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.
