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.
It is very important for students take responsibility in their learning in general as well as in differentiated lessons. I think students need to take ownership even more during tiered activities or in groups because they will have less teacher instruction. It was challenging to get my fourth graders to control their volume in groups. Even though I tried to match students with other students on their level behavior became the issue so I had to move some students around. I liked the anchor activities and the list of questions to address prior to groups. I think answering these questions before every group activity will help solve some of the issues I experienced this past year. Students should be responsible for completing their tasks and producing a product. I found that using the overhead online timer helped guide my students through group time and encouraged most of them to stay on task and focused. The teacher can also display the expectations for the students, I often used checklists for group activities and posted them on the board for students to reference. The teacher should make sure each student knows what to do, where to find answers or resources, and what to do when finished. It is the students responsibility to complete these tasks and follow the example established by the teacher.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this chapter in particular the part about clock buddies. I think it is cute, fun, educational, and valuable. I will definitely be adding this strategy to my tool belt. I loved the idea because it includes the students in the creating part and provides them with some controlled choice options. I plan on experimenting with this tiered management strategy this upcoming year with my first graders. I am actually really excited to see how it works in action. Although I liked the idea of having students use office space, this past year did not go so well. I started the year modeling and practicing how and where to place papers and assignments but as the year went on it became too time consuming. Students were still placing papers in the wrong cubby, losing papars they claimed to have filed, and using it as a social corner instead. I also found it difficult to keep up with filing take home papers and newsletters during the day; especially on those days I did not have a planning period. By the end of the year I assigned certain students those tasks as class jobs. I am open to try it again if I teach upper grades in the future but not with younger grades.
I love to use the overhead timer for my students! When I have been unable to use it, the students take longer on the assignment they are working on and they seem to "waste" time. When I have it posted, the students see how long they have and work harder on the assignment.
DeleteI loved the clock buddies too! I think in my classroom, I might start with just two buddies (12 and 6) to teach the strategy. It's so important to teach them what it means to work in a group and how to get things accomplished. I expect my students to be responsible, but I know I have to teach them how to accomplish that first! :)
DeleteStudent responsibility is very important. The goal is for students to be self-motivated and held accountable for their work. It is important that they acquire this trait now and it continues to adult life. Students have to be taught how to be responsible. Teachers model what they want students to do and the way for it to be done through routines. It is important to have assignments and procedures posted in places that students can see. Classroom set-up, management, and showing students at the very beginning of the year or lesson what is expected of them sets up for successes. With differentiation instruction, the teacher cannot be accessible to all students at all times. Students have to know expectations of the lesson and behavior, so students must be able to self-direct. This can be built into my classroom learning environment by me having my materials and self prepared. I need to practice this each day and know where my students are academically. Knowing my students and modeling my expectations of them is a must.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Cyberstations would be successful in my classroom. Our world is very involved in technology. The school system I work for advocates the use of technology. Cyberstations would promote my students' confidence in technology even more. Our students love the opportunities to use their laptop for any educational purpose. I really do like the idea of Clock Buddies, however I do not see how it would be very successful in my classroom. I have small groups of students that come to me with limited time. I see my students for only three hours once a week and am always rushed to get my lessons and their independent time in for the day. I know that this could be modified to meet my classroom needs.
Self-motiviation was a HUGE issue for some students in my class last year. We departmentalized at the beginning of the year and it was a disaster. Many students had motivation issues for the remainder of the year. I think you made a good point, the teacher has to model for students. Being structured and organized are difficult tasks for me, but I must work on this if I expect my students' learning to be meaningful
DeleteStudent responsibility is essential to the success of a differentiated classroom model. Unfortunately, I have seen a decline in the responsibility and accountability of students in recent years. Therefore, these skills must be taught to students in the classroom before the differentiation model can be put into place. To do this, the teacher must model these skills, as well as set clear expectations with the students. Sometimes, I feel that it is beneficial for students to see what the behavior looks like- aside from the teacher just telling the students.
ReplyDeleteI already use work stations in my program (although I call them can-dos and must-dos- and there is perhaps too much freedom in that), and because we are one-to-one with Macs, we use WebQuests often. I do love the idea of clock buddies, and I think the use of something similar will benefit my students. Because I teach upper elementary, I think I would like to try the same concept, but perhaps with an iPhone-type layout and "apps". This is an interesting idea to me because even though there are parameters set, there is still student-choice. For example, 12:00 buddies choose from someone in their color group. Teacher gets what she needs because students are meeting with someone on their level, and students don't feel quite as controlled by the situation.
I like the idea of partnerships, but I don't see how it would apply in my own classroom. I only see my students four hours a week in an enrichment-type pull-out program, so this is not something that would apply for us.
