Reflection

There was so much information in Tomlinson's Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom. It is amazing that the students needs, what the teacher needs to give the student, and how the curriculum fits those needs all connect to each other and work together to create a differentiated classroom. Tomlinson does such a great job at pointing out different ways to differentiate you class and why it is important to do that.
In my classroom, I am so excited to start up morning meetings and establish a classroom community where the students love and respect each other. It is so important to let students know that everyone learns differently and at different speeds. Also, that this doesn't make any students smarter or better than one another, but that it adds to their individuality and uniqueness. Students need to embrace their differences and find out how they learn best. Since learning is a process that will never end through their whole lives, it's best to find out early on how they like to learn and what interests them the most.
Differentiation is key to helping students reach their full potential. This is how you get your students to love coming to school and love learning new things. Being excited to learn and providing fresh new ways and information will keep your students interested and involved. No student should feel like they are not part of the class and or that they are holding the class back from anything. Each student is important and vital to the class running smoothly and going in a positive direction.
In my classroom, I would love to have my students work together to help each other learn. Teamwork is so important to their lives. Working together will help them create friendships and learn how to be a part of community. The essential part of school is to create responsible and educated citizens. That is done through teamwork and positive attitudes. When students can learn to find love and respect for their classmates, it opens up their minds and hearts to find love and respect for those in their community. I feel that this is the only way to truly teach students to not give into prejudice and racism. This is how we build positive, unique, caring, and bright human beings. Elementary education is where it all begins!

Effective Teaching

There are many things that make up an effective teacher. Teachers need to:

• Respect, listen to, show empathy, and help their students
• Students need to know you care. By listening to them and showing them in multiple ways that you are there for them will help build your relationship with them.
• Create warm and supportive classrooms
• This doesn't necessarily mean a decorative classroom, it is also about how you treat your students and your expectations of how they treat each other.
• Develop awareness of different cultures
• Your whole job is to expand your students knowledge, and that includes their knowledge of the world and other cultures. It is so important to bring in any cultures that your students may personally have experience with. This will help them feel like they are part of the class and give any other students an opportunity to learn more about them.
• Work and interact directly with students
• Students do need to learn independence and to do some things on their own, but teachers should also need to have a presence in the student's learning. Working with the students and doing projects with them shows the students that you are an active participant in the class as well.
• Be enthusiastic about learning
• Your attitude about a subject is easily passed onto the students. It is so important to believe in what you are teaching and be passionate about each thing you teach, even if you have to fake it. Being excited to teach something will get the students excited to learn it.
• Discuss the importance of reflection
• It is important to reflect on your work as a teacher. Notice what went well and what did not, and with each individual student. Also, teach your students the importance of reflection on their own work and teach them to always be improving on themselves.
• Establish classroom routines
• Students need to know how to act during different lessons and situations in the classroom. Setting up routines for them such as when to sharpen pencils and when they can ask to use the restroom will help to keep the classroom running smoothly and without too many interruptions. Students will also be able to be independent and not have to come to you every for every question.

R.A.F.T.

Role
Audience
Format
Topic

R.A.F.T. is a really unique idea to get students to think about things from many different perspectives. You can use R.A.F.T. activities for any subject area. How it works is you assign your students to write something (Format) such as a letter, a speech, a map, an interview, etc. and they write it from a specific point of view. The topic is also specified by the teacher as well as who the writing is directed to. You can differentiate it for interest, readiness, and learning profiles. For interest, you can change the type of format to be something the student would be more interested in. If you have a student who is more argumentative, you can gear the format, role, and audience to fit their personality. As well as if you have a student who is more passive and compromising, you can gear R.A.F.T. toward them. To vary it for readiness, you can assign different formats and have different requirements for your students who need their assignment lessened.
I love the idea of them being usable for each subject area. You can have them write a letter about being a semicolon to the students about how to use it correctly. For math, students could write a speech about being an equal sign to an inequality sign about how equal signs are better. The options are endless! I would love to use this to assess student understanding of different subjects. I think that this will be helpful to get students to think deeper and in different ways. 

