Effective Differentiation in Inclusive Classrooms

An instructional approach that works well in inclusive classrooms is differentiated instruction. In almost all of the inclusive classrooms that we visited, teachers used some form of differentiated instruction. The teacher in a differentiated classroom tries to understand what individual students need to learn most effectively, and she attempts to provide learning options that are a good fit for each learner. This type of teaching is, of course, very appropriate for inclusive classrooms. Teachers can differentiate their instruction by individualizing what students need to learn or how they will learn it. Teachers can also differentiate by allowing students to select different learning activities or culminating projects to demonstrate or apply what they have learned. Simply put, Teachers differentiate instruction when they do whatever it takes to accommodate various learning styles and preferences. So struggling, advanced and in-between students learn and succeed. For an example of differentiated... instruction, we traveled to East Middle School and the classroom of first-year teacher Stephanie Kerr. She describes this class as a challenging mix of identified and unidentified special needs students with a wide range of learning and emotional disabilities. With such a diverse group of students, differentiated instruction was a logical choice. Now let's join Mrs. Kerr for her lesson on Greek mythology. We are finishing a unit today on ancient Greece and we are working specifically on the gods and goddesses and making connections with religion and how that affects ancient Greek culture. And so we're going to be doing a creative activity. where they're required to apply the knowledge that they've already learned. Today we're actually going to warm up by doing a brief, fun little game just to get our brains warmed up. And then they have a choice board, and what that means is they get... several different choices based on their learning style and the way that they like to show what they know and they get to choose and they already have those handouts and they've already kind of decided what they want to do and so some of them are going to be making a comic strip some of them are going to write a poem some of them will be doing charades to show us about the different gods and goddesses so they get to choose we got our brains nice and warmed up so we remember the different gods and goddesses and now let's take out our choice boards Let's take a look at those. And we get a choice here. We have a few different options to show that we know about our Greek gods and goddesses. Some people might want to retell in our own words. Who's going to retell in our own words? Raise your hand if that's the one you decided to do. Fabulous. We've got some people. Who's going to retell in our own words? Just one person today? Two people? Okay. When I first walked in the door, I had about a hundred questions. about five people come up to me and say, oh, you're the sixth grade teacher. Oh, please don't leave after this year. Or they'd say, oh, I had that class and I almost quit. It was bad. Just telling me about the problems that they had and, you know, there's a lot of behavior disorder and difficulty and aggressive children and students that have been retained and are quite a bit older than the average sixth grade student and a lot of struggles. And so, you know, I kind of try to take it easy. take that with a grain of salt because a classroom is what you make it. It's not what other people tell you it is. And so my whole thing coming into it was I'm going to give these guys a new chance because obviously they've got a story and they feel like they have a reputation and I want them to be able to have a new reputation this year as being, you know, maybe a class with a little bit more personality or the fun class, the humorous class, something like that. Not the class that nobody We've got one person, I thought we had more than one person who's going to reflect and write in a journal. You changed your mind? Okay, who's going to change their mind? Because sometimes we think that we want to do one thing and then we think about it and we decide we're going to do another thing. Who is going to change their mind? Okay, what would you like to do? You're going to retell in your own words? Sure? The thing I like best about this class is that it's very equally divided. I have about the same number of African American, white, and Hispanic students. I've got a lot of students that English is their second language. I have some students that are considered special education. They have IEPs and special needs. I have a lot of students that are definitely not on grade level, that are very low in their reading comprehension. I have some students that actually read on about a first or a second grade level. I also have students that are... exceptionally high in their reading comprehension reading on more like a ninth grade level so I've got a lot of different spectrums with these kids and that I think that's probably the thing I like best about it is that they're all their own they've got their own personality you're creating a comic strip anybody else wants to change their mind and so what I want you