Standard 2.5 Differentiation
Differentiation was difficult at Moody High School because
we do not have much of a diverse population. I was able to work with one
student in my 9th grade world history class who receives services as
an English language learner. This student would be high on the scale of English
functionality, but he still struggles with reading English and interpreting
academic language. So I wanted to work
with this student because history is filled with academic language. In this lesson plan, I set aside 3 individual
sessions during my tutoring hours in the morning, and then set aside time
during 3 class sessions to work with my student. This student is very street smart but needed
a little help in the academic setting.
In this setting I included the ELL teacher in the planning and
implementation of this plan. She helped
me find the students areas of need and helping create strategies for better
understanding. In this lesson I worked with the student on understanding
vocabulary of the content we were working on. I used Internet sources and
pictures to help teach this to my ELL student.
To help model what I wanted the student to learn about the content we were learning (WWI) I had a list of vocabulary for which I created a presentation with pictures that described each word. In the end this would be a formative way of assessing what my student did learn about the content vocabulary. I was able to determine the student’s level of ability through data obtained from the Access testing done on English Language Learners (ELL) each year. ELL students are placed in levels based on their scores from the Access testing. These scores are based on the WiDA consortium. This student I worked with would have been a level 3 on the WiDA scale, which meant he was developing. With this information I was able to create beneficial learning. I also put together a list of sites to help create understanding. Interactive timelines were used to model what one looks like and what type of information was to be put on them. The student and I worked towards creating our own time line using pictures, quotes, and literature. Rather than use the traditional defining of vocabulary words, for this student I differentiated through the use of pictures to help define the words. This allowed the student to associate a picture with the word since his academic understanding was lacking. To help the student understand the causes and effects of WWI, I provided resources from class, such as charts and readings, in Spanish. So in the beginning of the lesson I had created pictures and end the student had created or searched pictures to describe words. After showing and modeling timeline format, the student put together a timeline of causes and effects. The opportunity to complete this lesson using technology was very easy and useful. Understanding my learner was the most important part of this lesson. I was able to get to know my student better so that I could differentiate his learning. Not only did he come from a low income family, but one who’s value on education was very low. So I had to try and help this student understand that value education holds. Even though my student had high English speaking proficiency, he was still low on the scale of reading and understanding terms. By working with my student in a closed environment outside of class, I was able spend additional time helping him learn the content.
I learned a great deal from this project. One I learned about a student who struggled and why he struggled in content area classes. I learned that sometimes we leave students behind in our standard classes. While I thought I was affording every opportunity to my students, I was not giving students the best chance to succeed. Differentiation should be something that we use in all of our lessons. Being able to have this type of lesson available will make students more successful and hopefully, create an atmosphere where learning is possible. Something I would change, would be to create a system of aids to help this student away from school. I would also work to create more dialogue between the ELL teacher and try and involve her in more of my lessons throughout the year. She is a resource that I do not use enough. I know this created an impact on the student and myself as the teacher. I do think that this could create an impact in the school. With rising English Language learners at Moody High School, this could be used as a developmental tool to help improve the instruction of ELL students at Moody High School. This could also serve as a tool during our professional development sessions once a week at Moody. The impact of this can be assessed through the end of the year proficiency testing given to ELL students at Moody High School. Through analysis of the proficiency testing, we should be able to see where our ELL students made gains in English proficiency.
To help model what I wanted the student to learn about the content we were learning (WWI) I had a list of vocabulary for which I created a presentation with pictures that described each word. In the end this would be a formative way of assessing what my student did learn about the content vocabulary. I was able to determine the student’s level of ability through data obtained from the Access testing done on English Language Learners (ELL) each year. ELL students are placed in levels based on their scores from the Access testing. These scores are based on the WiDA consortium. This student I worked with would have been a level 3 on the WiDA scale, which meant he was developing. With this information I was able to create beneficial learning. I also put together a list of sites to help create understanding. Interactive timelines were used to model what one looks like and what type of information was to be put on them. The student and I worked towards creating our own time line using pictures, quotes, and literature. Rather than use the traditional defining of vocabulary words, for this student I differentiated through the use of pictures to help define the words. This allowed the student to associate a picture with the word since his academic understanding was lacking. To help the student understand the causes and effects of WWI, I provided resources from class, such as charts and readings, in Spanish. So in the beginning of the lesson I had created pictures and end the student had created or searched pictures to describe words. After showing and modeling timeline format, the student put together a timeline of causes and effects. The opportunity to complete this lesson using technology was very easy and useful. Understanding my learner was the most important part of this lesson. I was able to get to know my student better so that I could differentiate his learning. Not only did he come from a low income family, but one who’s value on education was very low. So I had to try and help this student understand that value education holds. Even though my student had high English speaking proficiency, he was still low on the scale of reading and understanding terms. By working with my student in a closed environment outside of class, I was able spend additional time helping him learn the content.
I learned a great deal from this project. One I learned about a student who struggled and why he struggled in content area classes. I learned that sometimes we leave students behind in our standard classes. While I thought I was affording every opportunity to my students, I was not giving students the best chance to succeed. Differentiation should be something that we use in all of our lessons. Being able to have this type of lesson available will make students more successful and hopefully, create an atmosphere where learning is possible. Something I would change, would be to create a system of aids to help this student away from school. I would also work to create more dialogue between the ELL teacher and try and involve her in more of my lessons throughout the year. She is a resource that I do not use enough. I know this created an impact on the student and myself as the teacher. I do think that this could create an impact in the school. With rising English Language learners at Moody High School, this could be used as a developmental tool to help improve the instruction of ELL students at Moody High School. This could also serve as a tool during our professional development sessions once a week at Moody. The impact of this can be assessed through the end of the year proficiency testing given to ELL students at Moody High School. Through analysis of the proficiency testing, we should be able to see where our ELL students made gains in English proficiency.
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