Fourth Week

This week I was able to teach alone for the first time this semester.  My mentor teacher suggested that my co-teaching partner and I could try teaching alone and we decided to do so.  I taught a social studies lesson.  Students read a few pages from their textbook and then I asked them to complete a diagram about cause and effect and write a journal entry as if they lived in the 17the century.  After teaching today and teaching a few lesson previously, I realize the importance of differentiating instruction.  The students that I taught to are all 4th graders who are gifted.  However, a few of the students have ADHD and struggle to get their work done in time.  They are surely capable of producing great work, however it takes them much longer to do so than the rest of the students.  One student in particular has a lot of trouble in writing.  Today, I asked students to pretend that they were a kid living in a Spanish mission in Florida.  The student who has trouble staying on task, completed only a few sentences while other students were able to write several paragraphs full of details.

Because I did not write out an actual lesson plan, I did not thoroughly consider differentiation.  However, I realize that even without a step-by-step plan made in advance, differentiation is still a necessity and should be implemented on the spot.  Therefore, when I noticed that the student did not have much on his paper even a few minutes into the activity, I decided to provide him with in depth guidance.  I pointed to sections in the book that he could use as a resource.  I also provided him with specific feedback when he actually wrote a sentence, probing him to think about additional details that he could add.  Although this was the best that I could think of at the moment, after the lesson I realized that a need for differentiation is necessary before the implementation of the lesson.

In the book Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, the authors discuss the importance of differentiated instruction not only for students with disabilities but with all students in the classroom.  Each student has a unique background that should be respected and considered when planning instruction.  In this case, it is best if a teacher is able to find out students' background information.  Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to learn about all of the kids in my classroom.  My mentor teacher has been exceptionally open with me and my partner.  I intend to use the information that I know about my students when planning differentiated instruction for the Pathwise lesson next week.