Considering the Range…
Posing the Question:
For the record, I taught seven years of 7th grade
Language Arts and Literature before moving to 8th grade English five
years ago, so I understand developmental differences between these two levels
of learners. I also understand the range
of motivation, prior-experiences and knowledge, and abilities that can exist in
a classroom consisting of just one grade level. For the first time, I am teaching a mixed
grade of secondary students (I also taught a year of mixed-level first and
second grade in Eden Prairie). Quickly I
had to face the fact that I had 7th grade students at the lower end
of many scales: maturity, ability, motivation, attitude, organization and
energy; whereas I had 8th grade students at the top of the same
scales. How do I plan for such a vastly
different group of learners?
Finding (possible)
Solutions:
Most of my existing resources, as my habit when creating
plans for using new resources, are thoughtfully designed to meet different
learners wherever they happen to be.
This practice has been made habit through experience with different
grade levels, inclusion of Sp. Ed. Students, ELL students, and others that
change the parameters of the intended understandings.
Instruction will need to include I Do/We Do/You Do (Gradual
Release of Responsibility) modeling, plenty of examples, reassurance and
support, cloze notes opportunities, and constant monitoring (and possible
adjusting) of the diverse learner population in the class.
The first opportunity that presented itself was
mini-research and notetaking for the History of Theater in the World.
1) A 16 minute video on YouTube was the perfect
introduction and overview of this topic.
As I contemplated what I wanted the students to get out of the
assignment, I realized that the easiest way to get what they need was to have
guidance…along with freedom and independence to go at their own pace. From this thought, I decided to provide a
notes sheet with some prepopulated notes.
Left column listed the seven locations of the world that are covered in
the video (provided). In the second
column were the important dates (4 of 7 were provided). The third column was for Uses of Theater, in
that location (9 included in 4 different countries). And the final column was
for Interesting Facts (no requirement, but provided a dozen facts throughout). With this sheet provided to students, they
received guidance and formatting for their notes with the flexibility to pause
the video.
As mentioned, the video was about
16 minutes and was (is) on YouTube.
Farmington is a one-to-one iPad district, so all I needed to do as the
teacher was to “approve” the video for access by isd192 students (a single
click). I then posted the link directly
to Schoology (our operating system for students and iPads). Students were given about 25 minutes to work
individually as they paused, replayed, and watched the assigned video. After the initial time, I asked students to
go ahead and move around the room to compare their info with their classmates –
adding or changing their own notes in the process (some even went back and
verified the information in the video to check for accuracy!).
2)
Since the first information-gathering task
seemed so successful, I decided to emulate it for the next task… History of
Theater in the United States. Again, I
provided a formatted, partially-populated note-taking sheet. This time it included only three columns. The first column divided the eras of American
theater in four parts (Early History/English, Pre-War, Post-War, and
Vaudeville). The second column was,
again, used for Important Dates, and the final section was Important or
Interesting Facts. No resources were
given for this exploration, however. No
video link, no websites, no books, no articles, no magazines, etc… Instead, I offered these (and other) options
for students to use, as they were expected to just start looking for
information that would be useful in understanding the topic. This is when the “range” of students showed
itself. When given less direction (no
specific resource), nearly half of the group fell short of my expectations with
their History of Theater in the United States notes. I had spent about 20 minutes surfing from
site to site and page to page on the internet and filled my notes sheet in with
important people, dates, and facts – many of which I thought would be good
‘markers’ when I would scan their completed notes. Unfortunately, what I considered key elements
of learning were absent from student notes.
Upon closer evaluation, the difference in noted information corresponded
with the grade of the student – seventh grade students being the ones who
lacked information. When I recognized
this, I made a decision that would carry through the next part of my planning –
Focused Research with a Presentation.
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