Excellence in Education: The Need for Differentiation in a Nurturing Classroom
This weekend, I received a phone call from my daughter who was at the AT&T store because she was having trouble with her cell phone on our shared account. To resolve the issue, they needed my 6-digit phone passcode. I texted her what I thought was the number. Looking at it, it didn't look right, so I sent another text with what I thought was the correct number. Then I realized it had 7 digits!
I imagined my daughter and the AT&T employee getting frustrated. So I turned my phone off so that I could enter the passcode, knowing that I was better able to remember the physical entry than the actual number. Or so I thought. Now my mind was playing games with me. Attempt one to unlock my phone failed. Attempt 2: failure. Attempt 3: Success!
But then I couldn't remember the six numbers I entered. I called my friend over and said, "remember these numbers" as my thumb unlocked my phone. She quickly repeated the numbers to me so I could text them to my daughter. Of course, she did this so quickly that I got the numbers wrong. Holding back laughter, she slowly announced the numbers. BAM! I sent the six correct numbers to my daughter.
What for most people would only take a couple of seconds, had taken me several attempts over several minutes.
As many of you know, I have a learning disability, and this was a manifestation of it.
Like so many students who struggle, I was frustrated and embarrassed. In fact, episodes of similar learning and life frustrations flashed through my mind, undoubtedly making the situation even worse.
Carol Tomlinson defines differentiation as "Teachers in a differentiated classroom accept, embrace, and plan for the fact that learners bring to the school both many commonalities and the essential differences that make them individuals. Differentiation classrooms embody common sense. The logical flow in a differentiated classroom is this: A nurturing environment encourages learning."
Unlike passionate and purposeful teachers, my daughter's frustration was not nurturing and she was unable to predict that such a simple task would cause so much difficulty. Fortunately, like the best teachers, she was committed to doing whatever it took to wait me out, but this was only because she didn't have a choice. As educators, we are committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure mastery of learning, whether this is of a concept, an academic skill, or a behavior. This commitment and passion is most important for our most vulnerable students.
We must strive to provide purposeful, pre-planned differentiated supports for our students. In my case, I benefited from visual cues and resources to accompany auditory teachings. For students who lack the pre-requisite skills, we must preteach and for those who lack the foundational skills, we must pre-teach and provide extensive scaffolded supports. Through frequent checks for understanding/formative assessments, we can appropriately adjust our teaching to meet students' needs.
A nurturing classroom requires differentiation.
I imagined my daughter and the AT&T employee getting frustrated. So I turned my phone off so that I could enter the passcode, knowing that I was better able to remember the physical entry than the actual number. Or so I thought. Now my mind was playing games with me. Attempt one to unlock my phone failed. Attempt 2: failure. Attempt 3: Success!
But then I couldn't remember the six numbers I entered. I called my friend over and said, "remember these numbers" as my thumb unlocked my phone. She quickly repeated the numbers to me so I could text them to my daughter. Of course, she did this so quickly that I got the numbers wrong. Holding back laughter, she slowly announced the numbers. BAM! I sent the six correct numbers to my daughter.
What for most people would only take a couple of seconds, had taken me several attempts over several minutes.
As many of you know, I have a learning disability, and this was a manifestation of it.
Like so many students who struggle, I was frustrated and embarrassed. In fact, episodes of similar learning and life frustrations flashed through my mind, undoubtedly making the situation even worse.
Carol Tomlinson defines differentiation as "Teachers in a differentiated classroom accept, embrace, and plan for the fact that learners bring to the school both many commonalities and the essential differences that make them individuals. Differentiation classrooms embody common sense. The logical flow in a differentiated classroom is this: A nurturing environment encourages learning."
Unlike passionate and purposeful teachers, my daughter's frustration was not nurturing and she was unable to predict that such a simple task would cause so much difficulty. Fortunately, like the best teachers, she was committed to doing whatever it took to wait me out, but this was only because she didn't have a choice. As educators, we are committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure mastery of learning, whether this is of a concept, an academic skill, or a behavior. This commitment and passion is most important for our most vulnerable students.
We must strive to provide purposeful, pre-planned differentiated supports for our students. In my case, I benefited from visual cues and resources to accompany auditory teachings. For students who lack the pre-requisite skills, we must preteach and for those who lack the foundational skills, we must pre-teach and provide extensive scaffolded supports. Through frequent checks for understanding/formative assessments, we can appropriately adjust our teaching to meet students' needs.
A nurturing classroom requires differentiation.
Week of January 13: SAT School Day Registration (see Ms. Gaskins)
Friday, January 17: 1/2 Day, End of Marking Period (see below)
Monday, January 20: Martin Luther King, Jr Holiday
Tuesday, January 21: Teacher Work Day
Enter grades by:
- Please enter names of students who have not taken exams by January 13
- Please enter marking period/semester grades by January 24 at 9am; special education progress reports
Field Trips
Birthdays
None that I know of
None that I know of
Useful Information
Seeking volunteers? ACPS is attempting to expand volunteer outreach and help teachers find volunteers. Here’s a form that takes a minute to complete.
Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm
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½ Day Bell Schedule
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8:55-9:45
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1B
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9:50-10:35
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2B
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10:40-11:25
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3B
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11:30-12:50
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4B
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All CATEC students will attend CATEC for the full half-day on January 17. They will leave depart from Monticello High School at 9am and return from CATEC and return to Monticello High School for 2nd lunch.
For our schoolwide PD in the afternoon, our time will be spent working in our PLCs with an emphasis on mid-year data and next steps to ensure success of all students.
1:00-2:15 PLC 1
2:15-3:30 PLC 2
PLC 1 Groups
AFDA
Chemistry
Earth Science
World Geography
US Government
English 9
English 12
Spanish
PLC 2 Groups
Geometry
Algebra
Biology
World History
US History
English 10
English 11
German
Health/PE
Geometry
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