Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Differentiation and Collaboration

Module 5 Unit 2 Activity 1

Differentiation and Collaboration

Note that differentiation relates more to addressing students' different phases of learning from novice to capable to proficient rather than merely providing different activities to different (groups of) students.

—John Hattie, Visible Learning for Teachers

As stated above, differentiation is not just giving different students different activities to do. It is knowing students, their levels, the way they learn, and then adjusting the environment to encourage a positive learning climate. Differentiation can take place in process, content, product, and occurs with the students’ interests, willingness and learning abilities.

Student Diversity

In the near future, I envision myself working at an international school with elementary school children. I believe that if the school is anything like the international school I attended, the young learners will be mostly native, and a then have a few that are either TCKs, or children from parents who move around due to their jobs.

The students will be fluent in English which will be a great change from the low level students I currently teach, and if I manage to stay around Asia, I would believe that these students would be generally well behaved.

Currently I have no students with disabilities, but it is more than likely that I will encounter a student with either a physical or learning disability. Being able to teach a differentiated classroom will be great help for the teacher and the students in this situation as well.

I would like to teach children from the third grade up to the sixth grade and perhaps even consider teaching middle school after a few years teaching elementary students. With international school children and students coming in and out of the school knowing how to teach a differentiated classroom will be very helpful and hopefully ease different students into achieving high standards without having a negative impact on their attitude towards school. The major factor will be getting to know my students and their abilities and carefully figure out how to maximize their learning as a whole class.

Language Arts Class

I have chosen the lesson plan below because if I do teach at an elementary school, Language Arts or English will be one of the core subjects my students will most probably take. The lesson below can be taught in different levels by adjusting the difficulty of the lesson and though this particular lesson is for lower elementary grades, it can also be flexible enough to be taught in middle school if adjusted properly.

Lesson Objective:

• Students will be able to recognize the ending punctuation and the four different types of sentences which are: declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Resources: http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/typesofsentencesl.cfm          http://www.time4writing.com/writing-resources/types-of-sentences-and-punctuation/

http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/typesofsentencesl.cfm          http://www.time4writing.com/writing-resources/types-of-sentences-and-punctuation/

Lesson Plan: The teacher first thoroughly explains what a period, question mark, and exclamation mark is. After the students are familiar then the teacher explains the four types of sentences and what they are used for. The teacher will then give the students some examples and then they will read a few sentences and find the end mark together with the young learners. Then the teacher would give the students a worksheet of sentences with no punctuation and get them to write what type of sentences they are based upon their understanding of what was just taught to them.

One way to differentiate between the students with different levels is to ask questions using lower order questions of Bloom’s Taxonomy to lower level students such as when writing an exclamatory sentence, asking these students for the correct punctuation at the end of that sentence. For higher level students, the teacher can ask higher order questions of Bloom’s Taxonomy to higher level students such as to come up with another exclamatory sentence as an example for the rest of the class.

Another way to differentiate the class with this particular lesson is when after the teacher explains the four types of sentences there are as mentioned above, they will then give examples of different sentences and demonstrate how to use the correct ending punctuation with each (I, do). Then the teacher will have some examples on the board and he/she will do it together with the student (We, do). Afterwards the teacher can give out worksheets for the students to write the correct punctuation endings (You, do). This will be in a paragraph form where the students will have to read the text in context and write the correct pronunciations at the end of each sentence.

Next, the teacher would correct the paragraph together with the class giving them an opportunity to correct their mistakes and ask questions. For lower level students, having them concentrate on just the endings could be a challenge, but for more advanced students’ practice, the teacher can ask the students to write their own paragraph demonstrating an example of each of the four types of sentences. The students will produce two distinct types of products.

One last way to differentiate this particular lesson with the students is to make them all write the four different types of sentences with a given topic. In the beginning the teacher will indicate what particular sentence on the worksheet, i.e. declarative. Then when the sentences are done, the students can put them together and form a paragraph about that certain topic. For higher level students, they will still get a chance to write the paragraph but it will be broken down into steps.

All of the lessons are scaffolded and the activities are be broken down into steps and slowly introduced and built up. This can help reach students of all levels be a bit more even. Each activity is also tiered where more advanced students are challenged and lower level students are still encouraged and helped. Asking questions depending on their cognitive and language ability are also a great way to keep the students challenged at all times without feeling threatened as long as the teacher knows the students’ capabilities while having high expectations for them. 

Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Blog Post Summary

Module 5 Unit 1 Activity 4

Blog Post Summary

This unit was very useful and really taught me a lot about working with standards. I never had to unpack a standard or do any backwards mapping with a standard, as in South Korea teachers are just usually given a book and then asked to teach certain chapters until for a certain time frame.

In unit one, learning about backwards mapping was very important. It was an eye-opener for me. For example, making a lesson by having an end goal in mind and then preparing what the teacher is going to teach the students was a new way for me to view lesson planning that is also connected to the standard. It really opened up another avenue for me as an educator to think about the goals first. Often times I may be stuck coming up with a lesson plan by just looking at a topic but by backwards mapping it can open up so many useful possibilities.

Standards are used to ensure that students are getting equal education in different schools and cities. This allows teachers to hit a certain benchmarks for their students and make sure that they do not fall behind students from other schools, cities, and states. Because of this, teachers have to really be able to understand and break apart these standards, make lesson plans around these standards and reach these standards’ goals. Standards set clear objectives for education and give direction when building a curriculum.

Unit 2 was one of my favorites from this week’s work as unpacking a standard is a way to organize oneself step by step and meeting objectives of the standard.  The video in the Required Study was very helpful as it showed how to unpack a standard in a very simplistic way by breaking down the actual sentence into smaller and specific sentences. Making lesson plans after unpacking the standard was made so much easier than looking at the standard and just coming up with a lesson that one might think meets the goals. This exercise was very useful and meaningful to me and I have no doubt that I will be using it regularly in the near future.

Unit 3 was coming up with lesson plans using what we have learned in activity 1 and 2. This helped us put what we learned into practice. Doing this made me practice and gave me more confidence about unpacking and backwards mapping standards in the future. At first it was a bit challenging to come up with an objective by not making the standard seem like the an objective. It had to be more specific, precise, and a concrete goal. I realized that more than one lesson could come out of one specific part of a standard. For example one of the them stated to demonstrate command of English punctuation when writing and to do this in activity three I came up with more than one way to reach this goal. I could either concentrate on just what periods, question marks and exclamation marks are, or also teach the four different type of sentences and the ending punctuations that they come with.

In sum, this was one of the lessons where I have learned the most in this program. Standards are put in place to regulate education for our students and make sure that goals are even throughout different schools. These provide a structure for educators but don’t tell them exactly what or how they have to conduct their classes. By breaking the standards and backwards mapping teachers can have a more organized way to implement standards in their classes. Overall the standards will make sure that our young learners have a benchmark they have to reach ensuring their education is of quality. 

Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Lesson Objectives

Module 5 Unit 1 Activity 3 

Lesson Objectives

Standard Code: LAFS.1.L.1.2

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization,

punctuation, and spelling when writing.

1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization when writing.

2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English punctuation when writing.

3. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English spelling when writing.

There are various ways an educator could potentially teach the contents included in this standard. These lesson plans could be taught at a 3rd grade level language arts class. It could also be varied to younger or older grade levels by adjusting the lesson.

Lesson 1

Lesson Objective:

• Students will be able to identify incorrectly capitalized words.
• Students will be able to correct errors in sentences that include capitalization of proper nouns.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Resources: http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/capitalization-rules.html

Lesson Plan: The teacher first does this by first explaining the different rules of capitalization of proper nouns. They would also have to know that every new sentence has to start with a capital letter. The teacher should go through what a proper noun is, and that they all must be capitalized. He/she will give examples on the board such as names of things, places and people. The teacher will then go through some examples and work on different error corrections together with the students. Afterwards students will have to display understanding of the different nouns when given  a worksheet where they have to go through sentences and mark all of the nouns in the worksheet (both common and proper). The next step is they would differentiate between these nouns by writing if they are common or proper nouns. For each of the proper nouns that are identified, the students capitalize the first letter of each word that makes up the noun.  For further practice the students will write a paragraph concentrating on capitalizing all of the proper nouns and the words at the beginning of each sentence.

Rubric: Capitalization

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Capitalization	There are no capitalization error	There is one capitalization error.	There are 2-3 capitalization errors.	There are more than 3 capitalization errors.
Writing skills	The activity is readable, clean, neat and attractive. It is free of erasures and crossed-out words.	The activity is readable, clean, neat and attractive. It may have one or two erasures, but they are not distracting.	The activity is readable, clean, neat and attractive. It looks like parts of it might have been done in a hurry.	The activity is not neat or attractive. It looks like the student just wanted to get it done and didn't care.