ThinkDots

ThinkDots are to be used after a concept has been taught. They are great for reviewing or extending learning. ThinkDots are sets of cards that are hole punched in a corner and held together by a ring. Each card has one or more dots on it (1-6 like the dots on a die). On the back of the card, there is a question or a task for the students to answer or complete. These questions or tasks have to do with the concept or skill that they have been studying. These would be so easy to create and if laminated, could last many years. I think that students would love to have a variety of these to work with because they are so interactive and give fun options to show their learning.
By making various ThinkDot sets for the same concept or skill can differentiate for readiness very easily. For interest, there can be many different types of responses the cards have and can also have tasks that require partnerships or for students to work alone. There are so many ways to tweak this to work for your specific class. Once you get to know what interests your students and what levels they are at, it is easy to create cards you know they will want to do. It also can work for any subject area. I love that I could have a massive set of these ThinkDot cards for my classroom. They could be used as fast finishers or even as centers. Since you could just create these on index cards, the would be cheap, easy, and quick to make. The three things teachers are always looking for in their preparations.
Since these are to be used after the student has been working on the concept or skill, they are a great way to assess learning. I could set this up in my classroom for some subjects where they have to pass off three different ThinkDot cards before they can move onto the next lesson. That way, they can get some practice at the concept or skill and show me in different ways what they have learned and how they are thinking about that concept or skill. Using these in the classroom is such an easy way to differentiate the process for readiness, interest, and learning profiles. I really like how easy it is to mold it to exactly what your students need and in each subject. They are so versatile! 

Classroom Community

Creating a classroom community is incredibly important in making your students feel safe and ready to learn. When your students trust each other, they can help to build each other up and learn from one another. I am truly passionate about setting up a classroom where the students are all fantastic friends and are never afraid to share what they think and know with each other. I wrote a paper for my differentiation class that I would like to share on here. It expresses how I want my classroom to be and what is important to me about classroom community.

Classroom Community Environment Key Assignment

            I’ve seen classes with amazing community and respect for each other and I’ve seen classes who truly lack the positive environment and community. I prefer my students to trust each other and me. I truly believe that having a healthy classroom community is the only way for students to create meaningful and deep understandings of the lessons taught to them.

            I observed a third grade class who participated in morning meetings. I would regularly hear the teacher tell her students, “I think that’s something the whole class would like to know. How about you bring it up in morning meeting?” I loved seeing the students’ reactions to this because their face lit up at the thought of their question being important enough for morning meeting.

            With my class, I am going to set up daily morning meetings. I want to include sharing from every student, every day. It is incredibly important to me that every student’s voice is heard. In one of the videos the teacher had the students pass around a beanbag and share one thing they did well yesterday. I love the positive message that goes with that and really makes the students think positively of themselves, even if it is just for that moment.

            I will also use my morning meetings to build teamwork among the class. I feel that this is a great time to push for that healthy classroom community. I know that the class will not run smoothly without participation from each student, but I want them to know that as well. I want this time to be fun and engaging, but at the same time educational. Morning meetings are a great time for review or even a hook into a new unit.

            Aside from morning meetings, I will also encourage a lot of group work and leadership opportunities. The desks will be arranged in groups and many of their rewards will rely on how well they can work as a team and encouraging each other to be the best they can.

            Each student needs to know that they are important to their peers and myself, and are needed in the classroom. I also want them to know that I hear their opinions and encourage their ideas to be shared. I will set aside a time during morning meeting for ideas from students or comments about past lessons for what they liked or what they wished was different. I will not tolerate negativity, but I would like to hear suggestions and why things went well or did not.

            My biggest desire for my classroom is that every student feels safe, comfortable, happy, and important. I think this is the first step in learning and gives students the confidence they need to succeed in school and in their social lives. Creating a classroom community takes time and effort, but the benefits that come from it are priceless.

Keeper of the Book

The idea of "Keeper of the Book" is that students will record in a binder the date, important knowledge, understandings, and skills that were discussed that day or even from just a specific lesson. This helps students who are absent look back at the information recorded to see what they missed. It is also a great tool for students to review. The book should be easily accessible by all students as they need it. This book puts a lot of responsibility on the students to look at the book and get caught up with the information they need.
I love that it is student ran. Students fill out the book, and it is the students' responsibility to look at the book when they need to. In my class, I would use this book as one of the class jobs that I assign my students to. Everyone would get a turn being the "Keeper of the Book" and they would know in advance when they are to be recording in it. There would have to be requirements that went with the book. I would want my students to be recording detailed notes and what we did together as a class.
It is so great that this is something to show the students that they get as much out of it as they put into it. This also builds great classroom community through them having to work together and rely on each other for the book to work. I would encourage them to do their best work in the book since it is for everyone, and not just themselves.
With my book, I would assign a different student every day to be "Keeper of the Book". I would also have them record in it multiple times a day. Such as, after a math, science, or literacy lesson, they would copy their notes into the book and record the homework assignment. This way, nothing would be skipped or forgotten.
I already had the intention of having my students use a daily planner to keep track of what was done that day and what homework they had, but I love the extra touch the book adds. Having the notes right there with the assignment listed and being available for all students really opens up a lot of opportunities for students to get reminders and refreshers on different assignments without having to stay after school with me.

