Week 7 in the MOOC

Week 7

 

What tool did you learn this week to assist you in differentiating the learning process for students?

 

Well, I am behind just a little bit.  My spring break was just that, a break.  I did intend to catch up on all my missing assignments but you know, life happens. So, here I am, putting actions to my intentions, albeit, they are late, and for that I am sorry.

 

Now, onto my class.  I was saying how this is late.  Even though this blog is a week late, I just figured out how to integrate a new tool into my classroom! I finally blew off all the dust that was building up on my Mimio Voters.  I bit the bullet and just figured it out!  I was a bit leery of using them with my Kindergarteners, but with careful introduction and explanation of their use, they did really great!  About half of my students are still struggling with finding the bigger number.  So I used the Mimio voters to “play a game” to chose the bigger number.  I put 2 numbers on the white board and drew dots next to the number to give students a visual of which had more.   We went very slowly at first.  I have a particular student I am very concerned about and she did great with this activity!  There was a lot of discussion in the beginning.  I allowed them to talk and explain to each other how they knew which number was bigger.  We all had a great time!  Kids were saying how much fun they were having! I was so excited!  We all looked at the results of the answers they gave.  The results were displayed in a pie chart.  You could see how many students chose the correct answer or if someone gave a wrong answer.  If a wrong answer was shown, we discussed why it wasn’t the bigger number.  All these answers and “quizzes” were done anonymously. 

 

The next step is to create a class list in the Mimio grade book and make a “test” for them.  Then they can see the results of their own work and see how they can improve for the next time.  I am really excited to see if this method or tool will help meet the needs of some of my students. 

Week 6

What does it mean to differentiate the process (content, strategies for instruction) in the classroom?

I think differentiating the process in the classroom means a variety of different things. Key word-Variety, to show in different ways. As I think and read about this topic, I feel that I am doing a lot of this already. Kindergarteners (or primary students in general) require a variety of activities to keep them interested. I am always looking for ways to change things up in order to keep them focused.

Ways that I can differentiate the process in my class are through content areas, materials and teaching/learning styles.

Most kids have strengths in certain subjects and learn those subjects easier. Some just need more help with the weaker areas. Ways to help them would be to use different materials. I sometimes teach to them. I show a video. I play games. We sing songs. Sometimes we do art projects. I also try to integrate technology, whether it’s iPads or interactive white board activities. I like to use different methods, mostly because I teach Kindergarten and the variety keeps their attention, but I also do it because it meets the variety of needs in my classroom.