All About Me and Differentiation in My Classroom

Hello, let me introduce myself, I’m Sarah.  I’m lucky because I can honestly say that I am married to my best friend and together we have eight children, ages 9 through 27, and two grandchildren.  We live in the sunny Southern California desert and enjoy spending time together.  I have been teaching 8^th grade RLA (reading/language arts) at a performing arts school since February 2017.  I know I have only been teaching for a short time, but I have really enjoyed my time in the classroom and, now that I have completed my first full year of teaching, I am going into the next school year with a greater sense of self-confidence versus last year.

While there are many ways that differentiation can be incorporated into teaching and learning activities, I am only going to discuss several of my favorites, which also happen to the ones that I use most frequently within my own classroom.

Last year I had approximately two hundred students; this included SPED, ELL, and Honors students, which meant that I needed to incorporate numerous methods of differentiation.  One of my favorite “tools” for differentiation was Google Classroom.  During the 2017-2018 school year, several of my 8^th graders were assessed at first or second grade level; uploading assignments onto Google Classroom allowed those students to access lessons that were appropriate for their learning level without the embarrassment of having their peers see the accommodations that were being made.  Additionally, other students require modifications that are not as severe, and Google Classroom allows me to assign the appropriate work to the appropriate student.  I am also able to incorporate videos, notes, and images to assist students with the learning process.

In addition to Google Classroom, I also incorporated various types of activities into my lessons that would appeal to my students differing learning styles and strengths.  While I had a good portion of students that enjoyed working independently, I loved to incorporate group activities where I chose the groups, this way I could group students of varying learning levels together.  In some cases certain students weren't too happy about who was in their group, so I would make an extra effort to circulate and talk to the groups, I would pay close attention to the students that were generally lower level because, while their peers felt they had nothing to contribute, they often did and I wanted to make sure that their group mates knew that.  Some of their group activities included skits about short stories that they had read, artwork like propaganda posters that related to concepts from the stories or topics we were covering, Google slide presentations, and class debates. I found that incorporating differing types of activities in my lessons was beneficial for my students that required differentiation because many of these students had a tendency to retain more information during activities that they were engaged in. For example, some students had trouble with comprehension, but when they were able to take part in acting out a portion of one their readings, like the Odyssey, they were actively engaged with the poem and were then able to recall key elements of Homer’s epic work.

Comprehension can also be problematic when reading novels, so, to assist my students that required accommodations or were struggling, I incorporated the use of graphic novels and preprinted or fill-in notes.  Although there is much less reading material in a graphic novel, there is usually enough of the text for the story to still be intact and the inclusion of picture images helped students to either follow along or remain interested in the story. Using fill-in notes also assisted in keeping students involved because, in order to complete their fill-in notes, they were required to follow along with the story. I also found that many of these same students were auditory learners, so they were able to follow along and answer questions when we read aloud or listened to audio books, but had trouble during silent reading assignments.

Going into the new school year, it is our campus’ goal to increase rigor in all subject areas and for all levels of learning.  While I am excited to see what this means for my class and my students, I am nervous at the same time.  I am hoping that the new year will include more PBL activities, as I do feel that many of my students that require differentiation learn best when they are able to have a “hands on” experience.  However, I teach RLA and I’m unsure has to exactly how many of these types of activities can be incorporated without compromising my class, since developing writing skills is such an integral part of the learning process.