ELEMENTARY

QUESTION #3: Please describe one strategy for differentiation or grouping that you learned about on the April 13th Universal Access Day. It can be a strategy you received from any of the presenters. You may want to go back through some of the paperwork you received from the special education presenters (we gave you a list with targeted strategies at the end of the day). We would like to hear about one strategy that you have tried or that makes sense in your classroom, even if you have not yet had time to apply it. Be as specific as you can as to why it would be useful for you and your students.

Answer directly below.

Christine Cerise: In my ELD group we do a lot of partner sharing, choral reading and GLAD strategies. One of my favorite GLAD strategies is the farmer is the dell. The students always look forward to this. This is a two day process. The first day we fill out the chart and sing the sentences. The next day we write several sentences from the chart and then the students pick one of these sentences or make their own and write it on journal paper and draw a picture to match their sentence. Another fun activity to reinforce ABC order is to use picture cards with words and have the students get into groups of three and put the cards into ABC order. Once they have completed their group of cards they can switch with another group.

Shellsea Hunnel: One strategy that I learned through Universal Access Day was flexible grouping. I have applied it to my second inquiry question as well. I divided my class into three homogeneous groups to better serve the students. Through these groups I am able to differentiate their content, and for others either the process or product. By looking at my anecdotal records and some previous assessments I was able to ascertain my students' levels for the groups. By keeping them flexible I could move students who needed different skills.

A strategy that I have used for differentiation or grouping is Think-Pair- Share. Students are given a question and then they take a few minutes to think on it individually and write down their thoughts. Then they pair up with a partner and share their answers. I circulate the room listening to answers and commenting or questioning if I feel someone needs to extend their answer. Often after that we will do a whole group share aloud, either orally or in a shared writing format. The partners the students share with are flexible. Students have a partner that I have chosen that they sit next to, this partner was chosen based either upon ability or behavior. Another partner the students have is in their reading groups, these are formed based on assessment for reading level. They also have partners based on choice. I like changing the partners frequently in order to give all my students time to interact academically with everybody in the classroom. My favorite thing about think- pair - share is going around and listening to the different ideas my students come up with, I enjoy their willingness to share their perspective! -Annie Colflesh

I loved the ideas from the Practical EL Strategies. I think it was a great hand out to refer to. When I got to school the next day I added a few more sticks to my “call on students” Bowl. I think it was a great idea to have a few more chances for my struggling students to get called on to read or participate in more activities with out actively knowing. I normally have my students write down their vocabulary and definitions from the board. Pre Printing the vocabulary cards for my EL or struggling students would be more beneficial to them. This way they could be working on understanding or drawing a picture for each vocabulary word instead of trying to figure out what they are copying down. Jill Mierau I added ths technique to my bag of tricks too, Jill. It is a great way for them to get more chances to practice in the classroom. I have also been working on having walls that teach. If they are going to tune out and stare at the walls I want them to be at least looking at something that is meaningful. That's great that you stopped to think about why you are having your students copying down vocab. I am sure they will get much more out of it now with this method. Christie Olson One new strategy I have tried is choral reading. I have saw this down first in the Anita Archer viedos and then talked about at the inservice. I knew it was time for me to give it a chance. I have been struggling with keeping all my students engaged whenl we read as a class. Too many students were off-task if they had already read or thought the chance of them getting called on were slim. The first time I tried this in Health it did not go that well. Some students were reading super fast and others were at a slower pace. They thought it was fun to experiement with speed reading and slow motion reading. The newness wore off though. After about five times of practicing choral reading ith my class they caught on! I like the fact that all the students read the entire text. Which means all students get time to practice their reading. Most importantly is holds them accountable! If it is a first read of something short I usually do an echo read first. So, they are familar with the text and new vocabulary before they go on to choral reading.

