Welcome!!
Welcome!!
Reading Endorsement - Competency 4/5
Foundations and Applications of Differentiated Instruction
In this course, teachers will have a broad knowledge of students from different profiles in order to understand and apply research-based instructional practices by differentiating process, product, and context. Teachers will engage in the systematic problem solving process: use data to accurately identify problems, analyze those problems, design and implement interventions, and intensify instruction based on individual student needs.
The Differentiation Dinner was very interesting and I enjoyed it very much. Not only were we able to work with each other based on our interests but we were also able to learn strategies that could be applied in the classroom. While working with our group and observing others I noticed a number of behaviors that could also be observed in the classroom and would need to be addressed. Among the most prevalent behaviors was the emergence of dominant and passive personalities as well as impatience of group members. When members of the group become impatient it often disrupts the flow of the group and could cause tension between members who are dominant versus those that are more passive. In order address these possibilities in the classroom it would be a good idea to not only differentiate according to interest level but then to further differentiate according to ability level. This would facilitate the flow of work so that students are both equally interested in their assignments and motivated to work with others who are at their same level. Overall the activity was informative, not only for us as educators in the classroom but also for our facilitator to see how we function as participants.
ReplyDeleteThe Differentiation Dinner was grouped by interest for the most part. This was a good idea because everyone was engaged in the topic at their tables. After observing the differentiation dinner, if I were to do a similar assignment in my classroom I would first designate jobs clearly so everybody knew their responsibility and no student would feel left out. With the big responsibilities you could have 2 students divide efforts in achieving the specific goal. It was a good idea to have a resource table and assign one person for each group to retrieve their resources to prevent multiple students being out of their seat. Maybe I would add a visual/audio signal or a visual timer to indicate the time restraints for each phase of the project.
ReplyDeleteI believe the DI dinner was too much fun. Among the behaviors I noticed were the lack of patience, the inability to come to an agreement, the frustration of not knowing what to do and in the air you sensed that eagerness to do better than anyone else. I believe that in a classroom setting I would definitely deal with the inability to come to an agreement first since that tends to slow the process down a bit more...my opinion solely. The groups were based on interest but I realized that having the same interest doesn't necessarily make a task easier. The set up was perfect. Everything was made available to us and the "teacher" continuously walked around the classroom and made herself available to all her students.
ReplyDeleteOne positive behavior I experienced in the differentiated dinner was an immediate connection with the group members. We all thought learning more about differentiated instructional strategies was important and that gave us a common ground. Grouping students by interest gives the teacher an advantage because at least the interest level is there. Kids are learning what they want to learn with other kids that have the same interest. Because it was a differentiated assignment, students were able to pick what they enjoyed most and were able to capitalize on their strengths. It was so much fun you forget you were learning. Every group seemed to really want to come up with great presentations. This is the type of behavior we want in our classrooms. Another behavior I saw was a group of students disagreeing on the specifics of the assignment. Although in the classroom you want to make sure you go over rules that will ensure students can get along, the disagreement observed was about the topic. As a teacher I enjoy seeing students arguing adamantly about something they believe in (again this shows the interest in the topic). For this assignment students were grouped according to their interest in a specific topic that was related to the content of the course. Thorough planning made this activity a success. Centers with all the required materials were available in different corners of the classroom. Although students walked around the room to get materials needed, the classroom didn't look like chaos. I think that the number of team members helped with time management. The one group that was bigger than the others needed more time. I'm assuming that the larger the group, the more difficult it is to reach a consensus. Every other team finished around the same time. The teacher walking around also helps ensure that every student in on task. In the end everyone learned and became experts on their topic. I loved the way this assignment gave everyone the option to learn according to Gardner's Intelligences. As an active member of the group you were given the option to learn the topic and present it the way you learn best. One group had music, manipulatives, while others had visuals. Students presented the material in a way they felt comfortable in.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the Differentiated Dinner a lot.I thought it was a great idea to make us work in small groups because we were given the opportunity to see what differentiated instruction looked like.I observed that every group was engaged discussing the given topics and the teacher was walking around clarifying and exchanging ideas, but at the same time supervising each group's work.
ReplyDeleteWe were grouped by interest and I believed THAT made the discussion lively and fruitful.I noticed we were given choices(Side dishes and dessert)to accomodate our different learning styles (Gardner's multiple intelligences).The materials needed were available and students had the freedom to obtain them without disrupting the classroom atmosphere.
