Inspired Teacher Blog
www.inspiredteacher.blogspot.com
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There are plenty of things you have to teach, and few of them your students seem interested in learning... how do you bridge this gap?
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Teachers as Researchers:
Action Research in your Classroom
Times and Dates:
4:30 pm to 7:30 pm · Mondays: Oct. 6, 20, 27, Nov. 3, 17, Dec. 1, 15, 2008, Jan. 12, 26, Feb. 9, 2009
Location:
Inspired Teaching
1436 U St. NW #400
Washington, DC 20009
Pre-requisite:
Inspired Teaching Institute (or permission of instructor)
Cost: $125 - Graduate Credit and DCPS PLUs are available.
With the
guidance of Inspired Teaching's educators and other Inspired Teachers,
take your instruction to the next level by engaging in an in-depth
study and analysis of your classroom. Over the course of several
months, choose a particular subject in your classroom on which to focus
(i.e. discipline system, centers, a specific student, assessment) and
using action research, determine what is working and what isn't - then
develop a plan to improve your effectiveness.
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Center for Inspired Teaching is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that exists to ensure schools make the most of children's innate desire to learn. We do this by investing in teachers. Please visit our website to learn more about our philosophy, programs, and results.
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Am I meeting my students' needs?
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Your students' needs come in all shapes and sizes. According to Maslow's Hierarchy their basic needs - sustenance, safety, a sense of belonging - must be met before they can even think about learning. Once you have those taken care of you have all their intellectual needs to consider.
This is where differentiating instruction comes onto the classroom scene. While you may be quite familiar with the term in the context of education courses and professional development, today we'll explore a quick refresher course on what it looks like in practice.
Differentiated Instruction: a flexible approach to teaching in which the teacher plans and carries out varied approaches to content, process, and product in anticipation of and in response to student differences in readiness, interests, and learning needs (Tomlinson, 1995, p. 10).
What does this look like in practice? Imagine you are teaching a lesson on finding the area of a rectangle.
- This is your content: Find the area of a rectangle.
- This is your process: Using a ruler, students will learn to measure the length and width of a rectangle to determine the area.
- This is your product: Students will measure the area of the bottom of a shoebox using a ruler. They will then "test" their measurement by laying one-inch tiles on the bottom of the shoe box and identifying the number of tiles it takes to cover the rectangle.
This activity is differentiated as follows:
Readiness - Students will work in pairs, one member of the pair will be stronger in geometry, the other weaker. In pairs they will learn from each other as they complete this assignment. Or, students who struggle with this concept will be given a standard shoebox to work with while students who have already mastered basic area calculations will be given a more difficult shape to work with (for example: an L-shaped box or a hexagon)
Interests - When students "test" their area calculation by "tiling" the box with one-inch squares, they will see a real-world application for using area calculations. Students will also be able to choose the colors of tile they want to use for the project. A follow up discussion or activity might include having students create an "area project" of their own choosing where they must calculate the area of an object and then test their calculation by covering the object with uniform manipulatives that can be counted.
Learning Needs - This activity incorporates visual, tactile, and auditory learning styles.
While it is unrealistic to think you can differentiate every lesson to meet the individual needs of each and every student in your class, it is worthwhile to try and teach every concept in at least 2 or 3 ways so you increase your chances of reaching most of your students.
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Sentence Scramble
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Teach grammar, build problem-solving skills through inquiry, facilitate team-building, or review a sequence or statement you want students to memorize. You can do all of the above using the simple but engaging structure of this activity.
Click here for a full description of the activity. http://www.inspiredteaching.org/articles.php?id=114
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Hands and Feet Stories
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Teach students to summarize, creating, or retell stories beyond the use of words. This kinesthetic activity can be used to incorporate storytelling into any subject so long as students are conveying a sequence of events.
Click here for a full description of the activity.
http://www.inspiredteaching.org/articles.php?id=115
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Teacher Resources
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Learning Centers
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/classroom.html
Whether you teach elementary or secondary school it might be interesting to incorporate learning centers into your classroom. This page gives you some practical ideas and steps to take when setting them up.
Environmental Inquiry
http://ei.cornell.edu/
If you're a high school science teacher or a teacher who likes to integrate science into your language arts or mathematics curriculum, this site has a lot of ideas for you. There are sample projects with teacher guides and detailed descriptions of how you can incorporate inquiry-based research projects into your curriculum.
DREAM IT DO IT CHALLENGE for Students
www.genv.net
Youth Venture encourages young people to identify a need in their community, develop an idea for a solution and carry out that solution by applying their interests and skills to their Venture. Youth Venture asks youth, "If you were given $1,000 in seed funding to launch your own social venture, how would you change the world?" Over the fall semester Youth Venture will offer its first ever DREAM IT DO IT CHALLENGE to help young people do just that-make a difference in creative and enterprising ways. The program is open to all high school students, and will include mentoring in a fun and interactive space. Sessions and meals are free, but space is limited. For more informStion, visit www.genv.net or contact Amie Montemurro at amontemurro@youthventure.org or (703) 600-8293.
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