Christie Olson

Christie, That is a great idea to do echo reading before they begin to coral read. I think that will help many students feel confident when they start to read. Jill Mierau

Christie, I really like the echo reading and choral reading strategies as well! I like to circulate the room during a choral read to make sure that each student is actually reading and not pretending to read : ) I also find that having everyone track with their fingers helps them stay together as well! Annie Colflesh ​ Rahel Schwarz I have not yet applied this strategy yet but I will pull my at-risk/or EL students and frontload them with the day's lesson. I could certainly see how that would increase their confidence in participating and understanding the materials presented. This would also be very helpful before reading a new selection during ELA. This in-service also reminded me to focus on teaching more academic vocabulary as we sometimes assume that they already know it. I trust that if worked on regularly, the students will gain a greater understanding of the material taught. I also have used pre-assessment on a regular basis to guide me in differentiating my instructional content. I have used it mainly for math, using more challenging work for my more advanced group and spending more time with the lower group who will need additional help. These groups of course remain very fluid as some students will be more comfortable with certain skills than others. I found that differentiating leads to greater learning and decreases classroom management issues. I think it is so hard to differentiate for all subjects all the time. I think it is a great idea to start small and get to your lower students to help them to be more successful Jill Miera u

I really enjoyed this inservice...like Jill, I have been adding more "name cards" to my pile to call on my students. If the students seem to be struggling I will add a card to increase the likelihood of me calling on them. Another thing that I have been using that I learned from this inservice is frontloading,. This seems to have change the way that my students have been learning. Every morning when the students come into the class they are reading silently. During this time I will walk around to students that I need to frontload for (based on preassessment). I will also check in with those specific students later on in the lesson to see how they are doing. I really have to say that using preassessments formatively have opened my eyes to guide instruction. I know can see where to slow down, and where I can enrich my students! Rebecca

Rahel- I like that your groups really are "flexible", in that your students really do move in and out of them based on specific skill levels. This requires a lot of focus and assessment on your part, but it is so worth it for a true culture of grouping to be successful!- Lisa



YEAR 1 TEACHERS... QUESTION #2: What is something you learned from the Rick Morris inservice on classroom management that you will or have applied to your own practice?

YEAR 2 TEACHERS....QUESTION (S) #2: GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF A TIME WHEN YOU FELT THAT YOU EFFECTIVELY DIFFERENTIATED A LESSON TO PROVIDE UNIVERSAL ACCESS. HOW DID YOU DETERMINE WHO NEEDED GREATER ACCESS? DID YOU GROUP? WERE YOU ABLE TO TELL THE EFFECT ON STUDENT LEARNING? or WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU LEARNED AT THE JANUARY 15TH INSERVICE THAT YOU PLAN TO INCORPORATE INTO YOUR LESSON PLANS OR CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES? DID YOU ACTUALLY TRY THE LESSON PLAN YOU MAPPED OUT? WERE YOU ABLE TO DISCERN INCREASED LEARNING FOR STUDENTS WHO NEEDED THIS ALTERNATE ACCESS TO THE CURRICULUM? (answer or post photos directly below)

I used differentiation with my social science unit on California Missions. Each child was given a Mission to research. I gave my students a pretest on vocabulary words for the lesson. When I got my results I placed them into groups by their level. -**EL student**- I sat with him to help him with the research. I only expected him to write one sentence on each slide and wanted him to express what he learned more through pictures. -**High Students**- I gave them the challenge of adding color, animation, and fonts to their slides. I think differentiating on this lesson helped all my students to be more successful! Jill Mierau Julia Bowers
 * -Average** **to above students**- They were required to complete 8 slides that I organized into categories ( Jobs at the Mission, Disaster that happened at your mission, ect.). Each slide had to have a picture and a paragraph written.
 * -My lower students** were given less slides to accomplish for their Mission PowerPoint presentation.
 * -RSP Student**- I gave him less slides to complete and had him work with a parent who helped him to research and correctly write down information for his slides.

I definitely have had a lot of experiences recently will differentiating instruction. In my combination class I recently got a student that speaks complete Arabic. She is definitely a fast learner, so she picks up quickly on new language, especially when in it associated with pictures. At Lake Forest Elementary we recently purchased the Rosetta Stone program. She is on this about 30 minutes a day, which I can tell already has increased her learning in the English language. It also tracks her immediate progress for each lesson so the teacher can assess as well.

