, of satisfaction- indeed of delight- when they successfully accomplish the tasks assigned." 

--Phil Schlechty

This was quoted in the book on page 62. 

Let's take a look at this quote, and dissect it for a moment. As a teacher, when was the last time you created intellectually challenging work? Or are they just doing worksheets based on a lesson taught. Are you preparing engaging lessons? Or are you just getting through the units. When was the last time students persisted during as assignment until it was correct? When a student finishes their work, are they genuinely proud of their work? Or just glad to het it done? 

As teachers, and teacher candidates, we really need to think about the above statement. Today's generation is a generation of entitlement. People expect maximum benefits through minimal amounts of work. We need to teach our students the value and benefits of hard work. It is a balance to make challenging work engaging and compelling for all students- but that is our job. By doing so, we are not only teaching our students academically, but providing them with lifelong skills needed to function for the rest of their lives

Teacher Response to Student Needs

This week, the reading assignment was in Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom chapter 4. This book, is seriously incredible. I would love to meet the author one day- it would be such an honor. The reason I enjoyed this chapter is because it gives 100% responsibility to the teacher to develop and maintain the environment in the classroom. It is our responsibility to instill a sense of achievement into our students. When they believe in themselves, and we believe in them, they can seriously accomplish anything.

"The classroom environment includes both the physical and affective attributes that individually and  cumulatively establish the tone or atmosphere in which teaching and learning will take place." (Tomlinson, 37)  This means that before school even starts, before we meet our kids, and before amy lessons are taught, the visual atmosphere will contribute to learning success or failure. That is something to really consider as we are setting up our new classrooms next summer.

I really can't do this chapter justice- it really is better off being read by a prospective teacher.

The second part of the reading assignment was to read pages 120-160. These pages consisted of ideas to help the teacher differentiate. I will share a few of my favorites:

• Interactive Notes (or KWL charts)
• Learning Menus
• Think-Tac-Toe

These learning strategies aid the student in regulating, and choosing their own learning progress. My goal is to use the Learning Menus idea in the field, or during student teaching.