Success is the Result of Effort

Some students breeze through school with minimal effort because they know that they will just pass. Others try as hard as they can, but never seem to do as well as those special students who do not try and still get better grades. It is hard to show these students that they are only getting out of school what they put into it. Those students who are striving, while they may still be behind, are improving and learning new skills. Those who do not put forth the effort and skate by, are gaining nothing new and are not improving themselves. Goal setting for each student is incredibly important. Every student deserves one years' growth in a years' time. It is up to the teacher to show the student that their efforts are worth it and their success comes directly from how much effort they put into it. In field, I had a student who was doing pretty well in school. Most things came naturally for this student. He was always the first one done with homework and it was always done correctly. At first, I beamed and was so incredibly proud of how much effort he put into school, but then I realized, he wasn't putting forth effort. This boy was incredibly smart and was not being challenged at all. I started giving him more challenging questions and asking him to explain his thinking more. At first he was resistant because he didn't want to do more work than he had to, but he warmed up to it once he realized that class didn't have to be boring for him and he could learn new things still. I also had another student in that same class who struggled at everything he did. He sat next to the boy who succeeded at everything and it was incredibly hard for him to see he didn't do as well. I began to work closer with him too. I told him every student in this class has different goals and the only thing that matters is how much effort he put into doing the best he could do. We began to set goals for his homework and I encouraged his input in our goal making. I wanted it to be challenging, but I also did not want him to get frustrated and give up, as he was prone to do. We made a little progress and his attitude was beginning to turn around. Just in time for me to leave, as it always seems to be. Showing students that they can be successful in school, no matter where they are at academically is so important for their continuous desire for learning and their self-confidence.

Using Professional Learning Communities in Your Classroom

In field, the sixth grade teacher I was with had amazing classroom management. He wasn't overly strict with the students and they seemed to really like and respect him. I don't think I have ever seen a sixth grade class behave this way before. I asked him what his secret was, and he told me that he put the responsibility on them and to help them create a community with themselves. Before you can differentiate, you need your students to trust you and to trust each other. Classroom community is the most important thing to establish.

At the beginning of the year, he made four small posters titled: When The Teacher Is At The Front, In Line, Self-Start Time, and Group Work. The students came up with what went on these posters of what it looked like and what it sounded like. The teacher used these posters to hold the students to their own standards and would use them to remind the students that they wrote them. Pure genius! I have always believed that students should have a say in the class rules, but this just takes it to a whole new level. I love that it really puts the responsibility on them to behave the way they think they should.

Another way he creates responsibility in his classroom is by using professional learning communities. The students' desks are grouped into "tables" and each table has a table leader. The table leaders draft who they want at their tables and decide the seating chart for their table. At the beginning of each week, the tables create goals for when they will all get their homework in by, how many books they will read as a table, what service project they will do that week, and any other goals they wish to set. Each day, the teacher gives them about five minutes to see where they are at with their goals. At the end of the week, the teacher would tally up the tables for when their homework was in, how many books they read, behavior, how clean it is around their table, how many table points they received, and how many books they read. These tallies continued throughout the month. The teacher created benchmarks where the table would receive a prize for achieving so many points. They were things like pillows for the whole day, a candy bar, extra reading time, extra recess time, free lunch, free book, lunch with the teacher, etc. Every Friday, the teacher would have lunch with the table leaders and go over how things are going, what could be done better, ways they could show more leadership, and how to unite their table. These meetings were private and neither the students nor the teacher shared what was said in these meetings with anyone else. I was amazed at the leadership and unity this built within the classroom. The students responded very well to it and really strived to reach their goals each week. The students who usually slack off or misbehave, found that their behavior directly effected their table-mates. This changed their outlook on how they act and they worked harder to be a good member of the team. This was such a great example to me of how to create a healthy community in your classroom and that it can be incredibly helpful to release some of the power and responsibility to the students.

Community Learning Contracts

Tomlinson describes community learning contracts as a way for students, in groups based on readiness, to learn terms, concepts, and skills in their own time. They also help students to plan out their timing. Tomlinson offers a few different types of contracts in her book Differentiation In Practice. One is a very basic contract that is meant for students who are at an introductory level and who need to become more familiar with the concept's terminology and skills. Another version she includes is a contract that is geared toward students who have a good handle of the concept and are ready for more of a challenge. The two contracts seem to be on the two extremes, so Tomlinson suggests that for your students who aren't quite ready for the second contract, is to ease them into it and introduce parts of it at a time. These contracts include different meaningful activities and a contract agreement where the student agrees to choose which activities they will complete.