to do is take a look at your task sheet there we have here hold it up so I know which one you're talking about Good? You're all with me. Thank you. And where it says task, there is a description of what I'd like you to do. And so I'd like you to just take a moment to glance over that description. I am only asking you to choose. a couple of these different gods and goddesses. So I want you to find what I'm asking you to choose. It's different for each one of them. Okay, so I want you to find that part. And when you see how many gods and goddesses you're focusing on, you can put your finger on that. that. Some of you don't have to choose anything. If you are discussing and coming to a conclusion, I've given you a question that I would like you to discuss. Okay? Go ahead and read the rest of what's under your task because this is going to tell you what I am expecting of you. That's going to tell me and tell you what I want to see at the end because we all have a product that we're creating. And then we can look at our score guide. We have three points and that's going to mean you're doing everything I'm asking you to do. to do and it is free of grammar and spelling errors. So we've got our dictionaries back there if you need them. Okay? And we've got our number two which means you got most of it together. You did most of it right. Missing a couple things, a couple of details a little off. One point means you missed a lot of things there. Not quite sure if you were totally getting what I asked you to do. Zero points means you sat there like a bump on the log and didn't do it. anything. So I am pretty sure that we will have no zeros in this class. Now if you have any questions about what is on your sheet, please ask me as I come around. Now I'm going to be coming around to each one of you. And so this is an individual assignment for many of you, but please rely on your neighbors. You can rely on each other if you're stuck. Okay, and so you can whisper to each other if you need to whisper. Hello I do have to make quite a few accommodations for my special ed students, especially in regards to reading comprehension and writing. I find that those are the areas that they tend to struggle in the most. All three of my special ed students require accommodations mostly in communication arts, so it's that area. Of course, every discipline contains aspects of communication arts. So I do find that I... I make quite a few modifications. Length and requirements they tend to struggle with, so I like to chunk their assignments. They get extra time. Sometimes if it's not hitting, for some reason I'm just, I'm getting that they're not with me on it, I'll just stop. I'll just say, you know, what should I do here? What do you think? Tell me what you think I should assign you. And we'll talk about it and most of the time they will come up with better ideas. than I would because they know themselves and we have to give them credit for that. You know, it's not like the special ed kids don't want to perform. They're not labeled because they're bad students. They simply have different needs and who else knows better how to express their own needs as the students themselves. You bet. You can use your hands, you can use your feet. What else could you use besides that? You could use your eyes, could you use your mouth? Are you sure you can make facial expressions? I bet you could. He asks me a question and I tell him what I think, then he writes it down and I ask him a question and he tells me what he thinks and I write it down. In my classroom I have some diagnosed students that have IEPs and special needs. I have several students that are undiagnosed. diagnosed, be it behavior disorder, passive aggressiveness, I think many serious emotional disorders that definitely affect my ability as a teacher. I have students who will be They're very violent physically. They have hit teachers. They hit other students. I have students that sell drugs on the street, gang activity. We have a lot of students that are just that way. I always make a habit to know but not to know too much because it feels like the more you know about that, the more you make decisions about them that limit their ability to... to step outside of maybe the stereotype they've created for themselves. And so I've tried to use positive behavior management and positive reinforcement. Four positives to one negative is kind of the ratio I try to go by. And I feel like that really has helped them demonstrate self-control. And that was my whole principle is we all have urges. We all have maybe difficult home lives. We all act out. But we can show self-control and be more successful despite our difficulties. Yes, that's exactly what you're telling me. And I do want to see in there, there's one thing I really want to see, and that is a summary of what their purpose is. Okay, because you could tell me that their name is Hermes. But who is Hermes? What is he doing? What is his purpose to the angel? ancient Greeks. That's the information I want to see first in your summary before you start making your own connections to that. Okay? So can I start off my favorite? You start off your favorite. In fact, before you begin, you might even want to just look at your notes and circle the ones