The grouping was made according to the interest expressed by the students, and the information was gathered through a very simple activity the previous session: numbering a given set of subjects by interest – clever and simple. Had a self-assessment been used, it would have provided a wider range of information. During a regular school year, in a regular classroom, this information could be used in many different ways for different grouping purposes – great beginning of the year inventory.
ReplyDeleteThe activity was very well organized and coordinated, and it flowed smoothly. I think it met its purpose, and we got the opportunity to learn more about our specific areas of interest. Although it’s true that the largest group took a little longer to complete the assignment, I believe in a regular classroom setting, this could also be managed by sub-dividing large groups into smaller ones.
Behaviors observed: friendly competition among the groups. Within our group, the different personalities come out. Without assigning “jobs”, each one took up a role, and at the end everyone participated in the making of the final product. As adults we were able to assume our roles, and everyone was (relatively) actively involved.
Overall, it was a good learning experience.
Session 3
ReplyDeleteDifferentiated dinner was a nice learning activity where all the members of the group participated sharing knowledge, materials, experience, and also human qualities like patience, respect, capacity to listen the other person, and acceptance of different ideas.
What I enjoy the most was observing and laughing about our own mistakes.
I think it is a valuable group activity where all the members have the option to learn the topic according to their preferences and/ or interests. It is also named "Group Activity; Team Work; Study Group or Collaborative Learning" usually used in the education and in the therapy fields due to their benefits.
Researches demonstrate that the students learn best when they are actively involved in the process.
It was great to have the opportunity to work in groups according to our interest and being able to share ideas as well as activities. A behavior that I observed during the activity that I would like to address with my students is that at the beginning there was some confusion about what we had to do and how we were going to do it, which could eventually cause students to be disruptive, discourage and frustrated with the activity and the group itself.
ReplyDeleteAn interest questionnaire would have been perfect as a self assessment due to the fact that is a great way to get a more precise data from the students and to have a more accurate way to form the groups in the future.
Everything worked out as planned by the teacher according to organization of space, time management and learning; we were also provided with the proper tools and means to stay on task.
During the activity (Differentiated Dinner), I observed that some of the members of the group began to read the suggested sources immediately, while others took their time to identify what was their role in the group presentation. I think that the same thing may happen in my classroom if I prepare a similar activity for my students. I would probably assign predetermined roles to avoid some of the students to do all the work.
ReplyDeleteWe were grouped according to our interests and it was interesting to see how everybody got involved in the activity, using our different learning styles.Every group had enough space to work and the time was managed with flexibility.
I enjoyed the last class a lot. I have been trying different methods in my classroom to address the objective of the class, and definitely the Differentiation Diner is going to work in different ways. I am now teaching the chapter of Fossils and I prepared a lab in groups like we did in our last class where some of the students had to represent the rock cycle; others had to represent the formation of fossil in sedimentary rocks, the mold and the cast. They had to decide which group they wanted to work in and how to present the problem; they had to prepare the practice activity and a written conclusion. As I expected, first, they were grouping with just there friends, but despite that, the students with the worse behavior problems decided to do the practice activity, while others preferred to do power point or written activities. They used plenty of resources such as clay where they recreated the mold and cast, sugar, hot plate simulating magma and sedimentary rock, and igneous rocks. They had enough space to move freely in their groups. After that BIG mess I realized that I have to manage better the way they form their groups. Even though the purpose of the class was accomplished, every one learned according to their personal interest and potential, so all of them learned.
ReplyDeleteI observed that students must stay on task. Certain time should be allotted for each task assigned and a teacher should monitor the transition. In this DI we were grouped by what we wanted to learn more about. If the self assessment has been on an Interest Questionnaire then we would have been grouped by what we enjoy doing and fing the most entertaining. When we walked into the room it was already arranged for our DI lesson. In the corner the instructor had all the materials that we would need to complete our assignment. On a table she had books for us to use in order to find the information required. As for time management, we were given enough time to discuss, organize, create and share our projects with each other. No two projects were the same. It was nice to see the variety in the room. Everyone was able to choose what they wanted to do within the group and as a group we were able to complete the tasks that we felt comfortable doing. Everyone’s learning styles were met.
