Response to DI and UDL Assignment #2

DI Assignment:

I was disappointed in the mark I received on my DI assignment. I honestly thought I took a sub-par Lesson plan and was able to make it in to, what I thought, a very diversified lesson. The one thing I will say, is that I accidentally said I was tiering by readiness when, in fact, I meant ability. The ironic part is, is that my presentation was on the difference between ability and readiness and I was quite aware of the difference and yet I accidentally used the wrong one. This was a big error on my part and I wish I had been able to see that before I submitted the assignment. I also had a Power Point Presentation that went along with my Lesson Plan that I should have handed in as well so that Ruthanne could see what I was describing in my lesson plan.

Creating the DI Lesson plan really helped me to see how important it is to think of all students when you are creating a lesson plan. Each student should feel welcomed and safe and feel as though they belong; because they do. It also helped me to see my Lesson Plan in a holistic way, the beginning middle and end, as well as, making sure to have assessment and an anchoring activity included throughout the lesson. I did mention one anchoring activity when groups were done but I forgot to mention what they would be doing while students were writing their ideas on the board. Having multiple anchoring activities is a great way to keep students focused and the noise level to a minimum.

UDL Assignment #2:
In this assignment, Andrew and I incorporated a student by the name of Melissa in to my Assignment #1 Lesson Plan. Creating this assignment made me realize how important it is to look at every aspect of teaching in a new and different way. It made me more aware of how I am conveying new ideas and information and how important it is to be aware of the learning styles and needs of my students. It made me realize that I need to take a more comprehensive look at my classroom dynamics during my upcoming practicum. This can be done during the first few days when I hand out a questionnaire to the class about how they like to learn, what they consider their strengths and weaknesses in learning, etc.

Also, the UDL assignment really made me look deeper in to how to provide multiple means of representation, action and expression and engagement. It also taught me not to be overwhelmed with all the different aspects of each category but to try to incorporate some aspect of each category in to each lesson. 

Are we helping our students learn when we differentiate their products?

My UDL and DI assignments have made me begin to struggle with this question: "When is it appropriate to Differentiate, and when isn't it?"

The problem I see, is that if we differentiate product, such as, a student who has a writing disability is allowed to sketch out a cartoon instead of writing a short story for a short story writing assignment. In this case, he is still able to show what he has learned from the unit but would be presenting it in a different format, therefore, his product would have been different from the rest of the class. However, how does this help him learn to write? Should we really be changing things to suite students 'needs' by not making them practice how to do something? I wonder if what the student really needs is a shorter, more condensed assignment which forces them to practice their writing skills because how else will they get better if they don't practice?

I almost feel like if you differentiate the product for a student then he/she will not get the practice he needs in order to do well and whatever issues he is having. If we don't make kids practice things I find if very unlikely that they will practice on their own; when they are not 'forced' to. 

This is not to say that I believe in forcing students to do something they can't, but I don't see how we can be helping them succeed when we are 'cutting corners' for them so that they can still do well in our course.

I guess the point is that you should not always differentiate the product for a student who has issues in one area, instead, you should differentiate sometimes when it is most appropriate for the student. Also, if you work with the student's strengths, they are more likely to get a good grade and get that extra confidence boost that they might need on the next project in which they may have to practice their weakness. Or, you could always require a student to practice something they are not good at in a project but mix that in with their strength and perhaps weigh their strength more in marking. For example:

Stephen has a hard to expressing himself in writing, however, he is very social and enjoys giving presentation.

The final assignment for a Novel Study Unit is to write a newspaper full of articles about the occurrences in the story.

Since Stephen is stronger in his verbal skills than his written skills, the teacher has allowed him to create a television news cast which discusses the important events in the novel as if they were really happening. Stephen must also hand in his notes for each broadcast for marks.

Total Assignment: 40 marks

Draft (Notes): 5 marks

Information Given: 20 marks

Creativity: 5 marks

Engagement: 5 marks

Expression: 5 marks

In this example, the draft is only worth 5 marks, where as, in the Newspaper Assignment the Draft of the newspaper might be work 10 or 15 marks. 

Smart Boards:

I have only seen a smart board here at UVic but we were finally able to see them in action. Some highlights of the smart board: Colour, Interactive, Touch Screen, Games, Magic Pen (which can hide things, zoom in, have a spot light) and it can transfer bad chalk board writing in to text (which is a must have for me). However, I felt that I didn't learn as much as I would have if I actually had the program in front of me so that I, too, could interact with the smart board. Watching her present just wasn't the best way for me to learn. 