The degree of student responsibility is the key characteristic that will determine the success and/or failure of differentiated instruction. This is not something that students enter classrooms with; it is a trait that students must develop through teachers who serve as compasses focused on developing the intrinsic factors necessary to be a self-motivated, reflective learner. Because in the differentiated model, the various needs of students are being met by one (or two) facilitator (a teacher and possibly an aide), students must have the discipline to work independently and knowledge to solve problems on their own. They must be equipped with know how to manage and organize their time to complete learning tasks and products. Building student responsibility into classrooms is done much like a parent raises a child. Through activities with increasing student responsibility, a teacher can build the confidence and ability of the student to think and act responsibly on their own. Specifically, ideas for building degrees of student responsibility are as follows: students being in charge classroom chores; assigning roles to groups that students are responsible for fulfilling the duties of; introducing limited choice from the beginning of class and increasing the number of choices as students manage the idea of choosing products, processes, and content to undertake; self-reflecting and self-evaluating progress and performance in class; and peer-evaluation of group projects – all of these ideas can increase presence of student responsibility in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think, on the whole, workstations have the potential to be the most successful management structure in the differentiated model. Many activities can be conducted simultaneously to meet the multiple needs of learners in the same classroom. The workstation management system also allows for the same activities to be conducted at different challenge levels, again to meet the various needs of learners in a single classroom. Great care needs to be undertaken, however, to ensure that the activities do represent the necessary challenge levels that need to be levied and/or the learning styles that need to be met. To implement workstations with varying activities but no purpose is just creativity and not differentiation. The management structure that seems the most ineffective is clock buddies. While it can be used to group students based on readiness-alike, learning preferences-alike, readiness-different, and random and selected by students, the amount of time, planning, and direction-giving required to effectively implement has the potential to overshadow the differentiated instruction this management system can offer.
As I looked at the Classroom Management Continuum to define myself, I was taken back a bit. I have always thought of myself as being a teacher with good classroom management ability. What I stopped to wonder was if I have allowed enough student choice and independence in the process. I am moving more to that, but it was an eye opener. Last year teaching first grade in a leave of absence, we implemented The Daily 5 strategies. It really helped to begin to move away from the Teacher centered classroom to the Student centered classroom. So with that in mind, I really liked the use of Clock Buddies and would like to try that. I feel like it would take a bit to coordinate at first to make sure that differentiation is taking place appropriately, but once it is in place, it would work really well. I liked that there is opportunity in using the Clock Buddies for the students to choose who they work with and set up their clocks. Independence and interest there is key.
ReplyDeleteI loved having a "student office area." We called it their mailbox, and they worked really hard to take care of their papers, putting their papers to go home in their mailboxes, and collecting their papers at the end of the day.
The one that I would have trouble trying out would be the Across-Grade Grouping. It is difficult many times to coordinate things with other teachers, and to add your differentiation plan into another teacher's differentiation plan seems like a very difficult challenge.
Previous to teaching gifted I taught kindergarten, we were frequently telling our students to make good behavior choices, while failing to teach them how to make good choices. Another common belief was that today children have too much pressure to make choices; I don’t think it is fair to ask a 10 year old which parent they want to live with for example, but it happens all the time. As I researched teaching gifted I noticed information about offering choice and reluctantly started offering choice of products. In reading Westphal I am learning the value of teaching children how to make good learning choices; I’m all in now, realizing that since they are in a position to make life choices it behooves teachers to embrace teaching the process of giving students the responsibility of making good learning choices.
ReplyDeleteReading Westphal and Heacox were helpful because they gave step by step specifics, even offered scripts for explaining to students how to make choices based on their learning preferences. Because my students don’t get a grade for their products in gifted class, I have struggled with student responsibility. One method that has worked for me is having students share their work with the group. Another is challenges and contests. Using rubrics are also helpful, especially when they anonymously grade and give feedback on each other’s work. Giving students choices leads to greater satisfaction and ownership of their work.
A method used in chapter 8 that I’ll be adding to my repertoire is the hanging file rubric since I will be offering students more choice of content, process, and product and especially since I will be using so many rubrics in each unit now. I already use a variation of workstations and I will probably differentiate them based on student interests and learning styles. I probably won’t try the Clock Buddies approach because I don’t have my students every day and readiness is usually not an issue.
The level of student responsibility expected or freedom of choice given depends on the age of the students (developmental level), and the type of class being taught. In any case, self-monitoring is a skill that every student needs to be practicing to enhance their confidence, self-efficacy, and to enable them to achieve success not only academically, but on many levels. In a differentiated classroom, teachers are spread thin, I imagine, and must rely on students to stay on task and complete work without being hovered over or constantly checked. I think, in my gifted classroom, I will be frequently talking and asking my students about life skills, ethics, and philosophy. I do think instilling values is a multi-faceted process that happens over time and requires action from students. Character-building activities, like volunteering (service learning) could certainly play into the concepts of integrity and self-esteem, which are at the core of personal responsibility. I'm interested in Heacox's suggestions of workstations and cyberstations because they sound simple to implement and are clear-cut. Physically dividing students into areas seems like it could streamline the differentiation process and would be a good way to assign individually appropriate lessons while being inconspicuous. It also value technology and physical movement around the classroom, especially for gifted kids, who are often excitable and need changing stimuli.
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