ReplyDeleteI truly enjoyed our differentiation dinner. Our group got along excellently. Each of us had a different job and we seemed to know exactly what we had to do. We each did what came naturally to us. Then we put it all together and presented. Of course there are the group members who lead and the group members who follow. That's just normal. I thought our group worked very well together. We had so much fun, it didn't seem like work. I think that we used all of Gardner's multiple intelligences, short of musical ability. We organized our time, our space, worked together and the end result was our presentation and what we learned personally from working together. If I were to use this in the classroom, I would definitely have to do a lot of planning because my group is so diverse, and I think I would give an interest inventory in order to be able to find a common goal for my students. The differentiated dinner made me feel closer to getting better at differentiated instruction which is my goal.
ReplyDeleteSeeing it through the eyes of adults was great. I really enjoyed this activity our group was involved in this activity because we had concerns with the grading policy set by administrators. This activity made a lot of sense to me because I have a couple of students who runs to the same center every time I allow them to choose. This is there safety zone they feel comfortable during that particular activity. This where they do their best . Now I have to plan other activity on that particular skills or style so they could move to other centers or activities. Dinner was really great I was full when I left.
ReplyDeleteThe differentiated dinner was a great learning experience for me. NOW that I've seen and worked on a well planned and structured lesson, I can put it into practice with my students. I was working harder as to creating group work activities not based on one concept..I will take extra time to plan a DI lesson for my students based on their needs or interest.At the differentiated dinner everyone in the groups participated and collaborated with ideas for the project,we got really involved and it was a fun class and time went fast.The classroom was set with all the items needed for the project; books, construction paper, magazines and more.. The timing was just perfect. The grouping was done by interest. Great DI activity.
ReplyDeleteThe differentiated dinner... What can I say? I just love It!! It was a truly learning experience for me from any aspects. For instance, we learn DI content. Our topic was the learning environment we learned from the research that we did but also from one another. Each one of us have wonderful experiences that put it all together create a delicious learning salad.
ReplyDeleteI also learned from my partners. Each one of us have a different perspective of the topic but we found consensus on what was the ideal DI learning environment.
The provisions made for us the students was to select according to our interest the topic, the materials, and the final product. It was great that we could it find our "comfort zone" to learn without harming the learning experience.
I think the activity was well designed and well planned having in mind each one abilities and interest.
I'm thinking how to implement it in the elementary school.
The differentiation Diner was an exciting experience, the member of the groups were selected according to their interest. I was able to observe that each participant was sharing ideas, activities and also giving and receiving positive reinforcement with each role developed within the group. Everyone had the opportunity to improve, learn and debate new ideas. The identification of the individual role was crucial in order to develop the whole project. An interest questionnaire will be an effective assessment; it will be useful to identify preferences. During the activity everyone’s learning styles were met, everyone enjoyed and learned about each respective topic. Flexibility was present in the content, process, and product. The variety of sources, materials, talents, knowledge and skills were the essential for this activity.
ReplyDeleteThe Differentiated Dinner was an awesome example of DI at work. To begin with, each group was able to address their specific area, work in a small group, and create a product to reflect what they had learned. The students in the group exhibited similar behaviors to what you might find in a classroom. The observed behaviors evolved during the activity. Our group went from having one very vocal member and others not as eager to participate, to a group where each person felt comfortable, was engaged and eager to discuss their ideas/opinions on the topic. In a classroom you would deal with similar behaviors and it might be beneficial to assign specific roles to each student to help get the group going. We were grouped based on our response to a self-assessment; a topic we wanted to learn more about. If we would have been grouped by an interest questionaire, we would have been grouped based on what we like, and the opportunity to learn more on a topic may have been negatively impacted. Our teacher took care of making sure the room was arranged perfectly. Materials were available to meet the needs of all learning styles. The teacher served as a facilitator, managing time and providing assistance to groups as needed. I would like to be able to do an activity like this as a PD for the teachers at my school.
ReplyDeleteDifferentiated Dinner the menu was amazing it was a great choice. This activity was a great opportunity to work with members that shared the same interest. We shared different ideas and strategies from each other, that could help us in the classroom. It showed us exactly how to group our student, and to create different lesson for our student's to be motivated to learn at their level. Material were available to meet our needs of all learning styles.