The Football

Today we discussed 'The Football' which is when you structure a class so that everyone starts together and then is separated in to groups and then they come back together in the end. This is something I did often with my grade 9 class but did not do very often in my grade 11 class. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons that my grade 9 class went better than my grade 11s.

Throughout this month of schooling, I am hoping to maybe find some answers as to why I felt my grade 9 class went so much better than my grade 11 class and I'm already starting to understand that.

In my grade 11 class, I had one student who hated it when we read stories as a class. He often would read it quickly on his own and then start doing something else (like listening to his iPod). This was frustrating to me because I often thought he was just not interested in the story but then found out he was actually ahead. Therefore, in my UDL and DI assignments I have chosen to allow students to read the story in groups according to reading ability and readiness. Therefore, for the higher-level readers, students may choose to read on their own and come together as a group to discuss the story while all the other groups finish up reading.

I also have decided that my UDL and DI assignments will have to be based on the same lesson because I honestly do not have time to pick apart more than one lesson, which is a shame, because I really wanted to have two amazing lessons to put in to my portfolio.

ELL:

ESL is a very high area of interest for me. I have been tutoring ELL students for two years now and even took a course online on how to teach ESL. The online course, however, was not very helpful but I did feel it discussed a lot of the things we are talking about in class right now (except now we are talking about it in a lot more detail). So far, this summer institute has given me two different lesson planning approaches which can help me keep ELLs in mind. I honestly think I will be able to apply these to my future lesson plans. When I got 'out on the field' I felt like I had forgotten many of the things that I had learned. I was actually really excited to go back to class and review some of the things we have learned and to learn more. I am happy to say that I really do feel like it was worth it to take this summer institute because I am able to reflect on what happened during my practicum and apply what I am now learning to real-life situations that occurred.

Group Project

First Class:
Today's class seemed to lay down the foundations for the course. While working in my group, it was interesting to hear other people's great ideas for our presentation on Friday. One of my group members suggested we apply what we have learned in the chapter to our specific content areas. We have decided to group our classmates in to their subject areas and allow them to pick a PLO to work with in order to go through a process which keeps readiness in mind. This allows us to apply what we have read and, hopefully, remember it more readily. In the last year, I have finally realized that I learn best from watching and doing and that I have a difficult time listening. I also find it easier to listen to someone who is explaining something specifically to me then listening to instructions given to the entire class. This is something that differentiated learning is all about-- recognizing that all students do not learn in the same way and making sure you incorporate different kinds of teaching in to EACH and EVERY lesson.

One thing I learned today is that you do not just have to differentiate the actual 'stuff' but you can differentiate how students get access to the stuff. Another thing I really liked about Chapter 5 was the helpful and USEFUL tips they supplied. I can't wait to do our presentation and be able to apply some of these helpful hints to my subject area. The application is really where I feel I will learn the most.


School Funding:
I was really surprised to hear how much money schools get per student and for ESL students and Aboriginal students. All I hear is about schools needing more funding but I feel like the amount is a fair amount. I understand that schools need money to run certain programs etc, but it just seems like a lot of money. Where does the money go? It makes sense that many of it might go to hiring extra help like speech therapists, special assessments  and EAs. The more we discussed it in class, the more the funding issues began to make sense to me so I can see how some people might argue that schools are getting enough funding, however, if they analyze the costs and needs they can see that there is still a big deficit in funding of Canadian schools.

People with Disabilities:

I was terribly saddened to hear how many persons with disabilities do not have jobs or income. This makes me think that one of the things that need to change is the way the WORLD thinks about people with disabilities. The movie we watched highlighted how hard it is for able and willing people to get jobs (I can understand how this could be that much more difficult now with the current economy issues). Unfortunately, these people apply and apply for jobs and are over looked because the interviewer only sees their handicap instead of their unique perspective. That is the way I want to teach my students, to learn about the unique perspectives these people can bring to a job place. In my grade 9 class we read the book "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" which is about a teenager with Aspergers. My students LOVED the unique perspective this main character had and they really enjoyed reading the book. This shows me that students have the interest to learn about different disabilities and are also able to pinpoint the unique perspectives these people may have.