I love the idea of using contracts in the classroom. It holds the students accountable and also gives them the choice of what their going to work on. These contracts clearly state what is expected of the students and what the teacher is looking for in the assignments. I think that it would be helpful to have a rubric for some of the more complicated assignments so that the students know exactly what is expected from them and pushes them to produce exceptional work. This is also a perfect way of differentiating for readiness. Students can have different contracts for the same unit/concept without attention being called to it. That is my biggest concern about grouping students by readiness. This is such a fantastic way to be discreet about it, but get the results you desire. It is so important for the students to be able to choose their own assignments. This gives them a chance to be involved in their learning and gives them a say in how they show what they have learned. It offers them a chance to try new things or go with what they know works best for them. Also, if you find that your students end up choosing the same types of assignments, you could split up the activities into sections and require that they choose one of each type. There are so many ways to make contracts unique to your class and work for your students.

Strategies for Curriculum and Instruction: Part 2

Strategies for Demanding and Supported Curriculum and Instruction

• Use tiered approaches
• Know that students should word toward the same curriculum standards, but also know each individual's readiness level. The sixth grade class I am in right now is working toward getting ready for end of year testing. They are all at different levels and the teacher and I are currently assessing where their gaps are and working with students in those areas where they are struggling. We are tiering them for how many different subjects they are not understanding.
• Use a variety of rubrics to guide quality
• Use rubrics for a unit, individual lessons, student goals, class goals, and share these with your students. It is important for them to know what you are expecting from them. I shared a rubric with my students for their argumentative writing, and I couldn't believe the increase in quality of their papers afterward.
• Aim high
• Students need to be pushed to try their hardest. We need to hold them to a higher standard so they have something to strive for. On the other hand, it needs to be a goal or standard that they can achieve. If it is impossible for them to reach that goal, they are going to become frustrated and stop trying.
• Take a "no excuses" stance
• This isn't meant as a punishment or to be mean spirited, but holding students to a higher standard. They are capable of turning in their homework on time, completed, and done to the best of their abilities.
• Become computer savvy
• Students these days know more about technology and how it works than I do. It is important to stay current with technology, especially because it has so much to offer in terms of education. The sixth grade class does a lot of their journal writing, and papers on chromebooks. They can share through google drive what they have created with the teacher and also with their peers.
• Directly teach strategies for working successfully with text
• This is something your students will be doing for the rest of their lives, so it is so important to teach them these skills. Once they can navigate through texts more easily, they will be able to comprehend more and become more interested in what they are learning. Teaching them basic comprehension skills like prediction, questioning, finding main ideas, locating key words, etc. will allow them to learn the information and be able to use it.
• Use small group instruction as a regular part of instructional cycles
• Small group instruction is great to get more individualized instruction, but it needs to be done regularly and in multiple flexible groups. By having various small, flexible groups, students can interact with many different peers who are all on different levels and work in different settings.
• Establish peer networks for learning
• Creating peer networks in your classroom is a great way to get students who have a harder time making those connections with their peers. It establishes friendships and camaraderie. In the class I am in, the teacher has set up table leaders at each table. Every week, they set goals in reading, homework, and service projects.
• Promote language proficiency
• For those students who are learning a language, you can label things throughout the classroom. Even if your students are not learning a new language, you still need to promote language proficiency. You can do this by being an example yourself and using elaborated words. You can also create lists with your students, or have students practice writing and reading dialogue heavy texts. Immersing students into a rich language environment helps them to broaden their vocabulary.
• Cue and coach student responses
• Encourage your students to elaborate on their responses. Do not always accept the first response they give you. By doing this, you encourage them to think deeper and focus their train of thought. It is also helpful for the students if you cue them into when you will be asking a question. This will give them some more time to think and come up with an intelligent and appropriate answer. I noticed my teacher using this strategy. He would tell the students to be thinking about something because he would ask questions about it later. He would then introduce the topic, or review it, and then ask the students a question. This produced great responses from the students and there were more hands raised than the times he did not do this.

