How to Differentiate Learning in 4 Steps

 

Here are links to my Facebook Platform and to my TPT Store!!!!   

Check out this exclusive video on how to organize and personalize instruction for your students.

The page borders in this blogpost were provided by:

4 Easy Steps to Differentiation in your Classroom

 

Brand New Resource Alert!!! GLOWS-Differentiation

 GLOWS is a differentiation strategy that can be used to help you organize your class to promote individualized instruction. Hi, I’m Holly A. Souzey and I am the creator of My Digital Teaching Corner.This year 2023-2024, I was very fortunate to work for a company that showed me a very strong technique to differentiate learning in my classroom and helped my students to grow. This idea is not my original idea but I have critiqued it to fit me. I’m sharing it with you to address the strong need and effort to leave no child behind.  Here it is!!!! It is called GLOWS and it can be used in any subject area or grade level. Check out this intro video.

It Includes:

• Step by step directions
• Materials needed with links to my Amazon Store.
• Setup videos
• 1 GLOWS Poster
• Glows Score Chart
• 5 individual GLOWS Poster Anchor Charts

It's a Sale All February Long!!!

 

Yummy M&Ms Fractions!!!

Identify fractions, match fractions and solve problems involving fractions with this Google Slides m&ms activity. There is also black and white printable m&ms activity. All your students need is little snack bag of 10- 15 m&ms to complete. There is also a fractions anchor chart included.

 

Standards

Showing TEKS

TEKSMA.3.3.A

Number and operations. The student applies mathematical process standards to represent and explain fractional units. The student is expected to: represent fractions greater than zero and less than or equal to one with denominators of 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 using concrete objects and pictorial models, including strip diagrams and number lines;

Check it out at my TPT store:  M&Ms Fractions

Pop It Multiplication and Division Fact Families!!!!

Description

These flash cards were created for students to practice multiplication facts and their related division facts. It is a PDF file.

Directions:

Print on cardstock. Simply pull a card and Pop the numbers. Read or write the fact family that matches all 3 numbers with your whole class or in a small group.  There is also a record sheet to record the fact families if you use it in a math center.

Standards

3.OA.A.1

Interpret products of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 5 × 7 as the total number of objects in 5 groups of 7 objects each. For example, describe a context in which a total number of objects can be expressed as 5 × 7.

CCSS3.OA.A.2

Interpret whole-number quotients of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 56 ÷ 8 as the number of objects in each share when 56 objects are partitioned equally into 8 shares, or as a number of shares when 56 objects are partitioned into equal shares of 8 objects each. For example, describe a context in which a number of shares or a number of groups can be expressed as 56 ÷ 8.

CCSS3.OA.A.3

Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

CCSS3.OA.A.4

Determine the unknown whole number in a multiplication or division equation relating three whole numbers. For example, determine the unknown number that makes the equation true in each of the equations 8 × ? = 48, 5 = __ ÷ 3, 6 × 6 = ?.

Fairness is not Equity

Quick Easy Ways

to 

make Learning Equitable

As experienced educators we have always tried to make sure that our students are treated fairly. Every child gets the same amount of everything we have available to them. But is being fair enough in todays classrooms? Equity is not just about making sure students get the same thing but rather making sure everyone gets what they need to be successful. All students must get a proper education but every child has a different learning style and a different level of learning. So what each child needs to be successful will be diverse as well. We as educators have been tasked with curriculum mandates, deadlines, and learner growth outcomes. So, we teach all we can but we are not equipping our students with the tools they need to achieve their goals.

My personal experience

 It was year 2021, one year after COVID. I had quite a few students who had been impacted by learning loss. I was trying to figure out ways to get my students to respond to reading without leaving anyone behind. 

Here’s what I did: 

I used See-Saw for them to respond to reading. Now most of my students could read and type their own answer but I also had students who could not. So I recorded myself reading the question. They responded to the question by recording their answer verbally. So, all of my students completed the same assignment with the tools that made everyone successful.

I have come up with a list of ways to address equitable learning in your classroom. 

 Tips to Make Learning Equitable: 

• speech to text tools 
• sentence frames 
• verbal or written steps to solve problems/ answer questions 
• pictorial steps to solve problems
•  audio steps for assignments 
• visual or audio cues 
• graphic organizers 
• drag and drop activities

Take Action with Anchor Charts

I teach mathematics in 3rd grade and one way I level the playing field is with step by step anchor charts. Based on my students data, my students are all at different levels and they have so many learning styles. While I have students that can computate mentally with accuracy, I also have students who must be able to visualize and manipulate to solidify their learning.

It’s really ok and that’s where anchor charts are so impactful for any learner. Here are some examples of anchor charts that I created or recreated. I must say I was never an anchor chart person but I noticed that my students needed math concepts chunked in steps to help them to remember what to do next. Here are some examples of anchor charts in math.

 

 

Be Innovative

I know that there are so many wonderful teacher created worksheets and materials out there. Remember you are the teacher and you yourself know what your students really need. I am a huge fan of TPT, Made by Teachers, etc......... Think about it for a moment, you have so many tools to create what your students need and you can  even narrow it down to your own state standards. There’s Google Slides, See-Saw, Google Docs, Canva, and so much more. I am telling you, your students will perform better when your materials are tailored specifically for them. Here are some snipets of slides that I created to help my students break their math thinking down.

Here’s a division word problem but I divided the page in 4 parts to help my students first organize their thinking. There’s questions in there that can be used for them to turn and talk. According to (Stewart and Swanson, 2019) turn and talk in the classroom has the following benefits:

•  Increases student opportunities to respond
•  It’s a form of collaborative learning that promotes the use of new content in conversation to improve expressive language skills.
•  It has been shown to improve vocabulary knowledge and content knowledge.
•  It can also increase on-task behavior for students who struggle to sustain attention and focus in the classroom. 

 Here’s some more quick and easy things I made for my students.