Yesterday I switched rooms with a colleague who needed lab stations (her current room does not have any). I was doing a review session with my students, and I thought- all I need is the doc cam and my transparencies, so I don’t need to worry about bringing anything extra. I’ve gotten so used to the stack of scratch paper under the doc cam in my room that I didn’t think about the fact that my mentor and I are the ones who put it there. Of course, there was no scratch paper in the other room, no white board space and I only had two pieces of scratch paper in my binder. I also had students absent the day I gave out the review sheet, and all the extra copies were in my filing cabinets in my room. This was an easy fix, as I just sent a TA to get them (should have thought of this for scratch paper too, since I knew where the stack of scratch paper was!). I wish I could have written things out for the students, and I will know better next time to always check before hand for the little things, and try not to take things in my room for granted.
Tag Archive: Flexibility
I really like planning out units before they start, day by day, so I know where I’m going with the material and when the exam will be. Sometimes I get a little overexcited about how much I think the students can get through. This happened today in my chemistry class. We are talking about chemical reactions, and how to recognize 4 different types of reactions. Today we started on predicting products fro a specific types of reaction (single replacement). The students each have what we call a “data book” that has reference tables, and common values that they can use for their homework, on quizzes and exams, etc. For predicting products of single replacement reactions, the students need to look up the reactivity of two of the elements in the reaction and the more reactive element is the one that bonds to the third element in reaction. This seemed very easy to me. I showed them the chart and how to use it, and then let them loose on a practice activity. Pretty much every single student gave me a “deer in the headlights” look. After about a minute, a few students raised their hands, and told me they had no idea what to do. I tried explaining one or two examples and then tried to get them to do the activity again. Most of them still did not have any idea what was going on. We did a few more examples until the end of the period. I went into the next class thinking that I just didn’t explain it well enough and tried to do a better job. I explained what the students should be looking for, how to use the chart and then we did a few examples. Then I tried to do the activity again, because I still thought they could do it. Again, I was wrong. I did a few more examples until the end of the period, as I had done in the previous period. I realized that I would have to start all over again and go much slower, but I wasn’t really sure how to explain what I had done today differently. I did not want to use the same explanation a second time if the students had not understood it the first time.
That afternoon we had a staff meeting (which I wasn’t looking foward to because I wanted to figure out what to do for single replacement reactions). One of the other science teachers is doing a book study on teaching with the brain in mind, and we did an activity about how we learn. Her activity (reading different pieces of information off boixes containing successively smaller boxes in groups- similar to Russian nesting dolls) reminded me that we learn better when things are broken up into smaller pieces, and we need time to digest each piece of information. I realized that I could do this in my chemistry class. First we could practice identifying the two elements to be switched. Then, we could practice looking up reactivities and determining which element would end up bonded to the third element. Finally, we could then practice determining whether the products match the reactants and if a reaction happened or not. I left the staff meeting feeling much better about my plan and looking foward to teaching the next day.
Now I have fully taken over both of my mentors chemistry classes, and the students are quickly noticing a difference in our teaching styles. Apparently, we do a lot more in my classes, and I give them MUCH more homework than my mentor gives his other classes. They got really upset with me today when I had them grade their labs for correctness, instead of completion (as they thought was normal). I tell them that I am trying to help them do better on their exams, and the more work they do, the better they will learn the material. We will see how they feel after the large quiz tomorrow.
My mentor also wants our classes to be on the same schedule, and I have been going a little quicker than he has. Today we spent time grading their lab reports, to give them extra practice at drawing shapes of molecules, a HUGE portion of the quiz tomorrow. I am trying to be flexible with my schedule, so that we can stay on the same page.
On Wednesday, I gave my own lesson/activity in chemistry. I had each student create a poster of a given p-block element (they picked out of a hat) with certain stipulations, including orbital notation (which they had just learned) and a drawing of the element, including the nucleus and the valence electron orbitals (which they had been learning for the past week). I thought it went really well, and the students seemed to have fun while working on school work (they usually see only direct instruction). I did notice that, especially in 2nd period, the students were asking very basic questions, such as “is this right?” They seemed to need a lot of hand holding, even though what we were asking them to do was not super difficult. I feel like the students expect to spend a long time on specific topics, so they can put off learning it. I asked them to apply orbital notation the day after we taught it, and they were not used to that, but I do not think it was over their heads. I had a lot of fun and I think they did too. They worked hard all period, but did not finish, so even though I had planned to have them turn it in at the end of the period, I asked for them to finish by Monday. We will follow up on the poster by having the students line up in the order of their elements and compare the similar elements they listed to see if they can see a pattern.
Aligned with Standard 9-11 PS2A:
- Atoms are composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The nucleus of an atom takes up very little of the atom’s volume but makes up almost all of the mass. The nucleus contains protons and neutrons, which are much more massive than the electrons surrounding the nucleus. Protons have a positive charge, electrons are negative in charge, and neutrons have no net charge.
– Describe the relative charges, masses, and locations of the protons, neutrons, and electrons in an atom of an element
After going back into the classroom, I made some observations in my classroom of differentiation. In chemistry, I see very little differentiation. My mentor lectures, then has students do practice problems, both in class and for homework. Then, students take tests that have both multiple choice and written answers (math problems). He does perform demonstrations, and have the students do labs, and they are linked to the material learned in lectures. My mentor is willing to answer questions and clarify material when students ask them. In this way, he has some differentiation in his classes, but his teaching strategies are not very differentiated.
My biology mentor is somewhat differentiated. In biology, the students see lectures, worksheets, group activities, demonstrations, labs and tests with fill in the blank, matching, true/false and multiple choice questions. My biology mentor is flexible with her schedule as well, so that time can be spent reviewing material that students do not understand. I feel that all these different types of assignments give students the best opportunity to do well in her class. The assignments are differentiated enough that each student should have at least one assignment that uses the learning strategy that they can learn with best.
Reading this article made me realize how many different interpretations of differentiation there can be. Before I read this article, differentiation meant the different practices and strategies teachers use in instruction. Although these are part of differentiation, this portion is not all that differentiation can mean. Differentiation can also refer to the flexibility a teacher has with his or her schedule. On Monday, for example, my students were having a lot of trouble with lipids. I had scheduled to begin cell membranes on Tuesday, but instead, I spent the entire period going over the worksheet I had given for homework on lipids, to make sure that the students understood the material. I think the basics of differentiation is simply the idea that teachers be flexible with their schedule and teaching strategies so that every student can learn to the best of their ability.
