A major component if differentiated instruction is the idea of choice. By providing students with choice about how they want to connect with the content and demonstrate they have met your stated objectives, you are develop a sense of intrinsic motivation. However, is there a limit as to how much choice you can give students? What if your students have never had this much freedom, how do you introduce them to this approach? What are different ideas you can offer students choices that still allow you to direct their learning?
I really like the quote "the demonstration of mastery does not require a specific product" from Rick Wormeli. Students can show they mastered a standard without having traditional paper tests. I recall a former student answering a social studies writing prompt in the form of a comic book. Was his product what I initially asked for, no, but was his information accurate, yes. I thought about it while I was grading and thought that his comic strip showed more understanding than most of the papers I read. In relation to these questions pertaining to choice, students should be given options. I wonder if I had given the class a choice to write or create comics would more students product show mastery. However, I do think there should be a limit. I had a experience where I just told students to write two paragraphs about anything they wanted. It was a huge challenge, I was met with so many questions and encountered students that could not begin without any direction. I realized this was too much for most of them so I suggested we make a class list of things we could write about. Students who had their topic shared their ideas. After we had about ten ideas to write about listed on the board I told the class that they could choose from the list. Students raised their hands and asked if they could write about things not listed and I again informed them, yes, yes you can. I then explained that it was important to stay on topic, so whatever they had chosen make sure they only wrote about that topic. To introduce freedom of choice we did math choice boards in the beginning of the year, I told the class to choose 1 of 3 for Monday, 1 of the next 3 for Tuesday, and so on for the remainder of the week. This allowed them to still make a choice but not so much that they spent 10 minutes just on making a decision on where to begin. It also allowed them to see what choices would be available for the next day, so they could plan or prioritize which activities they wanted to do most. I think choice boards are great because they allow the teacher to direct student learning but students decide in which way they acquire that knowledge. Working in stations gives the teacher control over what they are learning and the ability to modify activities and tasks for each group of students. I have seen a tic tac toe menu used for homework assignments. Students are allowed to choose any assignment as long as it makes a tic tac toe win on the board.
ReplyDeleteWhat grade did you teach this past year? I know that you said you will be teaching first grade this coming school year. That was so creative and a great way for your student to show his understanding of the topic in your social studies writing prompt.
DeleteI love the idea of choice boards- especially for something like a morning math warm-up!
DeleteWhile reading Making Differentiation a Habit by Heacox, I noticed in Chapter 3, students were given a limited amount of choices. I believe there should be a limit as to the amount of choices students are given. It can become stressful if there are too many choices. If students are not accustomed to making choices, the teacher can demonstrate this concept. Sit down with the students and talk to them about what is going on and show them how to go about making a choice. Show them how to make a choice that is best for them, not for everyone else. Some students have not had the opportunities to make choices. Thinking back on my experience this past year, my third graders had to come up with a choice as a team. We were working on teamwork, and at the very end of the unit they had to come up with a culminating activity. They had three choices to choose from - teamwork interview, a learning center on cooperation, or an activity where they had to cooperate to make it successful. After much debate among the students, they decided upon the cooperating activity. That was the easy part. The students had to decide what activity they were going to do that would benefit the school and community. Before I could really read off the instructions, they began throwing out wild ideas. I had to give them guidelines such as to the amount of money that could be spent by the school. The students decided they wanted to do an activity on field day and raise money for a charity. I had them to get pencil and paper, write down five activities they would like to do on field day, and they would choose one activity as a group. I also had them to research local charities within the city. Each student had to choose one charity they would like to see the money go toward. The students discussed with each other the charity they chose. As a team, they would decide which charity it would be. I had to remind the students that this was a teamwork unit and they had to work as a team. In the end, after much debate and reasoning among the students, they decided on Pie in the Face as the activity they would promote on field day. The Pie in the Face went to teachers who volunteered to have a pie thrown in their face. The students chose their charity to be St. Jude in Huntsville. One student had a relative as a patient at St. Jude and was passionate about this charity. After hearing that, all the students were onboard. Although this is not a choice on differentiation, I feel students were learning to make choices. It shows difficulty in the process of making choices; it took the class period of about three hours for the students to decide on everything. I liked the choice board that Shaunta' incorporated in her classroom. This is something that I am going to incorporate into my classes next year. I feel this is a type of differentiation that will help the students.
ReplyDeleteI love y'all responses. Choice is a critical element in differentiation, but many times our students do not have experience with choice. As such, they do not know how to be successful. It is your job to not only differentiate the curriculum but to teach your students how to use choice - teach them how to make choices that positively impact their learning. Y'all have grasped this concept, good work.
ReplyDeleteI love that you said that the students need differentiation with work groups as much as with their tasks. I generally have cooperative groups all over the place, but I do believe there needs to be a balance.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that students can experience too much choice. Often times, I find that when too much choice is offered, the students show underachiever tendencies or present an underdeveloped project.
ReplyDeleteI teach 5th/6th grade gifted students in an enrichment/resource program. During the fourth quarter, students completed an independent study project. Students were allowed to choose the topic, according to given parameters, and they were able to choose the type of final project that would be presented to show their learning. The project/presentation types had to be chosen from a given list, and both the topic and presentation type had to be approved. All along the way, students had to complete specific checkpoints to add to their portfolio. This allowed students choice in an interesting way, and it also gave them enough structure to create adequate projects.