you're going to choose to focus on today. That's going to narrow it down for you. What do we write about? Okay, so you have a question on here that you need to read over. Do you have your task sheet? Okay, good. And so, it says, discuss this question with a partner. You got your partner, you're set. Why were the gods and goddesses important to Greek culture? And this is kind of what we talked about the other day. I mean, your house is a mess, you don't have enough food to put on the table. What are you going to do? You're going to go to the gods. And so, why are they so important to Greek culture? How are the gods and goddesses so helpful to the ancient Greeks? That's the first part. And then I want you to make connections. between the ancient Greek religious beliefs and their way of life. So they have all these different gods and goddesses, right? Why do they have all those? Why can't they just have one? Why do they have to have so many? What's the point of that? I want you to be thinking about those things, okay? That is awesome. So do you see, because that's exactly what you need to be doing, if you could give me a couple more lines, because I don't believe that I gave you a limit to how much you should write on each one, but I do want to have probably about... five lines, about five sentences each. So write along those same lines for all five and you will have it down. Okay, so that's your sloppy copy and you're going to move over to a neater copy. Good idea, very good. I want you to check the spelling of this word. And where's our task sheet? You can hold on to that just in case you still need it. Okay, we're choosing five. What else could you do? What kinds of things would the goddess of love do for the ancient Greeks? What kinds of things would they do? Send messages to the people they love. Okay, so she could be a messenger for love notes. I'm sure you guys could use one of those in here. And what else could she do? Could she help people fall in love? No. Are you sure about that? She couldn't help people fall in love? She couldn't say, she couldn't say, I think these two need to be in love. I mean, I know that's Eros' job too, but... Okay, okay. So can we think of maybe things along that line? Okay, you could even ask for volunteers. But remember, it's all got to be without words. How can I ask for a volunteer without words? That's something you'll have to think about. That is so good. Can you share that with the class? I could read it for you. Do you want me to do that? Is that okay? You guys, would you like to hear a piece of work that's going on back here? Very creative. Try and guess who this is about. You are the goddess of love. You seek from above to help people show love. You are kind of like Eros, but you're a better hero. You don't make people feel bad about you. fall in love, you show love. Oh, that's cute. Who is that? You bet, Aphrodite. And I liked how she completely explained Aphrodite without even saying her name. She didn't even have to use Aphrodite's name. We got it based on the figurative language that she used. That gave me chills. That was good. Oh, we've got another Maya Angelou over here. Yeah. I do try to be very patient with their questions, and I really try to be thorough in getting across what I'm expecting, because... The more they ask, that means the more they're interested. And so I'm patient with it because it's almost a compliment when they ask questions like that. It means they're probing for more information. It means they want to engage. I find it... unfortunate when teachers shut down the more students ask questions. The more my kids ask questions the more I see first of all where I was unclear and second of all where they might be interested or want to explore explore or maybe they want to go the extra mile. Maybe I was confusing and I feel that it's so important to get that down, what my expectations are, what their expectations are and whether or not we understand each other. If they are not on the same page with me and if I'm not on the same page with them, there's no way learning can take place. There's no exchange of knowledge. So that to me is the most important area to be patient. in because it's going to set the stage for everything else and it also sets a good climate. It lets them know that I'm willing to do whatever it takes. I'm willing to spend any amount of time. We feel so rushed. We have so many things we have to achieve in the classroom and taking the time to just make sure it's done right and make sure everybody understands, it's just beyond important. I will take hours on a lesson if I need to because I know that when we're done they will have really gotten it whereas if I'm speeding through and I'm hurrying them up and I'm cutting their questions off they're probably not going to get it and it's not going to stick which one are you working on okay and so we have a really good example of a summary for those of you who are doing retelling your own words no you can just read it from your desk if you like One of my favorite gods is Hermes. I like Hermes because he's the god messenger. Sometimes Hermes was not always treated well because he delivered bad news. Sometimes he was treated nice because he delivered good news. Hermes was the god of