Lesson 2

Lesson Objective:

• Students will be able to recognize the ending punctuations and the four different types of sentences which are: declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Resources: http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/typesofsentencesl.cfm          http://www.time4writing.com/writing-resources/types-of-sentences-and-punctuation/

Lesson Plan: The teacher first thoroughly explains what a period, question mark, and exclamation mark is. After the students are familiar then the teacher explains the four types of sentences and what they are used for. The teacher will then give the students some examples and then they will read a few sentences and find the end mark together with the young learners. Then the teacher would give the students a worksheet of sentences with no punctuation and get them to write what type of sentences they are based upon their understanding of what was just taught to them.

Rubric: Sentence Identification

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Ending Punctuations	There are no punctuation errors.	There is one punctuation error.	There are 2-3 punctuation errors.	There are more than 3 punctuation errors.
Sentence Identification	There are no identification errors.	There is one identification error.	There are 2-3 identification errors.	There are more than 3 identification errors.

Lesson 3

Lesson Objective:

• The student will be able to correctly write and identify ending punctuations in a paragraph.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Resources: http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/typesofsentencesl.cfm          http://www.time4writing.com/writing-resources/types-of-sentences-and-punctuation/

Lesson Plan: The teacher will explain the four types of sentences there are as mentioned above in Lesson 2. They will then give examples of different sentences and demonstrate how to use the correct ending punctuation with each (I, do). Then the teacher will have some examples on the board and he/she will do it together with the student (We, do). Afterwards the teacher can give out worksheets for the students to write the correct punctuation endings (You, do). This will be in a paragraph form where the students will have to read the text in context and write the correct punctuations at the end of each sentence. Next, the teacher would correct the paragraph together with the class giving them an opportunity to correct their mistakes and ask questions. For more practice, the teacher can ask the students to write their own paragraph demonstrating an example of each of the four types of sentences. .

Rubric: Sentence Identification

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Ending Punctuations	There are no punctuation errors.	There is one punctuation error.	There are 2-3 punctuation errors.	There are more than 3 punctuation errors.
Sentence Identification	There are no identification errors.	There is one identification error.	There are 2-3 identification errors.	There are more than 3 identification errors.

Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Unpack a Standard

Module 5 Unit 1 Activity 2

Group Members: Analia Kim

                Ian Pollard

Unpack a Standard

We decided to choose these standards because, if we were to live in America and teach, Florida would be the prime destination. The standards are also laid out very nicely and easily understood which made the document really easy to work with.

Language Arts Florida Standards is found in the following website: http://www.fldoe.org/pdf/lafs.pdf

Analia:
Standard Code: LAFS.K.RF.2.2
Students demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

The “big idea” in this standard is that students should be able to show an understanding of a variety of different vocabulary and how to pronounce different words and be able to read words even if they haven’t seen them previously by matching sounds to the letters and overall understanding the word.  The will be able to recognize and produce rhyming words, count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words and blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words. Also they will be able to isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds and add or substitute individual sounds  in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

Unpacking the Standard:

1. Demonstrate understanding of spoken words.

2. Demonstrate understanding of syllables.

3. Demonstrate understanding of sounds (phonemes).

Lessons to help students unpack the standards:

1. Demonstrate understanding of spoken words.

In order for me to teach students to demonstrate understanding of spoken words, I would read a section of the story for the students. At the end of the section, I will ask specific question to check for comprehension and also make students clarify key words that were part of the story. I can also ask the students about different details that they were listening to, to check for understanding.

2. Demonstrate understanding of syllables.

I would explain syllables by clapping different words with my students. For example dog would get one clap, baby would get two claps, and calendar would get three claps. After a few examples are given, then I would start writing words and cut them together with the students where the claps are located i.e. ba/by or ca/len/dar. At the end of the lesson I would check for understanding by giving them a worksheet where they have to separate the words where the syllables would break.

3. Demonstrate understanding of sounds (phonemes).

The teacher will demonstrate different letters to the students by breaking up the phonemes by using his/her arm. They will have to segment the first three letter word i.e. the word mop. They will physically have to show the section of their arm that the letter represents. For example M-will be in the section of the wrist, O- will be inner part of the elbow, and P- will be at the shoulder. Then the teacher will blend the words to form the word “mop”. The students will have to follow the teacher’s actions and repeat with the teacher. Then other words will be introduced where the students will have a chance to segment the words and blend them together.

Ian:

Standard Code: LAFS.1.L.1.2

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization,

punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Basically, the “big idea” of this standard is that students need to recognize that dates and names of people should be capitalized. They need to be familiar with punctuation and recognize that every sentence needs punctuation at the end. Also, they should know how to use commas in dates, and to separate single words in a series. They must be able to use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns (roots, prefixes, and suffixes) and for frequently occurring irregular words. Also, they need to be able to spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions.