ReplyDeletethe one behavior I observed in this activity that really made an impact on me and how I will teach, happened in my own group. In my own group, we just were not on the same page. Two members read the assignment one way, and one member read it another way. If we were not mature adults, and instead kids, an argument may have broken out or participation from one of the members may have just stopped. What we did is ask the teacher to clarify. For my own groups, with kids, I think I will make scaffolded instruction sheets or step by step instructions, sort of like a cookbook recipe.
ReplyDeleteThe differentiated dinner was very engaging. As students, we were able to work in groups based on our interests. This helped us as teachers to learn yet another way of implementing DI in our classrooms. While we were completing our assignments, I was able to observe the different behaviors that were being exhibited by the students. For example, I noticed that every group had a leader. Even though the teacher did not assign a leader per say, there was one person in every group that kind of took charge. There were also some students that just listened and observed and went along with what was being said and done. This can pose a problem when working in groups because some students may feel that at the time of grading it is not fair that everyone gets the same grade. These are some things that need to be considered when planning for such activities. As far as organization, space and time management. I thought that it was all well thought of by the facilitator. The space was fine. There was enough room for students to walk around and collect the different materials needed to complete the assignment. The organization was great. The facilitator really thought out what the students needed and made sure that the materials were all accessible. As far as time management, this is an activity that can be done in a period of two sessions or more if need be. It is easy to adapt and accommodate the needs of the learners. I really liked how students were able to construct their end result based on the different intelligences discussed by Gardner. This made it easier for the students to identify with the ways they learn best.
ReplyDeleteThe Differentiated Dinner was a good activity because we were actively engaged in the lesson. Learning is active hearing, seeing, touching using all of your senses helps you retain information better. For this activity grouping students by interest didn't aid or hinder the process in any way. Simply designing the activity around the various learning styles made it a success. In my classroom I would have added a stopwatch to curve restlessness among groups. The most pressing thing that I noticed was how some group members seemed to "take over". Without actually assigning individual tasks this could be problematic in some situations. Especially if you have a student like me!
ReplyDeleteThe differentiated dinner was very good and I liked it, it was a very good idea by the teacher. I noticed that students working with the same topics in a group project is not always as easy as it seems. There were similarities between us and differences same as what I see in the classroom with my students. By assigning a duty or responsibility to each of us in the group we were able to feel more involved and there were a better connection in each group, these kept a good flow. We even had the opportunity to learn from each other in this activity. Overall the activity was informative and each student waited to do their best for their group.
ReplyDeleteSo far, the differentiation dinner has been my favorite activity in this course. Even though I didn’t get to choose my topic, it was a great learning experience to work with my assigned group on creating a teaching product based on a lesson plan. All the members in our group are teachers, but in different subjects, different schools and different grade levels, and we all have noticeably different personalities. But when it came to working on our assignment, there was great enthusiasm and we all focused on our designated tasks that we got to chose according to our abilities and preferences, or simply according to the need at moment. I will definitely include this type of activities on my lesson plans. I know my students will love it !
ReplyDeleteIn the Differentiated Dinner students behaved much like the personality types found in the classrooms. Some were quite organized and self- directed, knowing the expectation from the get-go while others waited for the leaders to jump in and initate. Some were reluctant to comrehend what was expected or to grasp the assignment rather bewildered. They were learners from the ones who modeled pro-activeness. Some ’students’ loved the craft /creative element to the assignment and were focused intently to this facet whikle others wanted to research the book for phrasing and wording to make the presentation intelligent. Still some others were eager to be the oral presenters and make the leson relevant to the ’class’. Yes, all of these learner types are in my classroom and it is plain to see that some element of ones preference should be available to them in every lesson plan presentation! The tables were labeled with one of six groups and with headings so that we were grouped with ’like- minded’ perhaps similar-ability ’students’. We were presented an assignment but allowed to discuss and choose the method of presentation and sources of content.The self-assessment was self imposed as we compared presentation by table and learned even more ways to make a great presentation. The Interest Questionaire would be a way of understanding the likes of your students and choosing lessons that incorporate ’where they are’ in their learning . Our tables were sufficient for the number of students and we were told to do the assignment - within the time range of the class session. The whole group became the ’beneficiaries’ of everyone elses work rather than each person doing all six heading themselves, which economized time, and was so much more enjoyable than isolated learning. I belive that all of Gardners Intelligences were illustrated remakably with the DI instruction we received in this lesson.I personally feel challenged to styretch my lesson plans to meet the needs of each student
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