I found this on another blog. A teacher was using it as an example to explain the difference between equity and equality. Full credit given to the blog author, one Lara David.
She says:
There's this activity I do in my class. All the students sit in a circle, and I ask everyone to take off his or her left shoe and throw it into a pile in the center. Once the shoes are all piled up, I begin re-distributing them, one to each student, completely at random. Then I tell everyone to put on the new shoes. And inevitably, there begin the complaints.
"This isn't my shoe!"
"It's too big!"
"It's too small!"
"This doesn't fit me!"
Whatever the specific complaints are, very few students are actually happy with their newly mismatched pair of shoes. "What's wrong?" I ask. "I did everything fairly. You all have two shoes - one for your right foot and one for your left."
"But Miss David," they say, "they aren't the correct shoes!"
"Oh," I say. "You want the shoes that are best for each of you individually? Not just any shoe I find?"
"Yes!" they all say.
"But," I say, with furrowed brow, "that doesn't seem fair. I wanted to treat you all EQUALLY." I point to a boy with somewhat large feet, and a nearby girl with smallish feet. "He'll have more shoe than you will," I note. And without a doubt, someone unknowingly gets right to the heart of the issue:
"It doesn't matter who has more shoe, Miss David. It matters that we all have the right shoes for us."
And THAT, my friends, is the difference between equity and equality. Equality means everyone gets exactly the same outcome - two shoes - without regard to individual differences - large or small feet, for example. Equity means everyone gets the same quality of outcome - shoes that fit their individual needs.
Showing posts with label differentiation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label differentiation. Show all posts
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Thoughts on Articles
So I've recently subscribed to ASCD's "SmartBrief," which sends you headlines and links to the "most important" education articles/news every day. I came across 3 different articles today that really made me think.
1) "Teaching Secrets: Organizing Middle Schoolers"
Organization is something I really struggle with. I tend to either be very disorganzed or hyper-organized to ensure that I'm not disorganized. I tried a new system this year to see if it would work better than just using a notebook last year. I asked them all to get binders, and that really fell through since the principal ordered the district-created workbooks (which I had said I didn't want but have actually been insanely convenient so far). A binder and a workbook was just too much to give them every day, as these are REALLY thick workbooks.
It's been a lot easier on me and them with the workbooks, as all the worksheets are already in there in order. Last year they would lose print-outs or would write in the notebook all out of order. Having the pages already in there makes it so much easier for me to grade and really keeps them from losing anything. Of course, getting print-outs in there is annoying - you either staple or tape and it just wastes time. So I ordered some of those 3-clip pocket folders, and I'm hoping to hand those out next week (or the week after, I think) to use for bellwork sheets and other worksheets that we work on. They can place the folder inside the workbook, and they can be collected together every day at the end of class and passed out the next day - I think that should hopefully work well. *crosses fingers*
Anyway, the suggestions in the article I thought were rather helpful, though some were ones I alread utilize.
1)I've fallen through on checking agendas, so I'm going to need to reinforce that soon, especially with the changes in the ECE (special-ed) workings. I'm going to have some new kids in that will REALLY need the organizational help, and so it will be a good chance to hit everybody and figure out who doesn't have an agenda (I think I know one in my homeroom already).
2) I've got the class website and the binder for make-up work, so that's good. It needs some re-emphasis, though, as there are some kids who are just not making up the work. When I collected bellwork sheets yesterday, though, I had several over at the computer at the last minute filling in the missed dates, so that's good - they were using it to get their work done.
3) I like the idea of the IOU board, but I don't have a lot of posting space in my room, and I just don't even know where I'd put something like that. And I just worry that I wouldn't be able to keep up with it. It's something to think on at least, especially for bigger projects (tests and the like).
4) In related news, I DO need to keep up with the table of contents sheet - I need to laminate a piece of poster board and post that to let the kids know what should be completed and where it should be. That will go along with getting them folders, but I think it will have to have 2 Tables of Contents - one for the folder and one for the workbook, which hopefully will not be too confusing for them.