delivering news or notes from the gods. Okay, I wanted you to hear that as an example because that was is perfect in every way to our writing model. She had a topic sentence, she had a conclusion, she had details, she had examples and that is exactly what we need to do. to see in everything that we're writing. That is a perfect example. Very good start. Very good. Are you guys ready to show active listening? This poem is a lot more explicit. It says, you may show love, but you can make people show it. They might be shy or embarrassed, but with you, they can show much more. Your feelings are telling you to let your love out, but at the same time, you're telling yourself to let it in. You can be shy or embarrassed, be a little cruel with your pair, but she'll let you share your love. Do you see how that's different from the last one? But it's still very poetic, very figurative. We get a picture of who? Who are we talking about? That's right, we're still getting a picture of Aphrodite in our heads. This is very good, and I wanted you to hear the difference of the two poems because we've got the same kind of project going on back here, but two different products, two approaches to the same thing. Very good. Thank you for letting me share that. Are you ready? Okay, and we are also ready to play a little charades. Are you guys ready to show active listening? Yes. Okay. After the 30 seconds, we are going to try and guess who she's doing, which god or goddess she's doing. Are you ready? Okay, let's show Patricia active listening the whole time. Active... Active listening is very, very important. I have made very good active listeners out of these students. My biggest pet peeve is when you get in front of somebody, a group of people, and they're chatting and they're not paying attention. and they're half listening to what you're saying, it makes you feel very, I don't know, ignored, neglected. It just doesn't make you feel good. I think it is so important that students know how to be good listeners. And active listening in my room means that you're not just listening with your ears, you're listening with your eyes, you're listening with your body language. So we've actually gone over several times throughout the year what it looks like and what it sounds like to be a good active listener. They're sitting up, they're giving. giving you eye contact, they might be nodding sometimes, they're definitely showing you with their body language that they're listening. And when you point to their attention that they need to be doing that physically, it also perks their ears up too because they're in a mental position to pay attention. And they're also giving people common courtesy and respect. Okay, who knows? David, who is it? And... Okay, and who are they? Isabel? Persephone. It's kind of a hard one to say. Persephone. And how did you know that that's what she was doing? She was like picking up grain and she went over there and fed it out. She was planting food. You could see her and she was harvesting the food. That was really good. Thank you very much, everybody. Let's give Patricia a round of applause for being very, very brave. Does anybody else want to share what they have so far? Because I know that we're really not quite finished. Patricia is going to be your reader? Okay, very good. Here I'll deliver so you don't have to get up. Okay, and so can you just share this paragraph right here and let's just hear what this retell has to say. Aphrodite is my favorite goddess because she is the protector of love. She helps people with their love. If I had one wish to the goddess of love it would be... It would be what? I want to hear what it is. what would it be? If you had one wish to the goddess of love, one wish only, what would it be? To fall in love with somebody, maybe somebody good looking, maybe somebody with, you know, some money in their pocket, maybe somebody with a good job, maybe, maybe just somebody who treats you really nice. Very good. Thank you for sharing. And if you're not finished with your poster, that's okay. You can just take a little bit of time to finish it up later. I see that a lot of us are really getting, showing what we know. I see a lot of you really do. know about these Greek gods and goddesses. Not just their names or who they are, but why they're important. But let's go ahead and just wrap up what we're doing for now because I think we're just about out of time. Go ahead and finish up your last sentence. Yes? You're done with yours. Fabulous. Fabulous. Some of you are not done. Oh wow, you've got a lot written. Some of you are not done, but that is okay. We'll have just a little bit more time to work on this during downtime away from other projects. Give yourselves a hand you guys. You did a really, really good job. I see a lot of good stuff and I've heard a lot of good stuff. Thank you for those people who shared and really went out on a limb today. Good luck. job. You know something that I was so impressed with was I think a lot of students are scared to do things like charades or do the poems because they're afraid that their peers are gonna judge them and I think that what they were able to see is that their peers are really gonna be respectful and they're not gonna be so judgmental.