Besides the Rosetta Stone program, I recently differentiated instruction for her in our social studies unit. We recently learned about "natural" and "human-made" resources. Instead of her taking the 3rd grade test, I had her draw a label a picture for me of her "environment" and the "natural" and "human-made" resources that are included in it. She did an excellent job and she was very excited that this was something that she was able to complete by herself and well. I love Rosetta Stone. It has helped many of my students speak better English as well as boosted their confidence. Jill Mierau

Rebecca Maurer Wo, the differentiation inservice really opened my eyes to how powerful cooperative learning really is. Since then I have been using it in all aspects of my teaching. For example, I am always telling them to repeat waht I said to their partner, or sharing out. I am also having the students pair up to read, summarize and even complete their quick checks together. I feel that the students are fully engaged because it is something different!

__Rahel Schwarz - Question #2__ Last week, I felt I effectively differentiated when I gave two of my most advanced math student and independent project during math. In English Reading, we learned about different families immigrating from various parts of the world, seeking to become U.S. citizens. They had to, using an Atlas, find the population of all the countries involved, rank the countries by population size, find the country on the map, and mark the map with a sticky note with the name of the family, country name, and population. When they were done, they had to share their findings with the entire class. These two students who usually became disruptive because they often finished their work much faster than the rest of the class, were completely absorbed and excited about this project, asking for another task once they were finished. I realized that I have to have a variety of projects available for my most advanced students and also train my other students to work cooperatively so that my time is freed to also work with students who need additional help with newer skills. I am finding that by differentiating in my classroom also decreases classroom management. I can't wait to try other ways to differentiate in my classroom!

Christie Olson Question #2 I tried the Quaker Reading strategy this week with my class. I have struggled with keeping my students engaged while reading out of their text book. I did not want to fall back on Popcorn. So, I thought this would be a good thing to try with them. I had the students read the 3 pages out of their health text to themselves at their own pace. Then, I had the students go around and read just one sentence they thought was important. They actually had fun with this. I think they liked the fact that I just switched things up. The students had more connections than if we would have read it aloud as a group. All the students we held accountable, each had to participate. I told them it was okay to repeat what someone had already said. I was so happy to hear some of the students say, "I liked that one too." "Oh, I was going to say that too." Great, I know you're engaged! You are listening to your classmates! I was so much less frustrated at the end of this lesson.

I Love this idea. I am going to try it in my class. I love when students are excited about something new and it is not your everyday lesson. Jill Mierau

Diane Surak Question #2 An example of a time when I felt I differentiated a lesson was at the introduction of a new Language Arts story. After frontloading my students with the new vocabulary for the story we began choral reading of the story. Students were partnered together in twos. After reading one section of the story (usually one column of the textbook page), students placed a sticky note STOP sign. The partners then discussed what they had just read and devised a higher level thinking question (no yes or no questions allowed) to ask the other students later on. The students must be able to answer the question themselves if they created it. Each pair writes down their question before the class continues on with the choral reading. This continues until the story has been completely read. I monitor the questions and determine if pairs are on task by walking around the room as the students are creating their questions. Once the story is finished I then combine 3 pairs of students into one group and they take turns asking each other the questions created. This has a wonderful effect on the student comprehension as their questions elicit much conservation regarding the story. Students enjoy this strategy and for those who may not have a clear understanding of the story, they are able to summarize the story correctly after the shared questioning and discussions.

Diane- this is great way to put learning in the hands of your students! It is amazing how much they can contribute to meaningful "differentiation".- Lisa

D iane, Thank you for such a great reading comprehension strategy. I feel like sometimes as I am reading the HM stories the questions that I am asking are boring and are not reaching all my students. How wonderful that they not only have to think of their own questions to ask eachother, but then they are responsible for answering with other students. I love it. How did you differentiate you pairs? Were they choral reading with the person they sit next too, or where they homogenously paired? Rebecca

Shellsea Hunnel Question #2 At the 1/15 in-service I learned that I want to review my instruction and enhance it. I can do this by differenating my lessons to target my students’ needs. From the in-service I took away that beginning teachers rely heavily on the textbooks, I want to use as it as another resource and not my primary one. In my lesson plans I have incorporated the model direct instruction, partner work, to individual. Too many times as a math teacher I have done a whole group lesson then released my students to do independent work.