Strategies for Curriculum and Instruction: Part 1

Strategies for Important, Focused, Engaging Curriculum and Instruction

• Focus student products around significant problems and issues
• Finding something current and relevant to relate your curriculum to is imperative for student understanding. Tomlinson gave examples of a math class studying construction and having them come up with suggestions for the construction company, who in turn used many of their suggestions. I think it is so amazing to have students make a difference in their community and not just tell them ways they can. I see teachers attempting to have their students make a difference, but rarely do the students really get the students out in the community doing something.
• Use meaningful audiences
• Giving students an audience to gear their knowledge toward is a great way for them to practice what they've learned. In the sixth grade class I am in, once a week, they go down to the second graders and help them with their reading skills. The sixth graders have to come up with ways to use their knowledge about reading that would be relatable and something a second grader could understand. Having a specific audience can really focus student learning and also give them a new perspective of looking at and using their knowledge.
• Help students discover how ideas and skills are useful in the world
• It is the constant challenge for teachers to find ways to relate what is in the textbooks to student lives. If they do not see how it can relate to real life or their own lives, the information is usually lost on them and they cannot become passionate about learning. Bring in people from the community to talk to your class, or use local businesses in comparison to large corporations to show different business practices, budgets, customers, demands, etc. A common field trip for younger students that I've seen is taking them to the local fire department. I think that is a wonderful field trip, but taking students to local places sort of ends there for most students.
• Provide choices that ensure focus
• Providing choices is essential in creating a differentiated classroom. The trick is making sure all of the choices still line up with your curriculum and they are still in line with your objectives. Students learn differently and giving them options allows them to chose the way they learn the information. Also, giving them a choice in their work gives them responsibility for their learning and they usually take the challenge and do more with the project than you imagined it being. Last year, I had students create a castle using food. I did not tell them what any of the food was for. My only direction was, make a castle using the candy/food, and make sure your castle has the required parts to it (we learned the different parts of a castle and I provided them with a list). I was scared that I didn't give them enough choices in food products and they were all going to turn out the same. I was wrong! They became so creative with the choices in candy and food and every single one of them had a completely different looking castle. Not telling them what each piece of food I intended them for really helped them use their creativity and find new ways to create some of the parts of a castle.
• Look for fresh ways to present and explore ideas
• Another big challenge for teachers is to keep the lessons fresh and fun for the students. It is easy to get in the rut of routine with your students and each lesson starts looking the same. Students need to be encouraged to try new things and push themselves to relate their learning to their lives. Having them create cartoons, plays, stories, digital stories, maps, videos, etc. can really get them interested in their learning and produce amazing and creative work. In the sixth grade science class, I saw the teacher have the students line up in order of birthdays to teach rotation of the Earth. The students used their bodies as globes (their heart was North America, stomachs South America, back shoulder blade was China) and they had to rotate their bodies to show which direction the Earth rotates and what continent was facing the sun at what time of day. It was such a fresh idea of teaching this lesson. I loved how it got the students up and moving and they really had to think hard about direction and where they were located in terms of the sun.
• Share your experiences and invite students to do the same
• Some teachers do not like to share their personal lives with their students, and some share way too much. It is important to find a balance, and to be able to relate it to what the students are learning. They need to see you as a human being and know that you have experience that you can share and will be helpful to them. Earlier this week, I told the students that I was behind in reading and new good books. So, I made a goal to read at least two books a month and I asked for suggestions from them. They gave me quite a list! It was great to share with them that I have struggles, but by setting goals I can change that. They now come up with suggestions for me all the time and are really invested in helping me reach my goal. I think it's great for them to see that they help me as well.

Curriculum and Instruction as the Vehicle

Five Elements for Curriculum and Instruction
1. Important
2. Focused
3. Engaging
4. Demanding
5. Scaffolded

