Let's take another route...

 

Do you remember taking a road trip and really wanting to get to the spot you've been waiting for?  You are so excited and maybe had been planning only to find that time seems to be moving so slowly that you start to ask your parents, "Are we there yet?" My sister and I were so annoying that my dad stopped at a rest area once and gave us a map and told us to stop talking.   We never traveled again without a map.  (You know those are those paper things we used to use before Google Maps.)  I sure you aren't surprised by this story to know that I was impatient as a kid.

Our journey to achievement can also be tedious.  We want to achieve so badly that there are times when we get impatient because we don't seem to be getting there fast enough.  Our time will pass if we bring out our map and check our mileage.  The map is the standards and our mileage our assessments.  If we feel like some of our kids are taking a detour we need to maximize the workshop and differentiate.  We know that not all kids travel at the same speed and direction.  It's our job to determine what they need and how to give it to them.

Differentiation means tailoring instruction to meet individual needs.  Whether teacher differentiate content, process, products, or the learning environment.  It is customizing the journey to get kids to achieve the learning.

Content:  The knowledge and skills students need to master.

Process:  The activities students use to master the content.

Product:  The method students use to demonstrate learning.

We will be exploring and learning how to do this with vigor starting in professional development.  Our goal is to become flexible in our instruction so that we day or do just the right things to get kids to do the cognitive work.  This flexibility requires a strong workshop based on the model of gradual release of responsibility.  Consider this diagram below.

You need to have command of the workshop and this model to differentiate.  

Consider this example from last week.

Last week I observed Paige's math lesson.  She released to kids to work on a fairly complicated problem involving multiplication of fractions.  She differentiated the content for a group of special education students who were the first to see her.  She guided them through the first stages and checked on them frequently.  The process was slightly different for them as they weren't released to do the entire problem until she check them for understanding.  She also differentiated with method.  Her students were grouped by ability after she reviewed their student work the night before the lesson.  Kids were given agency to use a variety of methods to solve the problem.  Some kids used the table and dry erase markers as a draft.  Others went straight for the paper.  The most exciting part, however, was that they knew the learning objective and were comfortable with the success criteria.  Paige floated between groups asking different questions, providing prompts and/or cues and finally delivering direct instruction if the kids didn't land where she needed them to.  All in all it was a great example of differentiation within the workshop.  Getting the students out to work quickly was imperative.  Have clarity in learning intention and success criteria a must.  Knowing the process and assessing was the key to her success.  It was an excellent example of how a math workshop can meet the needs of all students.

The journey is ahead and we know what we are up against.  It's time to start our engines; get out our map and fill the tank.  Let's move in the direction of excellence through collaboration and support; so when we are asked, "are we there yet?"  We will say...

Yes, we are!