The lesson plan I mapped out is still in progress. It’s funny how a planned three days can still take a school week. After revising and re-teaching I find myself taking longer than expected. Using more of a three step model I am seeing a slight improvement with my students understanding of the curriculum. I find that the partner work allows the students to work through the problems in a variety of ways and to talk it out with one another.

p.s. I don't know why it is red.

Shellsea- sometimes the color maps out on the whole page- you can change it on the toolbar, but it gets weird!:) I like your reflection! It is amazing how much more time a thoroughly planned lesson that allows for re-teaching can take- thus, the challenge:). I think that it is worthwhile- less is more! -Lisa

Annie Colflesh #2 A time I felt that I differentiated the lesson was during a language arts lesson with 1st grade. Using the theme 3 assessment I was able to design a lesson that would help groups of students focus on elements that either needed re-teaching or extension. First we re-read the story of the week and reviewed the Comprehension Strategy for the week whole group. Then students broke into their leveled groupings and did center work. One of the activities was based on the phonics concept of the week. Another was a word sort based on clusters. There was also a partner game based on clusters and a couple of worksheets from the workbook that I liked. The last center was with me where I designed mini lessons hitting on what I thought each group ( of four) needed. Nothing very fancy, either a re-teach of grammer skills or an extension of the comprehension skill. We used white boards and a thinking map with a plastic cover and vis-a-vie pens. It was the first time we moved around to different "centers" and the noise level took some getting used to but it seemed to work out well and I know that the small group work with me was pretty successful based on an oral assessment the next day. : )

[|National Library of Virtual Manipulatives] click on the above link to see fun math interactive games

[|EdServ 4-6 Subject Toolboxes]

**Teach Self-Awareness About Knowledge**
All subjects build on prior knowledge and increase in complexity at each successive level of mastery. Effective learning requires that certain skills and processes be available for quick recall. Many students let too much of their knowledge float in a sea of confusion and develop a habit of guessing, sometimes without even knowing that they are guessing.

Credit: Courtesy of Tristan de Frondeville
To help students break this habit, paste the graphic at right next to each question on your assessments. After the students answer a question, have them place an //X// on the line to represent how sure they are that their answer is correct. This approach encourages them to check their answer and reflect on their confidence level. It is informative when they get it wrong but marked "for sure" or when they do the opposite and mark "confused" yet get the answer right.

Question #1 How are you attempting to engage all students in your classroom?

Annie Colflesh: In my classroom I do a lot of think/pair/share. When it is time to share out I have the student share what his/her partner said to make sure they were listening to their partner. I also use a lot of the Anita Archer techniques such as thumbs up/thumbs down for agree/disagree, choral response, and whisper to your neighbor and then respond. This helps all students have a chance to say the answer and if they are not sure what is going on they can look at their classmates.

Annie- It was so nice to see you making such effective use of these Anita Archer strategies. Your students really get to experience a nice balance of all the strategies you wrote about here. :) Lis a

There are various ways that I engage all my students during a lesson. One way is by using whiteboards. I usually pair them up and they take turns writing, but both work on the problem. I use them for a review before a test or as a quick check. I also use Rick Morrison's cards in order to call randomly on students. I often re-use a name that I have already called, that way they know they are not "off the hook" if they already have been called once. I have noticed that they will be on task and ready to answer. I am starting to use more choral responses instead of calling on individual students. ~Rahel Schwarz Rahel- What are you noticing regarding the difference between the cards and choral responses? Which do you students like? Which do you like? LIsa

One thing I tried this week with my third graders to practice/study for their upcoming spelling test was playing a game called Sparkle. For this game the students need to be in a circle. I say the word is "Mayflower." The first student starts with "capital M", next student in the circle, "a", next student "y." Keep going around the circle until a students makes a mistake (says the wrong letter) that student sits down. The child next to them continues spelling the word from where they left off. At the end of the word/last letter of the word the next student says "sparkle" and the next student in the circles must sit down. This keeps the game moving at a quick pace. Everyone is involved in this type of Spelling Bee.

