The Happy Learning Den

Sunday, November 10, 2019

How to Differentiate Instruction in Your Classroom

How can you deliver your lessons to reach everyone in class? Consider differentiated instruction—a method you may have heard about but haven’t explored, yet. This method benefits a wide range of students, from those with learning disabilities to those who are considered high ability or gifted. Differentiating your instruction may mean teaching the same material to all students using a variety of instructional strategies, OR it may require you to deliver lessons at varying levels of difficulty.

These leaves are just like the students in your classroom! Just as no 2 leaves are exactly the same,
two children do not learn in the same way or at the same time!

Today I would like to share with you three easy ways that I have differentiated for my students during the past twenty-something years.

1. Create Learning Stations

Provide different types of content by setting up learning stations (centers) — divided sections of your classroom through which groups of students rotate. Each station should use a unique method of teaching a skill or concept related to your lesson.

For example, students can move between stations that involve:

Watching a video
Creating artwork
Reading an article
Completing puzzles
Small group lesson with you

2. Use Task Cards

Like learning stations, task cards allow you to give students a range of content. Answering task cards can also be a small-group activity, adding variety to classes that normally focus on whole-group instruction.

To make your own, first, write questions that you’d typically find on worksheets or in textbooks onto individual notecards.

Second, print and laminate cards that each contain a single task or question. Or, you can find over 50 of my pre-made task cards in my Teachers pay Teachers online store. Click here to go directly to my task cards.

Third (and final step), set up work-stations around your classroom and pair students together to rotate through them.

3. Use the Think-Pair-Share Strategy

This strategy exposes students to three lesson-processing experiences within one activity. It’s easy to monitor and support students as they complete each step.

As the strategy’s name implies, start by asking students to independently think about a given topic or answer a specific question. Next, pair students together to discuss their results and findings. (I like to have students "turn and talk" to their neighbor. If you have an odd number of students, you can also do a triad.)

Finally, have each pair share their ideas with the rest of the class.

Will you try any of these 3 tried and true strategies? Do you already differentiate, and have an amazing method?

Share your favorite way below. I look forward to reading your comments. Have a great week!

- Sandra @The Happy Learning Den

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Epic Win!!! "Gamifying" Your Classroom

Games can be a very strong motivator for students in school. By “gamifying” your classroom, you can use game elements such as challenges, feedback, levels, creativity, and rewards to motivate your students to learn, and master concepts. If you "gamify" your classroom, your students may benefit from increased motivation and engagement.

Students are learning while having fun

+ Teachers can remediate or enrich in a game format

It’s a Win-Win!

Keep reading to learn about three easy steps to gamifying your classroom.

STEP 1: ASSESS YOUR STUDENTS

Identify your students’ trouble spots: Pinpointing student trouble spots will help you determine the best gamification strategies for your classroom.

For example, if you notice PowerPoint presentations cause your students to not pay attention, add interactive elements.

STEP 2: DEFINE LEARNING GOALS

Set learning and behavior goals: To gamify education, you need learning (remediation or enrichment) and behavior goals that address the areas you identified. I don’t mean behavior goals as if a student is misbehaving. The behaviors I mean are working efficiently and concentrating on their work.

For example, you may set a learning goal to have students master a specific skill by a certain deadline. A behavior goal may focus on empowering students to ignore classroom distractions.

Video games typically allow players to make choices that challenge them and suit their abilities, so consider offering choices when it comes to projects. For math, I typically set up Prodigy.com accounts for my students each year. Then I use their teacher planner to assign specific work to each student. Hello differentiation! In my fifth grade classroom, I can tailor practice problems to student IEP’s or RTI targets. Student A may receive single digit multiplication for 2 weeks, and Student B may receive fraction multiplication for a time period that I set in the planner. Both students are playing a game, leveling up, persevering through challenges, and having fun!

STEP 3: STRUCTURE THE GAMES

Use stages: When you are looking at your state standards and the curriculum you need to teach, you help your student progress through skill-building all year. You refer to your teaching units and topics all year long, but you need to use student-friendly terminology with your students.

Try calling them stages.

While topics and units have provide clear focus for teachers, students may not easily see how they fit together. On the other hand, it may be natural for students to understand that to reach the next stage they need to overcome challenges. You can highlight this by naming certain everyday classroom activities as prerequisites to reach the next stage. For example, unless students do homework, participate in class and turn work in on-time, they won’t be ready for the next stage.

Hopefully after reading this post, you will agree with me that gamification makes learning fun.

And while “making learning fun” is cliché, I have found that there are three key points that gaming helps my students with:

Focus — Students who have a hard time focusing may find it easier when tackling an engaging topic.

Skill-Building — Students may shy away from building certain skills until they see the importance.

Content Delivery — Students may have trouble processing content presented through traditional methods, such as textbooks.

Have you gamified your classroom? Please share your lessons learned and best practices in the comments below.

-Sandra @The HappyLearning Den

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Thanksgiving Themed Learning

Thanksgiving math activities, reading comprehension, and writing short responses can be so much fun with Thanksgiving Themed Learning! What upper elementary student doesn’t love turkeys, pies, and Thanksgiving riddles? Turn that excitement into learning with scaffolded and differentiated Thanksgiving Math, Reading, & Writing Activities!

These worksheets and activities are perfect for teachers who need to scaffold and/or differentiate, and it’s also ideal for teachers who are looking for more ways to really engage students with a themed learning activity. While these worksheets are fun, they are also aligned to standards.

My ready to print and photocopy Thanksgiving Themed Reading, Writing, and Math worksheets are also no-prep. Who doesn't need no-prep learning activities during the holiday season?

The Reading and Writing packet includes:

★ Parts of Speech Posters

★ Parts of Speech Color by Code

★ Word Search (with hidden messages such as read, smile, be kind)

★ Simile Worksheet

★ Following Directions Worksheet

★ Compare and Contrast Worksheet (Venn Diagram and Paragraph Writing)

★ Short Response Creative Writing (Fall Fun!)

★ Turkey Riddles (Crack the Code)

★ Answer Keys

The Math packet includes:

★ Missing Addends worksheet

★ Missing Addends (word problems with missing addends)

★ Snacking on Word Problems (mixed operations)

★ Perfect Pumpkin Products (3 pages of multiplication practice)

★ Delicious Division (division word problems- no remainders)

★ Dividing Antics (division word problems- with remainders)

★ Save Turkey Tom! (division vocabulary writing prompt)

★ Save Turkey Tanya! (multiplication vocabulary writing prompt)