1. Important
Steven Levy said, "We cannot teach the breadth of the entire world and at the same time achieve any depth of understanding." Knowing what to teach and how in-depth to teach is the constant battle teachers face. Students need to know that what they are studying is essential. If they do not see worth in it, then they will tune out and respect you less for wasting time. That is what I felt as a student when I couldn't see the reasoning behind the lesson, and no teacher ever took the time to point it out to me. Students also need to see the bigger picture and that their lessons build on knowledge they previously gained. They also need to be given opportunities to use their new knowledge and apply it. 
2. Focused
Teachers need to be clear about what they are teaching their students before their students can learn it. Each lesson needs to be aligned with the essential learning goals. This sounds like common sense, but there have been times when I am writing a lesson plan and I get on a tangent. I always have to pull myself back and ask, "Does this match with what I said I wanted them to learn?" Teachers and students, both need to know why you're doing what you're doing. This helps you to keep end goals in mind and motivate both yourself and students to keep trying and learning.
3. Engaging
It is hard to find exciting facts in all subject areas, but teachers need to search for them and incorporate them with their passion for teaching. In turn, the excitement of something new and the passion of the teacher combined is incredibly powerful in engaging students. Last year, I was reading an article with some students about lizards, and I learned something new. I wasn't expecting to because it was a pretty basic article and I was so focused on teaching guided reading. I genuinely gasped in excitement. I let them finish the sentence, and then I asked if any of them had learned anything new. They all looked at me blankly, so I shared what I learned. This got them going, and suddenly all of them wanted to share something they found interesting. It is so important to give students work that they will find interesting and meaningful.
4. Demanding
Finding that zone of proximal development for each student is so satisfying. It is the greatest feeling to see a student push themselves and really strive to increase their knowledge. It is equally the worst feeling to see a student so frustrated with the impossible challenge and give up. Students need to know that gaining new knowledge and growing isn't an option, they have to improve themselves. They should be held to high standards and be expected to achieve them. I have seen students who do not feel like they have to try because no one is really pushing them. Teachers need to be aware of all of their students and find ways to push each and everyone of them toward their goals.
5. Scaffolded
Scaffolding is usually thought of as being used toward students who are struggling, but it should be used toward all of them. Each student deserves to have work suited to their needs and personal goals. Teachers need to keep in mind the different ways and activities that they could scaffold for their students. It is important for the teacher to use modeling, graphic organizers, and other strategies to show students that they are successful and that they are learning. Last year, I was teaching math and realized that my fast finishers were bored out of their minds. So, I created a fun game for them to play when they finished their assignment. It wasn't until I got the game going, that I realized my students who weren't fast finishers were feeling left out and not as smart because they weren't done yet. I needed to find a way to scaffold for my other students in a fun way like I had for my fast finishing students.

Classroom Environment and Routines

Classroom Environment
Setting up a positive environment in your classroom is key for effective communication between the teacher and students, and even student to student communication. The environment in the classroom sets up how comfortable students will feel with expressing themselves. How you arrange desks, decorate walls, and even what materials you have in the classroom speak volumes to the type of environment you want to create. The way the teacher interacts with her/his students sets up much of the communication for the class. If the teacher takes the time to individually talk with each student and get to know them, then the students will more likely be comfortable in the classroom and excited about learning. Also, the way the teacher talks to the students sets a tone. If the teacher laughs and builds up the students, or if the teacher is serious, or heaven forbid, the teacher talks down to the students, this all shows the students what's acceptable, what's expected, and what the teacher feels about them. I directly correlate seating arrangements to my mood about classes I had in elementary school. Usually the teachers who I thought were mean and cold were the teachers who had us sitting in rows and columns and rarely changed seating arrangements. Now, anytime I see a classroom that is arranged that way, I immediately want to move all the desks together and create a friendlier environment.

Classroom Routines
It is so important to be flexible while also sticking to routines. Teachers cannot always remind each student about every little thing they should or should not be doing. That is why it is so important to teach expectations to your students and go over procedures thoroughly. This is a great way to get students to be self-starters and interested in their own learning by being responsible for it. There is so little time in the classroom and usually more students than you'd like to have, so it is hard not to want to just do things for them and get it done faster. Students do not learn that way, they need to do it for themselves and learn to become autonomous. When I was in the classroom teaching, I taught an assignment that the students had done something like it before, so I was not too worried about going over procedures. That was a mistake. It was a carousel activity of sorts, and I put the cards in a different order than they were used to and that caused chaos. Moral of the story: make sure your students are clear about expectations and that they know the procedures clearly.

How Teachers Need To Respond

Five Elements to Teacher Responses
1. Invitation
2. Opportunity
3. Investment
4. Persistence
5. Reflection

1. Invitation
The teacher needs to invite their students into their classroom and make them feel welcome. It is important for teachers to get to know their students and what their interests are, not only for academic purposes, but for the students' self-esteem and self-worth. Students need affirmation and teachers need to provide it for them. In the first week, I made it a point to learn the name of each student. I began to learn different things about each child and it really helped me to develop relationships with them.
2. Opportunity
Teachers provide their students with opportunities to grow. Once you know your students, you can begin to provide them opportunities to grow based on where they are and what is meaningful to them by creating goals. Students need to feel important and be open to new possibilities. Teachers can show these things to students. I think that school is a wonderful place for students to try new things and experiences that they possibly would not receive at home.
3. Investment
Teachers invest time, energy, and well... everything for their students and they love it! Teachers put forth effort to make school successful for each student and ensure growth. Teachers and students work side by side to reach students' goals. Teachers who are invested will create personally engaging tasks for their students. I was only in the classroom half days, and I was very invested in the students and desired to find tasks that I knew the students would enjoy.
4. Persistence
Classrooms do not go as planned. It takes persistence to make things work. Teachers are constantly adapting to the needs of the classroom. Teachers also need to instill in their students that they are never done growing and that excuses are not permitted, but support is always available. During an assignment in the classroom, I had a student who wanted to give up because his paper did not look like the example. I insisted he persist and that we could fix it to make it fit the assignment. We eventually came to an agreement and he finished the assignment. 
5. Reflection
Teachers listen to their students, and learn what they need to change to help the students learn. Teachers are constantly reflecting on the students work and their own. It does nothing to just reflect without taking action on the things you learn from your reflections. Students deserve to be taught in various ways that benefit their learning. When I was in the classroom, I encouraged students to reflect on their learning and how they got the answers they did. It was a great way for me to see where they were at and for them to establish what they were learning.

