"Differentiating content can be thought of in two different ways...adapt what we teach...or modify how we give students access to what we want them to learn (pg 72)." Since CSO's dictate what teachers must be teaching the key is being able to modify subject matter and its delivery so a variety of learners can benefit from instruction. The more teachers can build concepts in students minds the less memory loss will occur, increasing overall learning. This chapter offers several strategies for differentiating content in the classroom such as: concept-based teaching, compacting, varying text and resources, learning contracts, minilessons, and varied support systems.
Which of the strategies for differentiating content do you find the most valuable?
Have you used any of the describe methods in your classroom? If so please describe the benefits and challenging aspects of the method.
Which of the above stratagies can you see using in your classroom? How would you utilize the method?
I think the Concepts-based teaching is very key. Especially in History some get so caught up in remembering dates and such but in reality I want them to know the main point of an event in history. I also like varying text. In history you can have firsthand accounts, secondary, and even expert interpretation all looking at different angles of the event/person. I have used the Varied Support systems by allowing them to use peer tutors, presenting in different varied formats to highlight the strengths of each student.
ReplyDeleteI think that all of the strategies here can be helpful and will try to implement many of them in my classroom.
I like the varied support systems - teach them multiple resources to use and decide which ones work best with each individual unit. For instance, I teach a number of pre-writing strategies, but some work better for different types of writing. This concept works best when you think about different learning styles in the classroom. I like the note-taking organizers b/c we used a different note-taking organizer for all 6 parts of my literature book this year: shared Google document, PowerPoint, I gave them the main idea and how many sub topics they should have, etc. We varied it so they wouldn't get bored. I also saw which ones worked better. In the shared Google doc. I found most students took way more notes than they needed to - they claimed they did that b/c other classes required excessive notes, which allowed me to stress how sometimes students have to adjust to the teacher, as they find in high school and ESPECIALLY college.
ReplyDeleteIssac- Your view of how to teach history is important. Growing up, my history teachers never taught us how things like the WWII impacted my life today so I always seemed so removed from history I didn't think it was relevent. Now I wish I knew more. For example, when we learned about the Civil War I was taught that it was pretty much just about slavery, but lo and behold it was actually about state vs. national rights with a slice of abolition. Which is in the for front of debate right now in the news. By showing them how the history effects today and not requiring the use a bunch of dates your students will be really helped. How are some ways you are linking history to today?
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