Module 2
Hello Class,
As I mentioned before, I teach Co-taught biology at Waubonsie Valley High School. What you might not know is that all freshmen at our school take biology. My classroom typically has 12-15 students with IEP's and then another 15+ regular ed students. Because of this, my classroom is most likely the most diverse classroom in the whole building. I have students that read at a second grade level, and students sitting in the same class that are in multiple honors classes and even AP classes. This is why differentiation with the lessons and understanding learning styles is so important.
For this module I am going to focus on a typical student with an IEP in my classroom in terms of how they deal with lessons that rely highly on technology. We are always told that this generation of students is so tech savvy that they might be able to teach us how to use the programs. I've actually found this to be far from true. Yes, they could teach me how to play the latest flash game or how to use snap-gram or insta-chat but as far as research goes or finding something on the web, they are far from experts.
My student that we will be talking about today is named Lauren. She is a typical bubbly young lady that is extremely social, easy to talk to, polite, and generally a great edition to the classroom. Lauren struggles with paying attention in class and is extremely distracted by.... anything distracting. With students like Lauren, I think that hands on activities, research projects, and utilizing technology will help her focus, but it often just adds to the distractions. I also have to constantly "put myself in check" with students like Lauren so I don't assume they understand or have previous experience, multiplying and dividing by ten (moving a decimal point for a timeline activity) comes to mind.
One way we try to help students like Lauren with large projects is we give the students multiple options to exhibit that they understand the material. This includes constructing physical art displays like pamphlets or posters, creating movies on We-video, or the typical google slide presentation. By letting the student choose how to display their knowledge you are able to cover more learning styles, which also makes it more enjoyable and more likely to enter their long term memory.
I really like your comments about creating multiple entry points to a lesson. I think I often create multiple exits, but rarely create multiple entries. This is difficult with the typical curriculum in science but it would be fun to allow students to "choose their own adventure" with the content as long as they all arrive at a similar destination at the end. I also think utilizing technology can help with these multiple entry points. Flipping a lecture so they come in with previous knowledge or optional webquests might allow students to enter a lesson in different ways.
Thank you,
Jim
As I mentioned before, I teach Co-taught biology at Waubonsie Valley High School. What you might not know is that all freshmen at our school take biology. My classroom typically has 12-15 students with IEP's and then another 15+ regular ed students. Because of this, my classroom is most likely the most diverse classroom in the whole building. I have students that read at a second grade level, and students sitting in the same class that are in multiple honors classes and even AP classes. This is why differentiation with the lessons and understanding learning styles is so important.
For this module I am going to focus on a typical student with an IEP in my classroom in terms of how they deal with lessons that rely highly on technology. We are always told that this generation of students is so tech savvy that they might be able to teach us how to use the programs. I've actually found this to be far from true. Yes, they could teach me how to play the latest flash game or how to use snap-gram or insta-chat but as far as research goes or finding something on the web, they are far from experts.
My student that we will be talking about today is named Lauren. She is a typical bubbly young lady that is extremely social, easy to talk to, polite, and generally a great edition to the classroom. Lauren struggles with paying attention in class and is extremely distracted by.... anything distracting. With students like Lauren, I think that hands on activities, research projects, and utilizing technology will help her focus, but it often just adds to the distractions. I also have to constantly "put myself in check" with students like Lauren so I don't assume they understand or have previous experience, multiplying and dividing by ten (moving a decimal point for a timeline activity) comes to mind.
One way we try to help students like Lauren with large projects is we give the students multiple options to exhibit that they understand the material. This includes constructing physical art displays like pamphlets or posters, creating movies on We-video, or the typical google slide presentation. By letting the student choose how to display their knowledge you are able to cover more learning styles, which also makes it more enjoyable and more likely to enter their long term memory.
I really like your comments about creating multiple entry points to a lesson. I think I often create multiple exits, but rarely create multiple entries. This is difficult with the typical curriculum in science but it would be fun to allow students to "choose their own adventure" with the content as long as they all arrive at a similar destination at the end. I also think utilizing technology can help with these multiple entry points. Flipping a lecture so they come in with previous knowledge or optional webquests might allow students to enter a lesson in different ways.
Thank you,
Jim
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