Project-Base Peshek Summary

Education is a long-term investment. We, as students, work hard to acquire knowledge and to hone our skills so that we may use them one day. The effort we put into a single assignment should be considered as both for that specific assignment and for our rounding as complete, educated individuals. And with this mindset, students should be motivated even more to put more effort and hard work into academics, with the goal of bettering themselves for the future and advancing their prospects as individuals. And with this hard work and effort will come progress, and this progress should be reflected in the grading—not necessarily on individual assignments, but on the student’s education as a

In response to the varied student learning needs, differentiation will be a key component of this classroom. It is “designed to improve access to the general education curriculum by adapting instruction to each student’s diverse learning needs” (Smith, 2007). “Differentiation instruction means changing the pace, level, or kind of instruction you provide in response to individual learners’ needs, styles, or interest” (Heacox, 2012). Because each student comes to this 6th grade classroom with unique needs, differentiation will implemented frequently to ensure that each student receives the rigor needed to master the 6th grade curriculum. It will be relevant to your student and his/her needs. It will provide an appropriate level of challenge. It will be engaging and at times, it will offer choices. Delivery of differentiated instruction will frequently involve centered based learning activities and small group instruction. A list and description of some of the centers will be distributed to parents and is attached as Appendix

Differentiating instruction is a valuable instructional management and delivery tool, which can be used to assist teachers in meeting the needs of the diverse populations of students which they now find in their classrooms. In using these strategies, a teacher may use pre-assessments to determine the learning styles, interests and readiness of the students, prior to the introduction of a lesson or unit. After developing a learner profile, the teacher may then differentiate according to the readiness of the student, by process of delivery, and by the product which the student may produce to

Differentiation of instruction is the process of teaching in a way to meet the needs of students with differing abilities in the same class, including those with special learning needs. One way to do this is by providing several different avenues by which all students can learn the same material. In differentiating instruction, teachers plan out and implement a variety of approaches to content, process, product, and environment. Differentiated instruction is used to meet the needs of student differences in readiness, interests, and learning needs. Many people in the education field believe differentiation has the potential to transform teaching and learning in a way that raises expectations for all students.

After reviewing my self evaluation and working with both groups of fifth graders, I have determined a need to provide a wider range of differentiated instruction. I have worked in the past to try groupings that benefited the students, but I am seeing that this is not working as well with this group. These students communicate and respond well to each other and are willing to help each other but some of the learning gaps between them are significant.

In “A Proposal to Abolish Grading” Paul Goodman suggests grading students is only setting them up for failure. He states, “a student will retain nothing of what he has “passed” in.” Goodman believes that students shouldn’t be tested for a grade, “but for his own advantage” so the student isn 't just “trying to get by” he will actually be encouraged to learn the material. Grades and testing have been around for over a century. Every American has had some kind of schooling in their life. As a student, I’ve always entered a new class with the mindset that I need to pass that class, hardly ever have I thought, “I need to learn as much as I can in this class.” So why should the system that educators believe works and have used for so long change? The American education system values grades and test scores more than students value learning.

One day during algebra we were learning a new and difficult way to solve an algebra problem. I didn’t know how to do the homework, so I used the internet to teach myself,the website went through step-by-step and taught me and I was able to finish and get all the right answers on my homework. Technology can be a huge positive to someone's learning experience. Every student should be allowed to have a device in the classroom because it allows faster information, different teaching techniques, and teaches you how to find the right information out of many answers .

Differentiation can be guided by a teaching assistant. The teacher will plan guided reading sessions

For the content area of English, students need to demonstrate expertise and accuracy in writing for a variety of specific purposes and audiences, drawing on knowledge of linguistic features to explain and comment on choices made (Language in Use, 2010). To use differentiated instruction in English I would meet the content objectives by having my students make an oral presentation on any current issue or topic that they feel strongly about. I would not be the one grading them; they would be graded by their peers. This would not put too much pressure on my students because they would be able to choose the topic of their choice and they would not be speaking to me, but to their peers.

Readingrockets.org defines differentiation as tailoring instruction to meet individual needs. Differentiated instruction is a broad framework for supporting student differences by varying content, process, products, and learning environments based upon students strengths and weaknesses (Tomlinson, 2000).

All in all, differentiated instruction is a method used by teachers to accommodate all the different learning modalities, levels of learning, cultural and language barriers and special needs often integrated in one classroom with one lesson plan.

I just watched a video on youtube titled "Blowing Up the Gradebook" by Chris Haskell and it left me with a lot of thoughts about the way grading works today. During the video, Haskell talks about the current problems with grading and teaching today. He says that instead of trying to find things worth knowing, students find what they need to pass the class and put in the minimal effort to do so. He says that education is a game we put students through and instead of trying to set them up for success, we give them tests and grades that set them up for failure. He says that instead of playing this game that is impossible to pass, we need to change it and help them succeed. He talks about how we need to eliminate homework and due dates, we

If a student is to fail a test after completing homework the way they were taught, is it because they really did not try? Or could it be because of how they were taught? Some students require a certain way to be taught things for it to be properly stored in their brain, therefore grading the homework could not possibly help their grade if they do not understand what they are being taught in the first place. If a child fails to complete their graded homework their grades will constantly drop after each assignment. Despite the fact that they fail to complete their homework, what their teacher could be missing is the important fact that the student is completely passes every test they take and every classroom worksheet sometimes complete the extra credit giving them a 110% but yet their average grade will be around a 63% all over a few practice worksheets given to

This inclusion classroom has a wide range of learners with varying ability levels. In math, there are four tiered groups with some students who are above grade level, some on grade level, and some who are two or three grade levels behind. This unit has rather abstract concepts that the students needed to build an understanding of, and in order to do that I needed to make sure to differentiate the delivery of instruction as well as the assessment types. This was a strength for this unit, because each lesson was differentiated for the tiered groups in the form of pacing, guides, graphic organizers, assessments, manipulatives, rubrics, and difficulty of problems. One specific way that I differentiated during this unit was by providing students with guided notes, graphic organizers, and manipulative to increase their understanding of abstract division strategies for solving multi-digit division problems. Long division was a particularly

On the Internet teachers have set plans or guidelines for other teachers to look at and get ideas on what to do for their classroom. I think this is a great idea for teachers to use especially for new and young teachers to get some great ideas. By using this tool, teachers could hopefully get better and new ideas on how to teach certain subjects or try new things with the students. Teachers can get hints on how they can give tests, or how to help the students become better test takers on the Internet. The web site http//www.schoolnotes.com showed many different ways teachers could help the students. The site gives teachers ideas on the best ways to give oral test, true and false tests, by giving the teacher instructions on how to successfully present the material. Class Webs are another way teachers and students can get involved with the Internet and technology; students can help their teachers create a web page for their class. Many teachers use the Internet to find Resources for the classroom. They can find many things for the class to do on the Internet like games and projects.