Differentiated Instruction

Students bring to the classroom a wide range of skills and abilities. As a responsive teacher, I make sure that all my students’ needs and different learning skills and abilities are addressed effectively by differentiating instruction, providing students with choice, selecting activities that are interesting and engaging, and monitoring student learning by continuously assessing students formally and informally.

To begin with, differentiating instruction is a very effective way to make sure all students have access to a challenging curriculum at their level of academic performance. In other words differentiated instruction allows my students to learn at their own pace without watering down the curriculum or lowering expectations. In this way, all my students will be able to learn through multiple assignments tailored to their individual needs and their own level of achievement. I always plan learning center activities that are geared to diverse learning styles, readiness, and levels of interest. Also, I make sure that my students have the opportunity to meet with me daily to conference about their learning progress, reading, and writing. I achieve this through guided reading, center work, math workshop, and conferences during writing workshop.

Second, all students should be able to choose activities and assignments. I make sure that I have a student-centered classroom where students are not only able to choose their assignments but also they are able to choose how they want to demonstrate what they have learned. For example, at the reading center my students can choose books that they want to read and they can also choose how they want to show what they learned -completing a graphic organizer, writing a book review, writing a letter to the author, etc. Providing students with choices and opportunities to explore topics in which they have a strong interest makes learning more exciting. 

Third, I always select activities that are motivating and engaging for my students. Cooperative learning strategies, involving students in asking and answering their own questions, think pair share, one minute papers, learning centers, individual and group projects, are some of the strategies that effectively engage my students. 

Finally, I make sure that I continuously assess my students, whether it is a formal or informal assessment, they both provide data that allows me to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses. It allows me to provide feedback, monitor progress, and narrow gaps in learning. Ongoing assessment allows me to make educated instructional decisions to support my student learning and progress.

All these strategies help me to address the wide range of skills, abilities, and learning styles that my students bring to the classroom.

Why use Cooperative Learning in the Classroom?

Cooperative learning activities contribute to the creation of a productive classroom environment by cognitively engaging students in their exploration of content. Here are some other reasons why cooperative learning should be used in the classroom:

1. Cooperative Learning activities produce positive outcomes since they engage students who show a greater joy in learning and more interest and liking for school and class.
2. Cooperative learning activities engage students by stimulating interaction. Students interact in groups of tow or four and this provides a safe team context and interpersonal support. It’s very important that children feel secure and supported. It is easier for them to talk with a supportive teammate rather than in front of the whole class.
3. All cooperative learning activities are learner centered because students interact and learn from each other rather than directly learning from the teacher’s instruction. Learning requires students’ direct and active involvement and participation. The role of the teacher changes from direct teaching (teacher centered) to monitor and facilitator. The teacher watches their students learn and listens to them talk.
4. Cooperative learning activities produce real-life learning experiences, which reduce or eliminate the transference gap generated by traditional lesson formats. Most adults in the United States took foreign language classes, but few became fluent in that language because the lessons did not emphasize practice in real life situations. Memorizing vocabulary words or rules of grammar does little for fluency because one cannot transfer the skill of analyzing sentence structure to the skill of speaking. In contrast when the skills are practiced in settings similar to real-life settings they can easily be transferred. Cooperative learning activities allow the students to practice real life settings like leadership skills, teamwork skills, conflict resolution skills, listening skills, and the ability to express and defend their own point of view. Students learn about integrity, understanding, responsibility, and respect.

References:
Kagan, S. (2002) "Kagan Structures: Not One More Program. A Better Way to Teach Any Program"

What is Cooperative Learning?

Cooperative Learning is an approach to teaching that makes maximum use of cooperative activities involving pairs and small groups of learners in the classroom. In a cooperative learning classroom, students work together on academic tasks in small groups to help themselves and their teammates learn together. They use cooperative, pro-social behavior to accomplish their common tasks or learning activities. Cooperation is working together to accomplish shared goals. Within cooperative activities individuals seek outcomes that are beneficial to themselves and beneficial to all other group members. Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning.

The idea is simple. Class members are organized into small groups after receiving instruction from the teacher. Then, they work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it. Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group members gain from each other’s efforts. Students come to realize that all group members share one goal, know that one’s performance is mutually caused by oneself and their group members, and feel proud and jointly celebrate when the group members are recognized for achievement.

ELL's and Running Records

Should a pronunciation mistake be considered an error in running records of English Language Learners (ELL’s)?

A running record is a very useful tool that not only allows the teacher of ELL’s to assess their reading level but also provides the teacher with information about the ELL’s stage of language development. ELL’s often make pronunciation mistakes when they are reading, especially if the words are new to them. Running records help the teacher to make a written representation of a student’s reading ability and learning progress.

My experience as a Literacy Coach and as an ESL and Bilingual teacher has taught me that it should be up to the teacher’s discretion to mark pronunciation mistakes as errors and that there should be some considerations to take into account such as students’ number of years in the ESL program, and if the student is literate in his/her L1.

Running records of ELL’s provide information as to what reading area (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and fluency) the student is struggling with. In general terms the following should be considered:

•  If the word is a new word for the student and the student mispronounces it, it should not be counted as an error. Instead the teacher should make a note in a post-it or on the side of the running record. Also, unknown words may impede comprehension of the text, so teaching of the word later on is very important.
• If the word is a high frequency word that has been taught and the student does not pronounce it correctly, this shows that the student has internalized the word incorrectly and new learning has to occur to correct the mistake. This should be marked as an error.
• If the student is literate in his/her L1, English graphemes may have different sounds in L1, and the student will make errors while reading. Comprehension of the text should be taken into consideration and these mistakes should not be considered as errors if the student can understand what he/she read. Follow-up instruction and a strong development of phonological awareness skills in English are necessary.

It is important to explicitly teach the similarities and differences that may exist between L1 and English, especially in languages that share the same alphabet. This will help the student develop metalinguistic awareness of sounds that do not exist in their native language (e.g., /th/, /sh/) and develop a solid phonological awareness and phonics knowledge.

Moreover, expanding vocabulary, explaining cultural differences, and providing students with background knowledge will help students with the decoding of new words, reading comprehension, and fluency. Running records provide the teacher with a lot of information about ELL’s reading behaviors and stages of language development and help to identify students’ reading weaknesses and strengths.

References:

-Effective Schooling for English Language Learners by P. Smiley and T. Salsberry.

-Supporting Struggling Readers and Writers by D. Strickland, K. Ganske, J. Monroe.