2) "School Boards Debate Sex-Offender Access"
This was an interesting issue. Obviously as a teacher I worry about the safety of my kids - from outsiders, from insiders, from each other, sometimes even from their families. We have the "Stranger Danger" lady come in every year with members of her organization, and she talks to the kids about keeping themselves safe. It's incredibly important. But what about parents and their child's sporting/whatever events. Sex-offenders aren't just child molesters, and what if a person has totally turned their life around? What about how this is punishing the child for their parent's past criminal, horrible act? And then, on the other hand, a voice says in my head "are you freaking kidding me? Letting people around kids that we know can do wrong?" Of course, if that's one's thought - why are they even allowed around their own children? They have to stay away from all children but their own - that just seems really rather hypocritical. Overall, though, it made me think, but I'm really not sure what to think. Do they make exceptions on a case-by-case basis? Or no exceptions? Or all people with their kids? I really don't know.
3) "Creating Readers, Part I"
As a person who continually struggles while teaching reading (I know very little about how to actually teach it, as I'm a science teacher), this was something that just amazed me. 40 books! I don't even know what to say. It's an amazing expectation, and that the lowest any kid had ever read was 22 is even more so. I admire what she's done, and I really wish I could capture even just a little bit of that ability.
I like that she's got a huge classroom library, that she reads aloud books they like, that she gets them to read independently. But I was confused at how she balances out independent reading and shared reading (i.e. the whole class or a group reading one novel). At first it seemed that they only read independently, and then she mentioned "share-reading" where the students read along. So they obviously do both, but I would really love to know the logistics. I'm hoping to get novels so that we all start off the day with independent reading of the same book, but I don't really know how to balance out giving them a chance to read on their own, making sure that we/they can discuss the books (and so are thus at a similar place in the narrative), and modeling reading by reading aloud. How does one manage all 3 without having kids miss portions of the book or get bored because they've heard/read the same section multiple times?
1) "Teaching Secrets: Organizing Middle Schoolers"
Organization is something I really struggle with. I tend to either be very disorganzed or hyper-organized to ensure that I'm not disorganized. I tried a new system this year to see if it would work better than just using a notebook last year. I asked them all to get binders, and that really fell through since the principal ordered the district-created workbooks (which I had said I didn't want but have actually been insanely convenient so far). A binder and a workbook was just too much to give them every day, as these are REALLY thick workbooks.
It's been a lot easier on me and them with the workbooks, as all the worksheets are already in there in order. Last year they would lose print-outs or would write in the notebook all out of order. Having the pages already in there makes it so much easier for me to grade and really keeps them from losing anything. Of course, getting print-outs in there is annoying - you either staple or tape and it just wastes time. So I ordered some of those 3-clip pocket folders, and I'm hoping to hand those out next week (or the week after, I think) to use for bellwork sheets and other worksheets that we work on. They can place the folder inside the workbook, and they can be collected together every day at the end of class and passed out the next day - I think that should hopefully work well. *crosses fingers*
Anyway, the suggestions in the article I thought were rather helpful, though some were ones I alread utilize.
1)I've fallen through on checking agendas, so I'm going to need to reinforce that soon, especially with the changes in the ECE (special-ed) workings. I'm going to have some new kids in that will REALLY need the organizational help, and so it will be a good chance to hit everybody and figure out who doesn't have an agenda (I think I know one in my homeroom already).
2) I've got the class website and the binder for make-up work, so that's good. It needs some re-emphasis, though, as there are some kids who are just not making up the work. When I collected bellwork sheets yesterday, though, I had several over at the computer at the last minute filling in the missed dates, so that's good - they were using it to get their work done.
3) I like the idea of the IOU board, but I don't have a lot of posting space in my room, and I just don't even know where I'd put something like that. And I just worry that I wouldn't be able to keep up with it. It's something to think on at least, especially for bigger projects (tests and the like).
4) In related news, I DO need to keep up with the table of contents sheet - I need to laminate a piece of poster board and post that to let the kids know what should be completed and where it should be. That will go along with getting them folders, but I think it will have to have 2 Tables of Contents - one for the folder and one for the workbook, which hopefully will not be too confusing for them.