What Students Need

Five Elements Students Seek

1. Affirmation

2. Contribution

3. Power

4. Purpose

5. Challenge

1. Affirmation

Students need to know that they are safe and accepted at school. Teachers need to encourage positive self-esteem in their students. The way to increase self-esteem is to be successful at something challenging. That is number five, but students seek the praise and encouragement teachers provide. It is so important to let your students know that you believe in them. Even in small ways, it means a lot to them. In the classroom, once I started to get to know the students better, I began to praise them for real accomplishments I noticed. It was as simple as telling them, "Wow, you figured that out fast!" or "Class, Jimmy found a new way to solve this, let's listen up and have him explain it to us." Their faces lit up at the recognition.

2. Contribution

It is detrimental to your students that they feel like they make a difference in your class. It is the teacher's responsibility to recognize and embrace each students' abilities and uniqueness. I believe this is the root of feeling accepted at school and what gives some students the ability to make friends. Too often a lonely student continues to go unnoticed. I believe that teachers need to show each student that they matter to them, and to the rest of the class. One day, I didn't know the protocol for lining up, so I said, "We can't walk down the hall without a line leader, who amongst you will lead us?" That is when the students informed me that they had assigned jobs and one of the shier students in the class was the leader. It gave her a chance to be noticed by her classmates as an important part of the class.

3. Power

Show students that what they learn in school is useful to them. They need to know what is expected of them, how things are ran, and what quality work looks like. These things all vary from teacher to teacher, but that is why we tell students our expectations and procedures for how we want things done in our classrooms. Students also need to be allowed to make choices. The student needs to have power in your classroom. Teachers do not need to be the control freaks they really are deep down because their students are part of the classroom too. Yes, order needs to be in place and students need structure, but that does not mean that they cannot be a part of the process. I have seen teachers who are too strict, and their students lash out, and I have seen teachers who are too lenient and the students walk all over them. The classroom is a place of give and take; that goes for power as well.

4. Purpose

 Students are always asking, "Why do I have to do this?" and as a teacher, you better have an answer for them. If you cannot answer that question, your lesson is useless and a complete waste of time. Students need opportunities to see what they do in class reflects on them as a person and that they make a difference in the world. In math, I constantly asked the question, "When will I use this in real life?" and there were plenty of things I learned that I have not used since then, but it taught me how to think differently and challenged me to work through the problem. It is so important to discuss this with your students. Show them that they are thinking in new ways and make a point to that changing their lives. Math will not seem so pointless after that.

5. Challenge

Zone of proximal development is constantly being thrown around in the education world, and for good reason. Students need to be challenged, not only to advance, but to stay focused and interested in school. This, in my opinion, is the most important thing teachers do for students; appropriately challenge each and every student. It is so important to show students that it is okay to fail, as long as something has been learned, but they cannot always be failing. Students need to see that they are successful. All students should be trying to push themselves to improve in all areas at school. My biggest belief in school is that every student deserves to gain a year's growth, in a year's worth of school. The only way this is possible is by challenging each of your students.

Hallmarks of Differentiation (Volume Two)

5. A "way up," usually through multiple and varied pathways, and never a "way out."
Teachers need to push their students, using a support system. In order to do this, a teacher needs to "teach up" to their students by including opportunities to scaffold. Teachers need to avoid the mundane drill and practice and work toward strategic lessons. Students need the effort put forth by their teachers to push them toward success. Never cheat your students by giving them work that is not helping them move forward.

6. "Respectful" and engaging work for all students.
Each student should be thinking on their highest level and assigned work that is inviting and important to them. When needed, adjust quality rather than increasing or decreasing the quantity. Students need to be challenged and it is the teacher's responsibility to continue to keep these students challenged. Continually assessing students is how you know what will challenge your students and keep them engaged in their work. Students who need to be "kept busy" is the teacher's fault for not challenging them and giving them busy work that does not challenge, nor engage them.

