Differentiated Instruction

It's been a crazy first 2 weeks of school, but I have survived, and ready for some more action.  My next challenge will not come easy; I am starting to organize my reading groups and math groups.  Last year, I only worked with the students who I saw were struggling, but this year, my aim is to work with all students according to their reading and comprehension levels: the group that has the struggling or below level readers will meet with me 3 days a week; the students who are average will meet with me 2 days a week, and the students who are above average will meet with me one day a week.  I have that all set as far as who is in which group.

The one struggle I am having though is not with reading but with writing.  Last year, I didn't differentiate writing AT ALL!  Every student was given the same task and I used the same rubric on every student.  This year, though, I want to create some kind of tiered weekly writing activities.  However, I am not sure how to start.  A few of my students are finding it difficult to focus on even writing down a date and title in writing, and I can't seem to motivate them to write more than just that.  Some of the students tell me it is because their hands don't want to move faster; it makes me laugh because they're only in second grade and are already coming up with excuses.  In fact, even when the students are asked to draw a picture about what was their favorite part of the story, the same students cannot even complete this task.  If they are not writing, I cannot assess their abilities.  It's so bad that even when they're told to write down their homework (copy it from the board), it takes them too long to do that.  Any ideas of how to speed them up?  It's unfair to say the students don't do any work; actually only one of my students is not completing her class work.  I think it may be time to contact home. 

This year will be challenging, especially as I experiment with new differentiated tools.  <Sigh> Wish me luck!

First day of school

No day is ever perfect, and anything that can go wrong will go wrong. 

The life of a teacher is not easy, especially when you consider the amount of improvising and last minute changes that are made on a regular basis.  With it being the first day of school, I had planned exactly how I imagined my second year was going to start off as.  However, that wasn't the case.  From losing my attendence book, to the copier taking ten minutes for only a few copies, down to the addition and omission of students to my roster, nothing came easy today.  To top it off, it was a muggy and hot day in WNY, and of course the school doesn't have AC, so I was hot and miserable, as were the students.  This year will be a challenge too, as I have a diverse group of students, both academically and behaviorally.  It will be a learning experience though!

Let's just hope day two is more controlling than today was. 

Classroom setup

This year, I decided to try a different setup for my classroom, mainly to incorporate more use of the <limited> space I have.  Now, my classroom is tiny; I mean, REALLY tiny!  Last year I only had 9 students in my class, so the space wasn't a huge issue.  However, I'm projected to have about 13-14 students this year.  Now, while many of you think it's a blessing to have only that small of class, please take into consideration that I compensate with a small classroom.  Therefore, I tried to utilize the space I have the best I could.  

In the pictures, you can see that I have a (single) computer area, a reading area, and a listening area.  Unfortunately, I do not have space for writing area.  Therefore, I will be doing my own version of the Daily 5 for center time: I will assign students to different areas for about 15 minutes each day.  I have 6 areas, and they will go to one of those six: read to a partner, read to yourself, listen to reading, work on the computer, work on writing, or work on words.  I figured this method will best organize the lack of space and thus avoid any catastrophe in the process!  

With a small classroom comes limited wall space.  I didn't want to over-do it like I see in many classrooms; it often just leads to more distractions, especially with second grade students.  I left a limited amount of posters on the wall, with many of them being made by me!  (I'm not going to lie, I stole many of the ideas from other teachers who posted on Pinterest!)  I already had one student (who was touring the school) who complimented my room by saying it looks fun!  I would like to believe it's because I use a variety of colors in my room, and try not to limit to one "theme".  

Now, as you can see, I only have 3 student tables and 1 teacher table.  I hope that I will be able to get one more student table, so that I don't have to try to solve the issue of squeezing 13-14 students into 3 small tables; trust me, they are small!  What I plan to do as far as small group conferences go though is to have the students meet at my table.  What stinks though is that my table is "adult" friendly, not "student" friendly, especially with the small elementary chairs that they use.  

As I said, I'm trying to utilize what I have to the best of my abilities.  However, with limited resources and classroom space, it does not come as easy as it would seem.  Only one week until school begins...

~Jen

New to blogging

As the title infers, I am new to blogging.  Well, actually, I used to be a Xanga user, or at least I think that's what it was called.  Anyway, the new school year is only a week away for us Buffalonians.  I am excited to venture into my second year teaching, and I have a lot of new ideas I want to implement, including the use of a variation of the Daily 5.  My class last year went well (for it being my first year), and my principal had nothing but great things to say about my teaching methods and classroom management.  However, she said she wanted to see more differentiation in my classroom, so this year I will be doing A LOT of experimenting and playing around with ideas.  I will keep you posted!  

Thanks for reading!

~Jen