2) "School Boards Debate Sex-Offender Access"
This was an interesting issue. Obviously as a teacher I worry about the safety of my kids - from outsiders, from insiders, from each other, sometimes even from their families. We have the "Stranger Danger" lady come in every year with members of her organization, and she talks to the kids about keeping themselves safe. It's incredibly important. But what about parents and their child's sporting/whatever events. Sex-offenders aren't just child molesters, and what if a person has totally turned their life around? What about how this is punishing the child for their parent's past criminal, horrible act? And then, on the other hand, a voice says in my head "are you freaking kidding me? Letting people around kids that we know can do wrong?" Of course, if that's one's thought - why are they even allowed around their own children? They have to stay away from all children but their own - that just seems really rather hypocritical. Overall, though, it made me think, but I'm really not sure what to think. Do they make exceptions on a case-by-case basis? Or no exceptions? Or all people with their kids? I really don't know.
3) "Creating Readers, Part I"
As a person who continually struggles while teaching reading (I know very little about how to actually teach it, as I'm a science teacher), this was something that just amazed me. 40 books! I don't even know what to say. It's an amazing expectation, and that the lowest any kid had ever read was 22 is even more so. I admire what she's done, and I really wish I could capture even just a little bit of that ability.
I like that she's got a huge classroom library, that she reads aloud books they like, that she gets them to read independently. But I was confused at how she balances out independent reading and shared reading (i.e. the whole class or a group reading one novel). At first it seemed that they only read independently, and then she mentioned "share-reading" where the students read along. So they obviously do both, but I would really love to know the logistics. I'm hoping to get novels so that we all start off the day with independent reading of the same book, but I don't really know how to balance out giving them a chance to read on their own, making sure that we/they can discuss the books (and so are thus at a similar place in the narrative), and modeling reading by reading aloud. How does one manage all 3 without having kids miss portions of the book or get bored because they've heard/read the same section multiple times?
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Praise, Differentiation, the Second Year of Teaching
I am already five weeks into the second year of teaching. Everything that everyone says about the transition from your first to second year is SO true - having that experience, having survived through that trial by fire, having an actual clue about how things work makes it so much better. As does having a good chemistry with your team.
The kids are still surprising me with how well they're doing. There are always those with issues (behavioral or otherwise), but - for the most part - their behavior is far better than a lot of what I dealt with last year. Of course, I have more experience myself, so that makes a huge difference as well. Their academic success continues as well. I think that the use of the modules in 5th grade made a significant impact on their understanding of science and deeper aspects of biology (even though most of them don't know what the word biology means). They have experience with more concepts and also the activities as well.
We reviewed the material for the test like crazy too. The vocabulary (individual, population, community, ecosystem, abiotic) was the focus of every bellwork question and multiple class discussions for the past two and a half weeks. I hammered the words into their skulls, and they practiced practiced practiced them. They matched the words to examples I gave and made their own examples for the words - over and over. They had a lot of time to make those words their own, to attach their own meaning to them.
I definitely put creedence to something I heard this past summer about just how many times it takes for kids, especially kids with parents with little post-high school education, to learn new words (they typically have far smaller vocabularies as well) - the repetition was necessary for a lot of them to understand the concepts. And some STILL don't get it - it wasn't enough repetition for them to hold onto the meaning, especially with the heavier concept attached to it (there are a few where the language barrier is clearly an issue...they have spoken/heard fluency but not reading/writing fluency, and there are specific terms I should be using here but I don't remember them).
Nevertheless, the fact that the average grade was a B was amazing in my eyes (6 questions, 10 points per question, 40 pt base to build on, and partial credit given). They had a far better understanding and far better performance than the average student I had last year. The same mistakes which were so prevalent last year were made by just a few this year. After consulting the answers they gave, I came up with a list of approximately 26 students that I need to confer with on their understanding of the concepts, some of whom only misunderstand one word and some of whom may have been more confused by the presentation of the FOSS module test than the concepts themselves.
