dancing is like dreaming with your feet

While perusing the articles that were attracted by my Google Reader, I came across an article entitled $14 Million to Help States Better Assess Students with Disabilities Under No Child Left Behind, IDEA.  Apparently states were encouraged to band together and apply for grants that would help fund the development of new assessments for children with disabilities.

Technically this article does not directly relate to the topic of this blog, however, it leaves a few questions with answers I would like to speculate.

First of all, why did the states have to band together in order to apply for the grant?  Is the money getting split up evenly between the states within each group?

How is the modification of the academic achievement standards and the creation of new standardized tests going to effect the current guidelines of differentiated instruction?

When tracking is common practice at a school will they be giving different standardized tests within the classroom?

On the other hand I am encouraged by a few aspects of this text.  It states in the article that the new standards and tests will only be administered to a very small group of students which makes me think they are attempting to avoid a mass clustering of every student with a learning disability.

**Something happened last night when I posted this article.  The last portion is missing.  I will edit it when I get home today. (10/23/07)

FINALLY, a fabulous article explaining the role of the teacher in a differentiated classroom.

The article, Mauritius: The role of the teacher in a differentiated classroom gives a brief and accurate description of the difference in roles between a teacher in a traditional classroom and a differentiated classroom.

The writer, Shardha Sandapen creates the following concise list:

“Teachers who differentiate instruction focus on their role as coach or mentor, and give students as much responsibility for learning as they can handle. These teachers grow in their ability to (1) assess student readiness through a variety of means, (2) “read” and interpret student clues about learning needs and preferences, (3) create a variety of ways students can gather information and ideas, (4) develop varied ways students can explore and “own” ideas, and (5) present varied channels through which students can express and expand understanding.”

The above list emulates the beliefs of Linda Christensen.  In her book, Reading, Writing and Rising Up, it doesn’t mention too much about researched learning differences in her classroom but as readers we know that there are learning differences due to the situation of the students in their lives, respectively.

 In my opinion, I believe every teacher should enter the classroom with the goal of being a differentiated teacher.  From what I have read and experienced by focusing on the main ideas and concepts and promoting critical thinking, a student gains a much better understanding than when the student believes the teacher is “just trying to get through.”

 At the end of the article Sandapen makes a statement that I would like to leave you with.

 ”…focusing on key concepts and generalisations can ensure that all learners gain powerful understandings that serve as building blocks for meaning and access to other knowledge.”

Mauritius: The role of the teacher in a differentiated classroom

Shardha Sandapen

October 16, 2007

On Friday, October 5th, I attended the MCTE Conference in Lansing.  I arrived just in time to get my extremely awkward name badge and sat down in order to hear what the keynote speaker had to say.  I would like to continue with the grudge I held (I am over it now) with the name badges. For some reason, those of us who registered early had to have an additional name badge to hold the one with our actual name on.  The slackers who waited until the day of the conference to get their name badge only had to wear one name badge and their name was spelled correctly because they were able to write them.  Back to the confrence, the keynote speaker, Kathleen Blake Yancey was very informative and had a lot of interesting things to say.  From where I was sitting in the room it was a bit difficult to see either of the slide shows and I felt like she should have done more with our first task of “defining literacy.”  I do believe that her message was effective in setting us up for the rest of the day.

The first session I attended was Dr. Jill VanAntwerp’s advice for new teachers.  I guess I was hoping for something a little more “mind-blowing” maybe.  Having already been a teacher for three years, I only have two more before I am past the “5-year mark.”  Unfortunately, everything that she said, I was aware of and it felt as though she was “stating the obvious” but this time it was in alliteration.  She seems like a very nice lady who doesn’t want to see anyone fail, and I appreciate her effort in giving advice on how to be a successful teacher.

The second session I attended was the session on digital story-telling.  I was slightly disappointed at this session as well.  I guess I was expecting an amazing 3-d slide show or powerpoint presentation, but it was just a regular slide show with a student telling a story.  Despite the numerous technology issues the presenters experienced during their presentation I do think it is an interesting idea.  The main idea behind digital story-telling is having a student write a story and as they read the story pictures that enhance the story are shown.  Unfortunately, teaching digital storytelling takes 2-4 weeks so you could probably only use it once a year.  It did occur to me, however, that digital story-telling could facilitate a successful business.  Just imagine: A wedding slide show using digital story telling.  I am still considering it.

 I believe the MCTE conference is an excellent thing to attend.  If I wouldn’t have had to work I would have stayed for more.  Maybe next year!