Evolve

            Here’s a thought. Am I really reinventing my own wheel, or am I just fully becoming the “me” I always hoped I’d be as a teacher? I wonder because, instead of being nervous through this change into a differentiated classroom, I am relieved. It feels “right” to me.  The students were already responding favorably to me as their teacher before I rolled out what I am doing and why today. What was interesting to me about the first full day was how much more receptive the students were to what I was trying to do with them after I rolled out the plan.

            To say it was all my students would be a lie. With one more class to go, I can share that one student did not like the flexible grouping plan.

            His complaint: “You mean to tell me that we won’t be sitting with the same people every day?”

            I nodded affirmatively.

            “That’s stupid. Why can’t we just stay where we are?”

            Kids looked at me cautiously. How would I react? Was the student going to get in trouble? Would I yell?

            I grinned and said. “Different days different people will be sitting together because they have the same need.”

            He was not satisfied but he dropped it. “Staying where we are” is the problem I am trying to remedy through this approach. I do not want to preserve their current levels of proficiency in the four standards. I want to explode them using lessons like surgical strikes to heal what is ailing in their learning.

            The tenor of the room shifted from uneasiness to diligence. Kids got to work and I got down to the business of facilitation their lessons.

            After building home groups, I jigsawed the class according to last week’s quiz. Students who earned 100% on the grammar/Greek words quiz, were moved to the “front of the room.” I beamed their journal question for the novel to respond to and share with me on google docs.

            Next, I moved students who were perfect on the Greek Roots part of the quiz but missed a part of the grammar assessment to the next row of groups. Their assignment was to complete an additional adjective and adverb exercise set. When they finish tomorrow, they will look into my teacher addition, find the right answers and, as a group, present how to correctly identify adverbs and adjectives and the words they modify.

            For the vocabulary group(s,) students were gathered into two tables. Each table was given a copy of last week’s questions. Students were advised that not only did they need to correct their missed answer but that they also had to explain to the class how to keep from choosing the wrong definition for their Greek Root words. Tomorrow will be a formative assessment of the students’ emerging understanding of modifiers.

            Formative assessment is also evolving and I am happy to report that I am seeing genuine improvement in most of my student’s quiz scores. Class averages for last Friday’s quiz ranged from 80 to 95% where as the pre quiz scores were closer to 70% in all but one class. Even the failures (there were VERY few) managed to bring their grades up 20% from the preview quiz. I even had a student for whom I knew a failing grade would be devastating. I took the time to focus on the fact he scored 4/20 the day before but scored10/20 on the “real assessment.” I gave him a fist pound and reminded him that, although he did not cross the passing threshold he made significant gains nonetheless. I was genuinely happy for him. Learning is happening when your progress is forward even small steps in the right direction are genuinely applauded because I coach the way I teach.

            That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.