I do believe there is a limit to how much choice you give students, initially. Ideally, while teaching students the value of choice, a teacher is also teaching students what it means to know and understand their own strengths and follow those strengths to identify their passion and develop self-efficacy. This end goal may never happen, but it should be the light at the end of the tunnel that we strive to reach. In the interim, teachers must be aware of the buffet of choices that are often difficult for students to digest. A learner centered classroom does offer choices to students, but only choices that will play to the specific strengths of the learner. The text talks about offering too many activities without thought to how they meet the needs of the learner is not differentiation, it is just creativity. Choices are born out of the need to reach the learning styles of our students and tap into the ways to best meet the methods in which they respond. For the student who is used to being told what to do and how to do it, the introduction of choice as a vehicle for learning can be both liberating and intimidating. The freedom to learn is often not felt until adulthood for many. To suddenly have a teacher that understands that not all students in a class learn the same way is certainly a breath of fresh air; after all, we all need to feel as if we are understood. However, choices in the classroom can also result in fear of not choosing the right one or choosing something that seems to be “harder” than what someone else is doing. Dr. Tomlinson discussed differentiation as an ebb and flow feel in the classroom; no student should see the choices as varying in degree of difficulty, but rather varying in ability to meet the needs of the respective learner based on the KUDos-what they should know, understand, and be able to do. Students enter the classroom with a life that has been formed by choices that either they or someone else has made. They are a direct reflection of those choices, good and bad, and the way they have adjusted their life to deal with them. Why should the classroom be different? The power to choose is something students exercise every day. As a compass, teachers can guide students to make wise decisions concerning their own learning, however such choices should be framed by the learning styles and preferences of our students. Such information can only be obtained by taking the time to know and understand students as people with preferences and not statistics or objectives to be met.
ReplyDeleteAs it relates to choices in the classroom, I really liked how Dr. Heacox explained the Differentiated Learning Plan (DLP). She discussed differentiation taking place in four areas: content delivery, direct instruction/modeling, application activities, and independent application. An infinite number of ideas are available in each of the four areas previously mentioned, but framing them as follows will help the teacher serve as the guide while allowing the student to pick the vehicle for learning that best suits him or her. In content delivery, will the same or different resources be used? Also, will the same goal be for all or will an advanced or modified goal be implemented for some students? For direct instruction/modeling, will there be a single strategy to teach all students or will the inclusion of multiple intelligences be applied? Will a single or multiple modalities be used? For application activities, will the activity be the same for all? If not, will the activity be tiered by learning preference, readiness, and/or challenge and complexity? For independent application, will there be independent, partner, or small group work? Will the application be tiered by readiness or challenge/complexity? Will the choice be based on interest? Following the DLP allows for specific questions to frame student choices. Such choices are based on student learning styles and can lead to the freedom to learn and the intrinsic desire to go well beyond what a student already knows, understands, and can do.
Choice with parameters – that’s what seems best to me. Students want to feel like they can own part of their educational experience by making choices, and we as the teacher can allow that in certain areas to let them feel productive and responsible. This can all be done to whatever age appropriate level is being taught.
ReplyDeleteI was teaching Gifted last year, and we were finishing up a unit on bridges. I brought in numerous different materials for them to choose from. They split into groups. They were given the options to use any of the materials that they wanted to construct a bridge to hold weight. I put parameters on the bridge for width and length and let them know we would test the bridge at the end against the other groups. They loved the freedom to build “free style.” Their creativity really came out, and what they came up with was amazing. In the testing of the bridge, they got to see that just because it looks great doesn’t mean it works great as a bridge. Their choice really does matter!
This, being a Gifted class, was a smaller environment. They were still able to be given a task with choice within a group. They had several things involved in this. They were making choices, working as a group, and completing a task assigned to them. Can this be done right off with every class? No, probably not, but given time and development of a class, absolutely it can be done!
Yes, absolutely kids can be given too much choice, but they need to practice choosing, because life is about choices. I found this out first hand this year, my first year, teaching gifted. As spring approached my older students were begging for more ‘free-time’, so I gave it to them. It was not long (we’re talking 10 minutes) until they were asking what they could do. At certain times in each unit I usually schedule in some independent exploration time using the materials we are studying, it also serves as a formative assessment, an opportunity for trial and error, and show & tell. A comment from your Tegrity lecture was on point, “slowly teach kids to learn this way”, this is so true when introducing anything new, especially in a gifted classroom. As the year went on my student’s endurance has grown and I have gotten to know them better, allowing me to offer them more engaging choices.
ReplyDeleteOne of the posted videos How Do We Educate for the 21st Century, led me to another video Changing Education From the Ground Up, Sir Ken Robinson, both videos talked about how we are teaching the skills of divergent thinking and creativity out of children. I feel that I would be remiss if I didn’t give them choices that allow them to regain a little of that back. I also noticed and from the videos know that this is not a unique observation and that my third graders are more open to new ways of doing things and that they master new techniques quicker.
Leah mentioned ‘choice with parameters’, this struck a chord with me as well, sometimes my parameters are their interests and learning styles, other times it’s the content or materials that drive or limit their choices. I am not required to give grades in gifted, so I am not bound by choice of product as mentioned by Heacox on page 54, but I still want the products to be equally challenging and a true reflection that they have mastered the content in a meaningful way and parameters are a good way to ensure this.