Ch. 2 - Fullfilling the Promise & Ch. 1 - Differentiation in Practice

FULLFILLING THE PROMISE - Ch. 2

This chapter highlighted 5 needs that learners seek to be met and that must be met if we are acheiving the "differentiated classroom":
1) Affirmation: Will I be affirmed as a person here?
2) Contribution: Is there a real contribution for me to make in this place?
3) Purposeful: Will what goes on here seem purposeful to me?
4) Power: Will it make me realize I have power within me?
5) Satisfactory Challenge: Will I feel satisfaction that comes from a challenge conquered?

As I reflect back on my years in the educational system, I can think of specific circumstances when the teacher/classroom met or didn't meet these 5 needs and the affect it had on me.

In my elementary years, I think my teachers did a fair job of meeting those basic needs. However, my 4th grade teacher did an awesome job of meeting those needs. While my first few years of school are a blur, I can remember specific details of my experience in 4th grade. I remember specifically feeling like I belonged, that I contriubuted and that I was challenged. I wasn't the top student, in fact, I was a class clown that year and was disciplined at times for disrupting the class. It would have been easy for me to feel like an outsider, or an annoyance. However, because my teacher met those needs, I always felt like I belonged - even when I was sent to sit in a chair outside the classroom door.

In my middle school years there was a negative incident that ocurred that set the tone for the remainder of my public school years. A teacher called me into an office with a group of fellow classmates to have them dispute something she told me while it was just the two of us talking. I remember feeling "ganged up" on and school was no longer a safe place where I felt accepted. As I went from middle school to high school, I withdrew even more. On the majority of days I would go the whole day at school without talking or being talked to directly. I wasn't affirmed as a person. I didn't feel like I contributed. I didn't feel like I had any power within me. It was a difficult time.

Now, as a college student in the education program, I do feel those needs are met and I can see the positive difference in myself as a student because those needs are met.

QUOTES FROM THE TEXT
"The truth is, we will never really do all each child needs us to do. A simultaneous truth is that the first truth is no reason to stop trying" (pg. 22) - I love love love this quote. It gives me comfort - both as a mother and as a future teacher.

"Connecting with each child is at the heart of differentiated teaching, because this approach to teaching does not accept learners as interchangeable parts" (pg.22)

"Reflecting on the immensity of the needs of the immense number of students with whom we have worked and will work becomes an easy invitation to teacher guilt. The point is not the entertain guilt. The point is to relentlessly seize the remarkable opportunity of a teacher to shape lives-to do the best we can to ensure that we are better at reaching children today than yesterday, better at is this year than last" (pg 22) - This quote makes me think of mommy guilt I've experienced as a mother. The guilt I've felt when I have snapped at my daughter out of stress or some outside influence. The guilt I've felt as I've left to go to work (out of necessity) when all my heart desires is to be a stay-at-home mom. The guilt I felt recently when returning to school (out of necessity) and taking time away from my daughter. Not entertaining the guilt is KEY if we are going to succeed at doing the best we can!

DIFFERENTIATION IN PRACTICE - Ch.1

This Chapter highlighted 4 elements that exist behind a differentiated classroom
1) Who we teach - important to understand the individuality and commonality among the class. Sometimes we often think of the differences, however striking the balance is important.
2) What we teach - information taught must be adapted to individual learners in order to teach them well.
3) Where we teach - the classroom must be a place where the needs of both individuals and the group as a whole are met.
4) How we teach - important to be flexible in instruction

This chapter also highlighted the 12 hallmarks of a differentiated classroom.
One of my favorites is:
THE TEACHER EMPHASIZES INDIVIDUAL GROWTH AS CENTRAL TO THE SUCCESS OF THE CLASSROOM.
I think this is sooo very important not only for differentiation, but also in helping the class feel like a community and to foster that togetherness. Unfortunately, I have seen in previous field experiences where a student who is far behind, is kind of "written off" - just filling a seat in the classroom because he is sooo behind the teacher can't possibly catch him up and she has 25 other students to teach. If applying this principal, no student would be "written off".

The baseball camp metaphor talks of Coach Mac and says, "...he sees and studies the differences in the faces and bodies that stand before him each day. He continually crafts an environment that asks of each person the best he or she can give. What he teaches...is for everyone. How he teaches,...varies with individual needs and the needs of the team as a whole" (pg. 14) - When I read this certain words and phrases stick out to me - such as; STUDIES, CONTINUALLY CRAFTS, ASKS THE BEST OF EACH PERSON. When I think of these words and how they will apply to me as a teacher striving to have a differentiated classroom, I realize that it will take effort and not just effort for one day, one month, but enduring, continual effort. It will also mean changing and improving, adapting and tweaking. Lastly, it will mean that I must GIVE my best so I can then ask the best of my students.