7. Proactive thinking and planning for different pathways.
This hallmark is all about planning ahead for what each of your students will need from your lesson. This includes planning ahead for re-teaching, remediating, accommodating, and modifying instruction. Good teaching always includes planning ahead, but differentiated teaching includes planning ahead on all fronts for your students. In field, as I began teaching, I realized one of the students couldn't see the board, and stopped working. I began to fit it into my lesson that any student who couldn't see the board while we were working could come sit on the carpet in front. This way, I didn't single him out, and as it turns out, a few other students had a hard time seeing the board as well.

8. Flexible grouping.
At different times of the day, and through different lessons, students will be grouped in different grouping. Some lessons you need to pair/group students by similar/different interests, learning profiles, and random or guided leadership. In the classroom I was in, my cooperating teacher had "clock partners". At the beginning of the year, she gave each student a little square sheet of paper that had a clock on it and at each hour was a spot to put someone's name. The rules were that they could not put the same person twice, they had to leave 12 and 6 free and she would assign those, and that their one o'clock partner had to have your name at one o'clock and so on for the rest of the hours. She assigned 12 o'clock partners with other's who were on the same math level, and 6 o'clock partners with those on the same reading level. This method alleviated the need to pick/assign a partner every time she wanted them to pair up and got the students to interact with various classmates throughout the day.

9. Flexible use of time, space, and materials.
This includes the teacher arranging the classroom in a variety of ways and formats. The teacher should also use a variety of materials for all students at every readiness level and/or interests. Their timing of lessons need to be flexible as well. I plan to change my seating arrangements once a month, or once a week if I feel that my students need that. I prefer to put their desks into groups, but I am willing to arrange the classroom in any way that I think would best benefit my students. I love hands-on learning and I am always looking for, and hoarding, knick-knacks that I think could be used in a lesson. I am a big believer in a wide variety of materials for students. Everyone learns in a different way, and it is our job as teachers to provide them with what they need to learn.

Hallmarks of Differentiation (Volume One)

1. A strong link between assessment and instruction.
In order to know what the students need, they need to be assessed, but the teacher needs to take it beyond that. Once they have been assessed, the teacher should use that to create the next lesson. Use what the students know and still need to know to plan the next lesson. I have implemented this in the classroom while I was at field. Even just small assessments, like observing them while they work and asking them questions about their thinking helped me to plan what I needed to teach the next day.

2. Absolute clarity about what the teacher wants the students to know, understand, and be able to do --about what is truly important to learn in this unit.
As a teacher, you need to know exactly what you want your students to get out of your lessons. Being specific and clear about what they will be doing and learning will help you know what is important to keep in your lessons and what does not fit the objectives. I honestly hate writing lesson plans, but I see their value in the objectives and when I stick to my objectives, it is much easier to plan out the lesson.

3. Shared responsibility for the classroom is between teacher and students, in the goal of making it work for everyone.
The students need to feel comfortable in their own classroom, and feel like it is their own. The best way to do this, is to create a community of shared responsibilities. As the year goes on, the teacher will learn who likes what jobs, but is fair in everyone getting a chance to do each of the jobs. Even in older grades (which is where I am hoping to teach) you can assign students responsibilities and certain jobs, without making it sound childish. You just may need to be sneakier about it and give out different jobs than you would to a first grade class.

4. Individual growth is emphasized as central to classroom success.
It is the teacher's responsibility to support their students to progress and strive to reach goals. Involving the students in their own goal making helps them to have responsibility and accountability for their progress. It is important that you give the students what they need to grow, without comparing them to other students. I had a student who needed lots of extra attention to stay on task. We set a goal that he would get so much done in two minutes and I would come back over to check and see if he completed it. He hadn't quite gotten all of it done, but it was more progress than I had seen him make before.

Why Not Teach To The Middle?

"You cannot possibly teach everything to every student, so you might as well get the majority of your students and teach to the middle."

I have always thought of this as a sound theory and it made sense to me. Now that I am more educated about what students are really like and how they learn, I am surprised that any teacher could believe that they are teaching to the middle.

There is no such thing!

All students have different ways of learning, different interests, and many different levels of where they are at with many different subjects. Getting input from your students about what they like, what interests them and how they would like to be taught is detrimental to creating a successful and differentiated classroom. Getting to know your students not only grants you the love and respect from them, but also allows you to discover how to teach to their needs and interests.