- meaningful participation of students
- student ability to access the curriculum
- active engagement in the curriculum
- all students do not learn in the one way
- active learning
- student connection with the subject matter
Much of what I've read reinforces the Quality Teaching Model and it's associated merits. I believe that many of us as teachers have in fact operated within a differentiated model of instruction for many years. However, the difference is that we have not had a model or concrete structure on which to base our work. What I would like to achieve throughout this project is not only an improvement in student outcomes but also a structure or model of differentiation that might be applied at the local level. This obviously means that we would need some sort of research base from which to operate and the collective wisdom of the group may enable this to be achieved. It would be good for us, once this project is completed, to have some model out of which we could operate and continue to improve learning outcomes for other students. Am I on a similar track of thinking to the rest of the team?
5 comments:
I agree with you Toni,
A model that could be used as a foundation for further differentiated programs would be invaluable. We need to explore one that could be used for the various ways we differentiate, in a way, acting as a template for the differentiated programs we will develop in the future.
Our starting point is current research in the area which I think Wendy & Moira can provide. From there we would need to look for common threads. Maybe our next meeting could include a brainstorming session where we list the things we would need to include in such a template? I'm keen..
Regards,
Frances
Is it worth considering our 'class document' and provide a formal structure to help teachers understand and develop differentiated activities for their own students? What are the key areas in differentiation... changing the content? product? environment? process? Can we build on a structure we already have?
I think there is a lot to be gained from the class document if we take some time to refine it. At the moment I don't feel that it is open enough to lend itself to really identifying what is going on within the teaching of the unit. Perhaps we need to take a look at what actually goes into it; if the tick-a-boxes are really needed; can the "sections" be refined/deleted/added to? Questions such as these are what we could answer as a staff.
The idea of refining our class document to plan for differentiated activities would be a great starting point and help teachers focus on what it means to differentiate a task. I think brainstorming some of these good ideas would be very important at our next meeting.
Regards,
Moira
Hi guys - I am crashing this thread because you have caught my eye.
I know for a fact that I don't do class Doc's very well at all. I would LOVE some ideas on what a good class document should look like....
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