My learners really enjoyed this game. Most of them were actively engaged during the game. They had smiles on their faces and positive body language. Students cheered and clapped for on another. I love activites like this for buliding a classroom community. Best of all I heard one little boy say, " I love Sparkle." What more could a teacher ask for? -Christie Olson Christie- my students always enjoyed, and even begged to play this game! Have you found that it increases their scores on spelling tests? What do you have the students who get out do? Do you find that they are engaged just watching the game progress? Lisa

I have been using the Anita Archer hands up for "thinking time" and hands down for "speaking time" when doing choral response. I have found that this works really well with my kinders and first graders. Keeping my hand up allows the slower learners time to process the answer and keeps my quicker learners from shouting out. It took a little practice but they are really good at answering on que.

In my third grade reading class, I am trying more choral reading and less individual reading. I found for me it is easier to have them chorally read in small groups instead of one big group. I continually change which group is going to read, this helps keep them on track because they enjoy being the group to read and don't want to be left out.

Christine Cerise

The way Christine does the choral response with one hand is really natural! She makes it look easy and not forced. I have been wondering if you all think that using a wand or some age-appropriate prop would work too??? Lisa

I like the way you say "thinking time" and "speaking time". Not sure if you came up with the phrases or if I missed that part of the Anita Archer video- but I like it! I've been doing this with my students and they are really getting better at the on que as well. -Shellsea

**Julia Bowers**

Sorry this is late!!! I finally figured this out! I am trying a lot of new things in my classroom this year. Not only am I a new teacher (last year was my first year), I am also teaching a combination class. I was very nervous at first about this, but am so happy with it (and of course busy) because I am learning so much! One thing I have tried is our new SmartBoards that have been installed in our classrooms at Lake Forest this year. Pretty much it is a interactive white board. It can do ANYTHING (internet on the screen, document camera, video, whiteboard, sounds, interactive games and lessons, etc.). To sum it up, it basically engages every student. The students are so interested in this new technology and they want to learn along with us. I feel that this is such a significant teaching tool our school has.

Julia- How do you organize your plans so that you have the 2nd and 3rd graders doing different things. I think others would really like to know how you keep the 1/2 you are not actively teaching on task. Any tips would help others manage small groups effectively; your students are so on task. LIsa

Student Engagement by Diane Surak I am currently very excited about the use of individual white boards for my students to use during math lessons. By having the students work through a new concept and then having the whole class hold up their answers together, I can instantly assess which students comprehend the concept. If the majority of the class exhibits difficulty, then I simply approach the concept in simpler terms or another way that makes them understand it better. My class loves to use the boards. They stay engaged during the lesson and feel quite proud of themselves as they hold up the answer.With limited supplies, I went to Home Depot and paid $11 for a 4ft x 8ft sheet of white laminate. The very nice young man working in the lumber department quickly cut the whole sheet into 32 12 in. x 12 in. boards for my classroom set. Be sure to write to your name on the back of each one before beginning to use them. For erasers, I simply cut up some old t-shirts and pass out as individual eraser rags. Some students may already have a dry erase marker in their supplies but check them to be sure that they do not permanently mark your new boards. Enjoy. Diane- would please tell others how you manange the sharing of whiteboards when your students work in teams to solve problems.. Lisa

Yes, I simply number the students in the pairs as either a 1 or a 2. I will then tell which student will write down the team's answer, the #1 student or the #2 student. This makes both students accountable for the answer as they do not know who will be asked to write it down.

Wow, I have never thought to incorporate think, pair, share discussion into white boards...great idea! Does this work well, or do you find that some students are fully engaged, while others are daydreaming or doodling? How are you motivating the students to participate...do you record the answers or turn the answers into a class discussion? Rebecca

Shellsea

I engage my students in a variety of ways. I use different strategies I have learned including: Anita Archer hands up/hands down choral response, Rick Morris cards, and generally having them get out of their seat and teach with movement.