This type of teaching is, of course, very appropriate for inclusive classrooms. Teachers can differentiate their instruction by individualizing what students need to learn or how they will learn it. Teachers can also differentiate by allowing students to select different learning activities or culminating projects to demonstrate or apply what they have learned.

Simply put, Teachers differentiate instruction when they do whatever it takes to accommodate various learning styles and preferences. So struggling, advanced and in-between students learn and succeed. For an example of differentiated... instruction, we traveled to East Middle School and the classroom of first-year teacher Stephanie Kerr. She describes this class as a challenging mix of identified and unidentified special needs students with a wide range of learning and emotional disabilities.

With such a diverse group of students, differentiated instruction was a logical choice. Now let's join Mrs. Kerr for her lesson on Greek mythology. We are finishing a unit today on ancient Greece and we are working specifically on the gods and goddesses and making connections with religion and how that affects ancient Greek culture. And so we're going to be doing a creative activity.

where they're required to apply the knowledge that they've already learned. Today we're actually going to warm up by doing a brief, fun little game just to get our brains warmed up. And then they have a choice board, and what that means is they get...

several different choices based on their learning style and the way that they like to show what they know and they get to choose and they already have those handouts and they've already kind of decided what they want to do and so some of them are going to be making a comic strip some of them are going to write a poem some of them will be doing charades to show us about the different gods and goddesses so they get to choose we got our brains nice and warmed up so we remember the different gods and goddesses and now let's take out our choice boards Let's take a look at those. And we get a choice here. We have a few different options to show that we know about our Greek gods and goddesses.

Some people might want to retell in our own words. Who's going to retell in our own words? Raise your hand if that's the one you decided to do. Fabulous.

We've got some people. Who's going to retell in our own words? Just one person today?

Two people? Okay. When I first walked in the door, I had about a hundred questions.

about five people come up to me and say, oh, you're the sixth grade teacher. Oh, please don't leave after this year. Or they'd say, oh, I had that class and I almost quit. It was bad. Just telling me about the problems that they had and, you know, there's a lot of behavior disorder and difficulty and aggressive children and students that have been retained and are quite a bit older than the average sixth grade student and a lot of struggles.

And so, you know, I kind of try to take it easy. take that with a grain of salt because a classroom is what you make it. It's not what other people tell you it is.

And so my whole thing coming into it was I'm going to give these guys a new chance because obviously they've got a story and they feel like they have a reputation and I want them to be able to have a new reputation this year as being, you know, maybe a class with a little bit more personality or the fun class, the humorous class, something like that. Not the class that nobody We've got one person, I thought we had more than one person who's going to reflect and write in a journal. You changed your mind?

Okay, who's going to change their mind? Because sometimes we think that we want to do one thing and then we think about it and we decide we're going to do another thing. Who is going to change their mind?

Okay, what would you like to do? You're going to retell in your own words? Sure? The thing I like best about this class is that it's very equally divided.

I have about the same number of African American, white, and Hispanic students. I've got a lot of students that English is their second language. I have some students that are considered special education. They have IEPs and special needs. I have a lot of students that are definitely not on grade level, that are very low in their reading comprehension.

I have some students that actually read on about a first or a second grade level. I also have students that are... exceptionally high in their reading comprehension reading on more like a ninth grade level so I've got a lot of different spectrums with these kids and that I think that's probably the thing I like best about it is that they're all their own they've got their own personality you're creating a comic strip anybody else wants to change their mind and so what I want you to do is take a look at your task sheet there we have here hold it up so I know which one you're talking about Good?

You're all with me. Thank you. And where it says task, there is a description of what I'd like you to do. And so I'd like you to just take a moment to glance over that description. I am only asking you to choose.

a couple of these different gods and goddesses. So I want you to find what I'm asking you to choose. It's different for each one of them. Okay, so I want you to find that part. And when you see how many gods and goddesses you're focusing on, you can put your finger on that.

that. Some of you don't have to choose anything. If you are discussing and coming to a conclusion, I've given you a question that I would like you to discuss. Okay?