I raved about them to our team social studies teacher, as well as the other 6th grade science teacher at school. I raved about them to our team ECE teacher. I would have raved about them to more people, but I just didn't have the time today. I am just so pleased with their performance. And then I was reading What Great Teacher Do Differently (Todd Whitaker) while I was waiting to be seated for dinner tonight, and something occured to me. I raved to everyone EXCEPT for the students themselves. To the students I pointed out issues that most students had and corrected mistakes and misconceptions. Other than a few great/good job comments on the 95s and 100s (and a few scattered "great!"s for particular answers), I did not praise them much. I didn't convey how excited I was about their performance. I raved to everyone but them. Why is that? They're the ones that deserve to hear it the most, you know? And so I plan to let them know how proud I am of ALL of them when I let them actually keep the tests on Tuesday (we went over them, but they had to pass them back as I still have a few that haven't taken their tests yet). That is what good teachers do.
In other news, I am a planning on teaching a differentiated lesson on Wednesday. Now we often learn the same concepts in different ways, but I don't often have different groups performing different tasks, and that is what I hope to do on Wednesday as we finish up with food webs (we/they start with them tomorrow). The module has a really great visual/kinesthetic lesson that we'll be doing Monday - they have cards and arrows that they use to lay out the food web on their desks (upon, thought, we may need to do some rearrangement so they have room for all the cards). However, doing the same food web once is not enough practice for them. Tuesday I'm planning on talking about the different levels of the food webs, as well as discussing the effects of changes/removal/addition of members to the food web.
Wednesday will be more practice, and I'm hoping to have them split into two groups (herein lies the differentiation). Using (hopefully) the team ECE teacher, I want to have small-group/one-on-one instruction for the kids who still need more basic practice with the concepts and then have a higher group who have achieved understanding. I recently received two copies of "Into the Forest: Nature's Food Chain Game" from a fellow teacher, and I am hoping to have the higher groups use these games to create their own food webs and then be able to have fun practicing the concepts they've learned. Of course, I am also debating whether the game might be more helpful for those who are struggling with the concepts. This requires further consultation with the team ECE teacher. Regardless of how it all ends up functioning in the end, I'm hoping that it works out for the best for the students. In most classes, I have a pretty large breadth of understanding of key science concepts, so differentiation could be a huge help to solve these issues.
Of course, I'm still not at all sure what to do with the kid who drew a food web for his representation of science image on the first day of school. He obviously understands the concepts, and I can't reall think of how to make food webs higher level. I feel like it's the sort of thing that you either understand or you don't, and he definitely understands. I know how awful it was to be bored in school all the time, and he likes science, so I want to do SOMETHING that will engage him.
The kids are still surprising me with how well they're doing. There are always those with issues (behavioral or otherwise), but - for the most part - their behavior is far better than a lot of what I dealt with last year. Of course, I have more experience myself, so that makes a huge difference as well. Their academic success continues as well. I think that the use of the modules in 5th grade made a significant impact on their understanding of science and deeper aspects of biology (even though most of them don't know what the word biology means). They have experience with more concepts and also the activities as well.
We reviewed the material for the test like crazy too. The vocabulary (individual, population, community, ecosystem, abiotic) was the focus of every bellwork question and multiple class discussions for the past two and a half weeks. I hammered the words into their skulls, and they practiced practiced practiced them. They matched the words to examples I gave and made their own examples for the words - over and over. They had a lot of time to make those words their own, to attach their own meaning to them.
I definitely put creedence to something I heard this past summer about just how many times it takes for kids, especially kids with parents with little post-high school education, to learn new words (they typically have far smaller vocabularies as well) - the repetition was necessary for a lot of them to understand the concepts. And some STILL don't get it - it wasn't enough repetition for them to hold onto the meaning, especially with the heavier concept attached to it (there are a few where the language barrier is clearly an issue...they have spoken/heard fluency but not reading/writing fluency, and there are specific terms I should be using here but I don't remember them).
Nevertheless, the fact that the average grade was a B was amazing in my eyes (6 questions, 10 points per question, 40 pt base to build on, and partial credit given). They had a far better understanding and far better performance than the average student I had last year. The same mistakes which were so prevalent last year were made by just a few this year. After consulting the answers they gave, I came up with a list of approximately 26 students that I need to confer with on their understanding of the concepts, some of whom only misunderstand one word and some of whom may have been more confused by the presentation of the FOSS module test than the concepts themselves.
