The product is the way our students demonstratewhat they have learned. I discuss this summative assess-ment in the following; it must reflect student learningstyles and abilities.
I enjoy when students have the opportunity to show off their created products in the classroom and are excited about what they are learning.
With the tools of differentiated instruction, we cankeep the focus where it belongs and take each student asfar as he or she can go.
I like this ending sentence because the author is basically saying to find what works and most the most of what you and your students have, regardless of what that may be.
How a student learns is as varied as the personalitiesin class. We can view learning styles through the lens ofGardner’s multiple intelligences, Myers-Briggs Type Indi-cator, Dunn and Dunn learning styles model, or manyother theorists’ work. Common to all these theories isthe idea that different children learn in different ways.
Agree that there a lot ways to get to the same realization that students learn in different ways. No matter what terminology you choose to use to describe this phenomenon, the important takeaway is that it is helpful to determine the best way to reach a particular student.
The district and state and federal governments haveestablished our standards and handed our curriculumdown to us. These standards make up the goals estab-lished for all of our students. How we reach these goalsmay require different paths. The core of differentiatedinstruction is flexibility in content, process, and productbased on student strengths, needs, and learning styles.
Reaching these goals does require an enormous amount of flexibility by educators. It is easy to make a to-do list, it is much more difficult to complete that to-do list. I think it would be helpful to have direct student incentives so that they can see the immediate reward for their efforts instead of the abstract idea that being more educated may make their lives more successful as adults.
This was not because of intellectualdifferences among the students but rather differences inteacher expectations because of divergent student needsand life experiences. There are other populations of stu-dents for whom expectations have been lower.
I get the spirit of what the author is saying here, but I can have all the expectations in the world for my students and that does not make them suddenly able to make up for not having the basic skills required to master some of the high level reasoning required to truly master some of the topics taught at the high school level. Yes, everyone can and should strive to achieve their full potential, but it must be recognized that this means different things for different students.
Students in differentclassrooms in the same school would get a different edu-cation. One could see an even greater variance in under-privileged schools.
This is still the case as it is impossible to fix all of the variables and inequities in the world by stating a degree of standards. Saying it is so does not make it so.
Holli M. Levy, MA, is a fifth-grade teacher at Veterans Park Elementary School,Ridgefield, Connecticut, and a doctoral student in the Instructional Leadership doctoral pro-gram, Western Connecticut State University, Danbury. Copyright © 2008
I appreciate knowing that Holli M. Levy is a fifth-grade teacher in Connecticut, and also that this article is from 2008. This provides us, as students of this lesson, with context that helps us understand this message in the broader picture of our society, the issues of the day, and our relative place in it compared to Dr. Levy in 2008.
here are also times the buildersshould be in one group and the writers in another sothey can work together for a common goal.
It is advantageous to group unalike students so that they can build off of each other. This exposes them to new ideas and offers assistance to each other's blind spots.
ummative assessmentsinclude standardized tests, as well as teacher-madetests, quizzes, projects, performance assessments, andanything else one can imagine that can be objectivelygraded and is based on the curriculum.
Anything else one can image is a great point the author makes about the ability a classroom teacher has to reinforce and test for knowledge other than the typical sit down and time a test method. I like giving my students the ability to teach us what they have learned.
As we teach, we must periodically check in with ourstudents. Mrs. Johnson ends her direct instruction byasking, “Are there any questions?”
Yes, ask that question. Then, also assume that nobody will answer and that you have to ask the key questions yourself out loud to the class and then ask for volunteers to answer the questions to restate the key concepts.
She has to teach longdivision, but what about the student who has all theseskills already? What about the student who shouldhave come into class knowing the basic facts of multi-plication and division but is still counting on his fin-gers and making tally marks on his paper?
The author uses the phrase "should have come into class knowing" and I have had to drop that expectation as a high school teacher. I am no longer shocked by the students who struggle to read, nor know their own address, nor know where North America is on a globe. Again, assume nothing and start by teaching the basics.
If we do not know where we are, how can we getwhere we are going? Students come to us with greatlyvarying abilities and experiences. The place to begin iswith preassessment
I find that every new topic requires continuous assessment. Assume nothing and always give the necessary context for a lesson.
To do this, we must find out where our students arewhen they come into the process and build on theirprior knowledge to advance their learning
Making a personal connection is so necessary when attempting to get a student to care about the topic and their classroom outcomes.