Go ahead and read the rest of what's under your task because this is going to tell you what I am expecting of you. That's going to tell me and tell you what I want to see at the end because we all have a product that we're creating. And then we can look at our score guide.

We have three points and that's going to mean you're doing everything I'm asking you to do. to do and it is free of grammar and spelling errors. So we've got our dictionaries back there if you need them.

Okay? And we've got our number two which means you got most of it together. You did most of it right. Missing a couple things, a couple of details a little off.

One point means you missed a lot of things there. Not quite sure if you were totally getting what I asked you to do. Zero points means you sat there like a bump on the log and didn't do it. anything.

So I am pretty sure that we will have no zeros in this class. Now if you have any questions about what is on your sheet, please ask me as I come around. Now I'm going to be coming around to each one of you.

And so this is an individual assignment for many of you, but please rely on your neighbors. You can rely on each other if you're stuck. Okay, and so you can whisper to each other if you need to whisper.

Hello I do have to make quite a few accommodations for my special ed students, especially in regards to reading comprehension and writing. I find that those are the areas that they tend to struggle in the most. All three of my special ed students require accommodations mostly in communication arts, so it's that area.

Of course, every discipline contains aspects of communication arts. So I do find that I... I make quite a few modifications. Length and requirements they tend to struggle with, so I like to chunk their assignments.

They get extra time. Sometimes if it's not hitting, for some reason I'm just, I'm getting that they're not with me on it, I'll just stop. I'll just say, you know, what should I do here? What do you think?

Tell me what you think I should assign you. And we'll talk about it and most of the time they will come up with better ideas. than I would because they know themselves and we have to give them credit for that.

You know, it's not like the special ed kids don't want to perform. They're not labeled because they're bad students. They simply have different needs and who else knows better how to express their own needs as the students themselves.

You bet. You can use your hands, you can use your feet. What else could you use besides that? You could use your eyes, could you use your mouth?

Are you sure you can make facial expressions? I bet you could. He asks me a question and I tell him what I think, then he writes it down and I ask him a question and he tells me what he thinks and I write it down. In my classroom I have some diagnosed students that have IEPs and special needs. I have several students that are undiagnosed.

diagnosed, be it behavior disorder, passive aggressiveness, I think many serious emotional disorders that definitely affect my ability as a teacher. I have students who will be They're very violent physically. They have hit teachers.

They hit other students. I have students that sell drugs on the street, gang activity. We have a lot of students that are just that way.

I always make a habit to know but not to know too much because it feels like the more you know about that, the more you make decisions about them that limit their ability to... to step outside of maybe the stereotype they've created for themselves. And so I've tried to use positive behavior management and positive reinforcement.

Four positives to one negative is kind of the ratio I try to go by. And I feel like that really has helped them demonstrate self-control. And that was my whole principle is we all have urges. We all have maybe difficult home lives.

We all act out. But we can show self-control and be more successful despite our difficulties. Yes, that's exactly what you're telling me. And I do want to see in there, there's one thing I really want to see, and that is a summary of what their purpose is. Okay, because you could tell me that their name is Hermes.

But who is Hermes? What is he doing? What is his purpose to the angel?

ancient Greeks. That's the information I want to see first in your summary before you start making your own connections to that. Okay?

So can I start off my favorite? You start off your favorite. In fact, before you begin, you might even want to just look at your notes and circle the ones you're going to choose to focus on today. That's going to narrow it down for you. What do we write about?

Okay, so you have a question on here that you need to read over. Do you have your task sheet? Okay, good. And so, it says, discuss this question with a partner.

You got your partner, you're set. Why were the gods and goddesses important to Greek culture? And this is kind of what we talked about the other day. I mean, your house is a mess, you don't have enough food to put on the table. What are you going to do?

