The first quarter of the school year has officially ended, and with that end came the dubious task of administering our WKCE State standardized test. Although the students highly dislike this test and teachers don't like taking away instruction time, it does provide for an ample amount of time to reflect and plan for the second quarter.
After some discouragement with how the first quarter ended and students not giving their best effort, I knew I needed to take a long hard look at how I was meeting ALL of their differing needs to be successful in my math class. Many students knew what was required and were able to perform very well on unit assessments. Yet, too many students were far lower than expected and their assessment scores were less than desirable.
Therefore, students needed to be pushed a little harder to complete tasks in class so that I can help guide them through the learning process. Thus, I have created leveled learning in my math class to help differentiate my lessons and meet with struggling learners on a daily basis. While my classroom still operates as a Flipped Class, many students are unable to watch the video outside of school, or just choose not to. These students are automatically put into a "Basic" group that works directly with me throughout the set of practice problems. We review skills required for each particular lesson, and then proceed to the lesson itself. After 2 weeks, students seem to be grasping the concepts much better and even worker much harder - maybe they actually know what is going on.
The rest of the students choose which level they think they are ready for after watching the video lesson - average or challenge. If at any time, students feel they are struggling, they can come over to the basic group and watch or ask questions. As I have observed, many students will work together and help teach each other what is happening. The amount of math conversation with in my classroom continues to grow on a daily basis.
On our second day of each lesson, students continue to take a mini-assessment from the lesson. Again, dependent upon how they score, the students are broken into these three groups to extend their learning or re-teach the lesson to obtain the required material.
I am very excited with the possibilities of this differentiation piece. Students seem to be engaged more in their math and willing to help each other out. The struggling learners are getting some guided instruction that they so desperately need.