I raved about them to our team social studies teacher, as well as the other 6th grade science teacher at school. I raved about them to our team ECE teacher. I would have raved about them to more people, but I just didn't have the time today. I am just so pleased with their performance. And then I was reading What Great Teacher Do Differently (Todd Whitaker) while I was waiting to be seated for dinner tonight, and something occured to me. I raved to everyone EXCEPT for the students themselves. To the students I pointed out issues that most students had and corrected mistakes and misconceptions. Other than a few great/good job comments on the 95s and 100s (and a few scattered "great!"s for particular answers), I did not praise them much. I didn't convey how excited I was about their performance. I raved to everyone but them. Why is that? They're the ones that deserve to hear it the most, you know? And so I plan to let them know how proud I am of ALL of them when I let them actually keep the tests on Tuesday (we went over them, but they had to pass them back as I still have a few that haven't taken their tests yet). That is what good teachers do.
In other news, I am a planning on teaching a differentiated lesson on Wednesday. Now we often learn the same concepts in different ways, but I don't often have different groups performing different tasks, and that is what I hope to do on Wednesday as we finish up with food webs (we/they start with them tomorrow). The module has a really great visual/kinesthetic lesson that we'll be doing Monday - they have cards and arrows that they use to lay out the food web on their desks (upon, thought, we may need to do some rearrangement so they have room for all the cards). However, doing the same food web once is not enough practice for them. Tuesday I'm planning on talking about the different levels of the food webs, as well as discussing the effects of changes/removal/addition of members to the food web.
Wednesday will be more practice, and I'm hoping to have them split into two groups (herein lies the differentiation). Using (hopefully) the team ECE teacher, I want to have small-group/one-on-one instruction for the kids who still need more basic practice with the concepts and then have a higher group who have achieved understanding. I recently received two copies of "Into the Forest: Nature's Food Chain Game" from a fellow teacher, and I am hoping to have the higher groups use these games to create their own food webs and then be able to have fun practicing the concepts they've learned. Of course, I am also debating whether the game might be more helpful for those who are struggling with the concepts. This requires further consultation with the team ECE teacher. Regardless of how it all ends up functioning in the end, I'm hoping that it works out for the best for the students. In most classes, I have a pretty large breadth of understanding of key science concepts, so differentiation could be a huge help to solve these issues.
Of course, I'm still not at all sure what to do with the kid who drew a food web for his representation of science image on the first day of school. He obviously understands the concepts, and I can't reall think of how to make food webs higher level. I feel like it's the sort of thing that you either understand or you don't, and he definitely understands. I know how awful it was to be bored in school all the time, and he likes science, so I want to do SOMETHING that will engage him.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Differentiating Instruction Conference
I had all these images of posting from the conference about the many, many, many things I learned. But conference sessions and school bonding got in the way a bit. There were so many connections to be made between our class and differentiation, and I was able to make some new mental connections as well as have some "a-ha" moments. For example, 2 other teachers at my school and the principal went to a session just on RAFTs, and I was able to say that I already knew what they were. The same with many of the technology applications - the LA teacher on the other team was much impressed with my and Kristin's book trailer.
But beyond these a-ha moments, I was able to make those new connections. I hadn't realized how easily so much of what we learned about reading, writing, and technology strategies could lead so easily into differentiated instruction. Different products allowed, different processes (allowing them to use different strategies), different ways of starting off. I really think that what we've learned in this class has just opened my eyes to the many possibilities that there are for me to use in teaching. I am really excited to implement them all as I piece together the way that reading, writing, technology, differentiated instruction, classroom climate/management, and my content all fit together - teaching for me and hopefully learning for my students will be a lot more interesting and successful next year.
But beyond these a-ha moments, I was able to make those new connections. I hadn't realized how easily so much of what we learned about reading, writing, and technology strategies could lead so easily into differentiated instruction. Different products allowed, different processes (allowing them to use different strategies), different ways of starting off. I really think that what we've learned in this class has just opened my eyes to the many possibilities that there are for me to use in teaching. I am really excited to implement them all as I piece together the way that reading, writing, technology, differentiated instruction, classroom climate/management, and my content all fit together - teaching for me and hopefully learning for my students will be a lot more interesting and successful next year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)