You're going to go to the gods. And so, why are they so important to Greek culture? How are the gods and goddesses so helpful to the ancient Greeks?

That's the first part. And then I want you to make connections. between the ancient Greek religious beliefs and their way of life. So they have all these different gods and goddesses, right? Why do they have all those?

Why can't they just have one? Why do they have to have so many? What's the point of that?

I want you to be thinking about those things, okay? That is awesome. So do you see, because that's exactly what you need to be doing, if you could give me a couple more lines, because I don't believe that I gave you a limit to how much you should write on each one, but I do want to have probably about... five lines, about five sentences each.

So write along those same lines for all five and you will have it down. Okay, so that's your sloppy copy and you're going to move over to a neater copy. Good idea, very good. I want you to check the spelling of this word. And where's our task sheet?

You can hold on to that just in case you still need it. Okay, we're choosing five. What else could you do?

What kinds of things would the goddess of love do for the ancient Greeks? What kinds of things would they do? Send messages to the people they love.

Okay, so she could be a messenger for love notes. I'm sure you guys could use one of those in here. And what else could she do?

Could she help people fall in love? No. Are you sure about that?

She couldn't help people fall in love? She couldn't say, she couldn't say, I think these two need to be in love. I mean, I know that's Eros' job too, but...

Okay, okay. So can we think of maybe things along that line? Okay, you could even ask for volunteers. But remember, it's all got to be without words. How can I ask for a volunteer without words?

That's something you'll have to think about. That is so good. Can you share that with the class? I could read it for you. Do you want me to do that?

Is that okay? You guys, would you like to hear a piece of work that's going on back here? Very creative. Try and guess who this is about. You are the goddess of love.

You seek from above to help people show love. You are kind of like Eros, but you're a better hero. You don't make people feel bad about you. fall in love, you show love.

Oh, that's cute. Who is that? You bet, Aphrodite. And I liked how she completely explained Aphrodite without even saying her name. She didn't even have to use Aphrodite's name.

We got it based on the figurative language that she used. That gave me chills. That was good. Oh, we've got another Maya Angelou over here.

Yeah. I do try to be very patient with their questions, and I really try to be thorough in getting across what I'm expecting, because... The more they ask, that means the more they're interested. And so I'm patient with it because it's almost a compliment when they ask questions like that.

It means they're probing for more information. It means they want to engage. I find it... unfortunate when teachers shut down the more students ask questions.

The more my kids ask questions the more I see first of all where I was unclear and second of all where they might be interested or want to explore explore or maybe they want to go the extra mile. Maybe I was confusing and I feel that it's so important to get that down, what my expectations are, what their expectations are and whether or not we understand each other. If they are not on the same page with me and if I'm not on the same page with them, there's no way learning can take place. There's no exchange of knowledge. So that to me is the most important area to be patient.

in because it's going to set the stage for everything else and it also sets a good climate. It lets them know that I'm willing to do whatever it takes. I'm willing to spend any amount of time.

We feel so rushed. We have so many things we have to achieve in the classroom and taking the time to just make sure it's done right and make sure everybody understands, it's just beyond important. I will take hours on a lesson if I need to because I know that when we're done they will have really gotten it whereas if I'm speeding through and I'm hurrying them up and I'm cutting their questions off they're probably not going to get it and it's not going to stick which one are you working on okay and so we have a really good example of a summary for those of you who are doing retelling your own words no you can just read it from your desk if you like One of my favorite gods is Hermes.

I like Hermes because he's the god messenger. Sometimes Hermes was not always treated well because he delivered bad news. Sometimes he was treated nice because he delivered good news. Hermes was the god of delivering news or notes from the gods. Okay, I wanted you to hear that as an example because that was is perfect in every way to our writing model.

She had a topic sentence, she had a conclusion, she had details, she had examples and that is exactly what we need to do. to see in everything that we're writing. That is a perfect example. Very good start.

