What's Better?

            Have you seen that commercial that’s been running on tv lately, where the spokesman asks elementary children “What’s better?” and the two choices are so clearly unequal that the question is nearly specious? It’s funny the first time you see it and then it becomes insipid, right?  That’s how I am now feeling about the question about the efficacy of differentiated instruction. Which is better: 1- a situation where the teacher slaves over whole class instruction lesson plans and attempts to teach a block of eighteen to twenty-eight students simultaneously, or 2- a class centered upon the individual needs of each learner? If you are the student, or if you are that student’s parent, the question is first speciously funny and then it becomes insipid. If you’re an educator rebelling and rebutting this idea as you read this, consider this: on staff development days, do you prefer to be talked at in 45-90 minute blocks, or do you prefer to interact with your colleagues and learn the material together? I guess I’m the oddball because there is no contest between the choices.

            My empirical data is backing up that I made the right call. My spreadsheet that I use to track benchmarks is color-coded: blood red for below basic, fire engine red for basic, blue for proficient and green for advanced.  My blood-red students have migrated from below basic to basic and even a few catapulted to proficient and advanced proficient scores. Many basic scoring students from the first benchmark have progressed to proficient. Even some of my proficient students have crossed into the advanced threshold.  The second benchmark exams were given only 2 weeks into my classroom “reinvention.” I could say that the data only shows that I have been an effective classroom teacher. I will concede that this may be true, but if that is all that the data is telling me, then student scores should explode by the next benchmark this spring. Stay tuned.

            I must confess that if I were a color I would be a neon day-glow hue and the farthest from gray. I am excited to teach my students every day. I am energized by minor milestones, and egged along by my student’s enthusiasm. One student put it this way in his end of the marking period reflection:

You're a good teacher but you have the energy of a 5 year old on candy and I have to get used to that.

Guilty. My enthusiasm and energy comes from my desire to keep my students engaged. Students can accuse me of being crazy or crazed but they can’t call me or my class boring.  Students who have become accustomed to the sedate and measured approach to teaching, take a while to adjust to my approach to the classroom.

            I am encouraged by the feedback I am receiving from students about how the change is going:

1.     English is a class that I look forward to everyday because it is fun and I like learning about English. I like the way you set up the classroom in stations. I like it better than before because it focuses on our special needs. I hope English stays this fun until the end of the year.

2.      My first study island of the year I received a below basic. The second one I took recently I got an advanced. So my attitude on school changed. I started working hard to pick up my grades and get A’s in all of my classes. I didn’t get A’s in every class but I got all A’s and B’s.

3.      The thing I like most about English 8 is that we are separated into groups based on our skill level. That is my favorite part of English 8 because I prefer to be in groups and be taught one on one.

4.      What I like the most about it was that the teacher puts himself in our shoes and interacts with us instead of just talking the whole time.

5.     I don’t want to change my English teacher I want to keep Mr. Logan as my English teacher throughout high school I love how he teaches he’s funny and he teaches in ways to help us. He doesn't just teach the whole class he looks at everyone's strengths and weaknesses and goes off from there. I can actually learn from how he teaches because I understand it; he also is fun and lets us have fun.

I did receive some critical notes too. Some kids told me they did not like different learning activities in different groups but that was when I first changed the class. When I met with them to conference, the kids told me that they see the benefit. I am satisfied that the majority of my students have “bought into” the pedagogical shift, and that emboldens me to carry on and go deeper with my instruction.

      Do you remember the student I mentioned in an earlier post? He had noticed that one of my vocabulary words was using more than one of the roots that I taught him, and his reaction to praise for this feat encouraged others to speak up and take chances. Well, not only did he improve on his benchmarks from below basic to basic, he also has been completing his classwork consistently. I was so pleased with the change in him that I called his mother to tell her about the day when he was the only one in his cohort that was prepared with his writing piece to share on our conference date.

      I made her day. He made mine. I love positive phone calls—they are even better when you are calling back a parent that you originally contacted with grave concerns. The next day, my student informed me that the whole home had great fun teasing, congratulating, and making a positive fuss over him. He made my day again. These little moments of small triumphs that just might change a life are what teaching is all about. To be a member of the village that impacts a child is a powerfully rewarding feeling.

      This is my twentieth year in the classroom. I am more enthusiastic about my job now than I was in 1993, when I started this journey. Great students, supportive parents, accessible and supportive administration, along awesome colleagues are a huge part of my success this year.

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