As I start this new school year
with many resources: colleagues, veteran teachers, and a well developed student
teaching program, I ask myself, how will I use these tools to become a
successful English/Language Arts
teacher? As I began my own reading of successful methods used within the
classroom, I now more specifically want to know, how can I use differentiated
reading instruction within my own classroom?
In my discoveries I found that the first step
to differentiated reading instruction is the use of a pre-assessment to see the
reading level of each individual student. Thanks to the integration of
technology within the schools in this modern age, there is software that is now
being used in classrooms. An example of this type of software is used in my own
classroom and it is called “Language!” The students enter into the program and
they must complete a test that assesses their reading level. When reading levels have been determined the
teacher is then able to create lesson plans based on the given information. The
results of discovering the reading levels of the students are useful to
planning instruction within the classroom, but it is not enough. This leads
into another concern of mine that pertains to reaching students of all
different types of reading and writing skills within one classroom during only
one class period.
I believe that the solution lies
in the approaches of class work and homework given to the students. The use of
different types of assignments may allow the students to approach reading
strategies that will be most beneficial to them. An example of this would be
during the lesson of a story or novel to create a plot outline worksheet for
students that would allow them to follow along the story by summarizing and
comprehending key scenarios. For this type of activity the teacher would have
to introduce the diagramming of a story and a set amount of chapters would be
assigned along with a completion of the plot as it progresses throughout the
chapters. When students return with their completed work they could collaborate
in small groups discussing what they believed were the significant scenarios
within the story. The small groups would then share in a whole class discussion
and allow the teacher to guide the students in the right direction. This is an
example of what I would like to do within my own classroom.
The use of multiple intelligences
is also an important strategy when planning for differentiated instruction. The
flexibility and endless possibilities of differentiated instruction is what
makes it so appealing to lesson planning and classroom instruction. An example
of this would be to act out a scenario within a play or a novel. This allows kinesthetic,
visual, and verb use. The students would be able to practice reading prior to
acting it out in front of the class. As a teacher I would expect them to be
expressive, clear, and concise in their reading along with requiring a summary
of notes about what the chapter or scene entails. They might even use a video camera and work in
small groups and record themselves acting out an assigned scenario, depending
on the grade level. My challenge to
myself is to find multiple resources and ideas so that I can make learning a
fun and effective process for my students. I want to expose them to multiple
differentiated learning strategies so that I can see which lessons will be
successful in my future classroom. What type of lessons or strategies do you envision yourself using in your own classroom?
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Word Count: 598
Here is an example of a video I found on YouTube of student's at a high
school acting out a scene of Romeo and Juliet in class. :)
Resources
(This resource explains and gives
examples differentiated reading strategies for different levels of
comprehension.) http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/diff_reading_la.phtml
(This resource outlines the
description of a variety of multiple intelligences and gives an example of a
lesson that uses differentiated instruction.) http://www.walch.com/samplepages/065146.pdf