Very good. Are you guys ready to show active listening? This poem is a lot more explicit. It says, you may show love, but you can make people show it. They might be shy or embarrassed, but with you, they can show much more.

Your feelings are telling you to let your love out, but at the same time, you're telling yourself to let it in. You can be shy or embarrassed, be a little cruel with your pair, but she'll let you share your love. Do you see how that's different from the last one? But it's still very poetic, very figurative. We get a picture of who?

Who are we talking about? That's right, we're still getting a picture of Aphrodite in our heads. This is very good, and I wanted you to hear the difference of the two poems because we've got the same kind of project going on back here, but two different products, two approaches to the same thing. Very good.

Thank you for letting me share that. Are you ready? Okay, and we are also ready to play a little charades. Are you guys ready to show active listening?

Yes. Okay. After the 30 seconds, we are going to try and guess who she's doing, which god or goddess she's doing. Are you ready? Okay, let's show Patricia active listening the whole time.

Active... Active listening is very, very important. I have made very good active listeners out of these students.

My biggest pet peeve is when you get in front of somebody, a group of people, and they're chatting and they're not paying attention. and they're half listening to what you're saying, it makes you feel very, I don't know, ignored, neglected. It just doesn't make you feel good. I think it is so important that students know how to be good listeners.

And active listening in my room means that you're not just listening with your ears, you're listening with your eyes, you're listening with your body language. So we've actually gone over several times throughout the year what it looks like and what it sounds like to be a good active listener. They're sitting up, they're giving.

giving you eye contact, they might be nodding sometimes, they're definitely showing you with their body language that they're listening. And when you point to their attention that they need to be doing that physically, it also perks their ears up too because they're in a mental position to pay attention. And they're also giving people common courtesy and respect. Okay, who knows?

David, who is it? And... Okay, and who are they? Isabel?

Persephone. It's kind of a hard one to say. Persephone.

And how did you know that that's what she was doing? She was like picking up grain and she went over there and fed it out. She was planting food.

You could see her and she was harvesting the food. That was really good. Thank you very much, everybody. Let's give Patricia a round of applause for being very, very brave.

Does anybody else want to share what they have so far? Because I know that we're really not quite finished. Patricia is going to be your reader?

Okay, very good. Here I'll deliver so you don't have to get up. Okay, and so can you just share this paragraph right here and let's just hear what this retell has to say.

Aphrodite is my favorite goddess because she is the protector of love. She helps people with their love. If I had one wish to the goddess of love it would be...

It would be what? I want to hear what it is. what would it be? If you had one wish to the goddess of love, one wish only, what would it be? To fall in love with somebody, maybe somebody good looking, maybe somebody with, you know, some money in their pocket, maybe somebody with a good job, maybe, maybe just somebody who treats you really nice. Very good.

Thank you for sharing. And if you're not finished with your poster, that's okay. You can just take a little bit of time to finish it up later.

I see that a lot of us are really getting, showing what we know. I see a lot of you really do. know about these Greek gods and goddesses. Not just their names or who they are, but why they're important. But let's go ahead and just wrap up what we're doing for now because I think we're just about out of time.

Go ahead and finish up your last sentence. Yes? You're done with yours. Fabulous. Fabulous.

Some of you are not done. Oh wow, you've got a lot written. Some of you are not done, but that is okay.

We'll have just a little bit more time to work on this during downtime away from other projects. Give yourselves a hand you guys. You did a really, really good job. I see a lot of good stuff and I've heard a lot of good stuff. Thank you for those people who shared and really went out on a limb today.

Good luck. job. You know something that I was so impressed with was I think a lot of students are scared to do things like charades or do the poems because they're afraid that their peers are gonna judge them and I think that what they were able to see is that their peers are really gonna be respectful and they're not gonna be so judgmental.

Transcript for:Effective Differentiation in Inclusive Classrooms

Transcript for:
Effective Differentiation in Inclusive Classrooms