I ask a question with my hands raised that I have already given the answer to. I give the students time to think then I lower my hands and the students chorally respond. For Example: (hands up) teacher-7*8 is (5 second wait time) (hands down) students respond-56. This gives every student the chance to respond even if they need extra time. I use index cards to call on my students and will call on multiple students after receiving the correct answer. I will mark on the cards if their answer was correct or not or if they passed. Finally, I have my students get up out of their seats for different activities. To review prime factorization we have to draw a factor tree- the students stand up and show a pyramid with their hands representing a tree. Or 6 students stand up and split into 2 separate groups to review division.

Shellsea- will you explain how you do the group division activity where they move. Once they are divided how do you reinforce the concept of what they have done. This is a great strategy, but without seeing it, as I did, others may want to know more. LIsa

In my classroom, when I teach division I might take the students outside or do this in the classroom in some free space. I come up with a few simple division problems using the amount of stuents in my class. For example I'll have 17 students stand up and ask them to get into 4 groups. One leader stands at the front of each group and others get behind them. Any remainders have a "left over" zone they stand in to the side. Then I ask the students how many are in each group. They look around and count and answer. We then say the problem, "17 students divided by 4 groups is 4 students with one left over". We use math vocabulary the 17 is the dividend or the amount we start with, how many groups we form is our divisor and the # in each group is our quotient. I mix it up with some more problems- have 10 students stand up and make 2 groups. I love that you are getting the students to move around. I think that having students out of their chairs and not just doing worksheets is a great way to teach. Jill Mierau

I use a variety of tools in my classroom to enhance student engagement. The first of which, has been mentioned already...white boards. Whenever I need to assess the students in math, vocab, spelling, ect. I use the white boards. Since the students love to use this tool they are excited. I also use the Anita Archer technique to introduce my spelling words. The students are introduced to the words at the beginning of the week phonetically emphasizing the week focus when they are read. I teach and then they all repeat back stressing the weekly focus. When I change activities, I use a song so that the students look to me or the board for directions. I give the students till the end of the song to have the new materials ready. I believe having all students on track before starting them on a new activity will set them up for success! Rebecca Maurer Grade 5 Rebecca- will you tell others how you manage the song for transitions- how do you pick the student, how do you teach him/her. How do you think using a different song would impact transitions?? Lisa

Sure...to keep my students on task, a very powerful tool that I use is Rick Morris's CD. On this CD there are one minute clips of popular songs. What I have done with this CD is mix it into my everyday classroom management. One of the jobs that I have in my class is the CD changer. This means that when I am ready to move to the next activity, think pair share, pass in papers, students write their names on their paper, whatever it is, there is a song for each step of our day. I put a list of the song numbers next to the CD player and the student will put the song on. The students have that minute to get on task or they owe me five minutes of recess. This really works well in all grade levels. The fifth graders love it, and when the song is over they know that they have their work out and they are "giving me 5" (voices off, eyes on me, feet and hands are still ears are listening). Rebecca Maurer Grade 5

I've watched this Rick Morris strategy and it is one I've yet to implement. It's good to hear that is going well in your room. I also like the idea of having a student in charge of the CD changer.

One of my favorite things to do is Jeopardy before a test. I place kids into even teams. I ask a question to one member on each team and allow them to discuss it with their group. They then come up to the white board and write down their answers. If the answer is correct their team receives a point. This helps all kids stay in tune because they want to help all members of their team and allows each child to feel successful. Jill Mierau
 * < I try and keep my students engaged daily with little things. I always leave out blanks when we are reading so that they can fill them in. Each student has a white board in their desk to work out problems with me while we do math.

I leave blanks for the students to fill in out loud. I feel this helps students to stay on task and follow along. Jill Mierau

J ill- when you say you leave blanks during reading, is this for choral response of a word or phrase, or are you leaving physical space on the text for them to do metacognitive thinking/responding about what they read??? Lisa ||

=Please tell us who you are before or after your entry:) Thanks, Lisa Paisley= = =