Unpacking the Standard:
1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization when writing.

2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English punctuation when writing.

3. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English spelling when writing.

Lessons to help students unpack the standards:

1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization when writing.

I would do this by first explaining what a proper noun is, and that they all must be capitalized. Students would then display understanding by going through sentences and marking all of the nouns (both common and proper). Then they would differentiate between them by writing either C (for common) or P (for proper) over each noun. Then, for each proper (P) noun identified, they would have to capitalize the first letter of each word that makes up the noun. They would also have to know that every new sentence has to start with a capital letter. I would tell them that each new sentence needs to begin with a capital letter.  In the end, since they need to be able to demonstrate command of this when writing, I would get them to write a paragraph and ask them to concentrate on capitalizing all of the proper nouns and the word at the beginning of each sentence.

2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English punctuation when writing.

First, I would thoroughly explain all of the different types of punctuation that they are expected to know at this level and the function of each (For example, periods (.), commas (,), and exclamation points (!)). Then, I would give the students a paragraph of written English with no punctuation and get them to add punctuation based upon their understanding of what was just taught to them. Next, I would correct the paragraph together with the class, giving them an opportunity to correct their mistakes and ask questions. In the end, I would get the students to write a paragraph emphasizing that they should concentrate on using punctuation correctly.

3. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English spelling when writing.

In order to show that my students are reaching this standard, I would first review phonetics and make sure the students know all of the words associated with reading phonetically. I would then give students a list of words with a familiar root, but having a prefix or suffix that alters the meaning of the word. Then they would have to establish the meaning of each word. After that, they would be asked to write sentences containing each word to display their understanding. Finally, they would be asked to write a paragraph using a defined number of words from the list and submit it to the teacher.

Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Standards and Backwards Mapping

Module 5 Unit 1 Activity 1

Standards and Backwards Mapping

Florida

Elementary School

Language Arts Florida Standards

I don’t really have a particular interest, desire, or intention to ever teach in the United States but for the purpose of this assignment I chose Florida.

I would like to teach either elementary students or middle school students in the future and for this activity I chose to focus on the language arts standards in the state of Florida.

The Language Arts Florida Standards can be found be found here: http://www.fldoe.org/pdf/lafs.pdf

Below are the state’s standards that I chose to focus on.

Reading Standards for Foundational Skills (K-5):

Standard Code: LAFS.K.RF.2.2

This standard focuses on phonological awareness.

Standard Code: LAFS.K.RF.3.3

This standard focuses on phonics and word recognition.

Standard Code: LAFS.K.SL.1.2

This standard focuses comprehension and collaboration.

Standard Code: LAFS.1.RF.1.1

This standard focuses on print concepts.

Student performances indicating that the student has met these standards:

Standard Code: LAFS.K.RF.2.2

This student can demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes). They can recognize and produce rhyming words and count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words. The young learner can blend and segment onsets and rimes of single syllable spoken words and they are able to isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three -phoneme (consonant - vowel -consonant, or CVC) words. (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.) Also, they can add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one syllable words to make new words.

Standard Code: LAFS.K.RF.3.3

The student knows and applies grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. They demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary or many of the most frequent sound for each consonant. They will also be able to associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels. These students can read common high- frequency words by sight i.e. the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does and will be able to distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that are different.

Standard Code: LAFS.K.SL.1.2

The student will be able to confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

Standard Code: LAFS.1.RF.1.1

The student will be able to demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print. They will also be able to recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence for example first words, capitalization and ending punctuations.

Teaching strategies to meet standards:

1. Students will be read a story by the teacher. Then the teacher will point out key words that the students will learn to blend and segment. The teacher will demonstrate different letters to the students and using his/her arm. They will have to segment the first three letter word i.e. the word cat. The letter C will be shown in the section of the wrist, A will be represented by the inner part of the elbow, and T will be at the shoulder. Then the teacher will blend the words for form the word “cat”.

2. Another strategy the teacher can use is to assign a section of the story for the students to read. He/she can then make students read out loud in a snake formation so everyone has a turn. At the end of the story, the teacher can ask specific question to check for comprehension and also make students clarify key words that were part of the story. Teachers can also ask the students about different details to check for understanding.

3. To be able to help students with their writing, one strategy the teacher could use is the “Do now” at the beginning of class and write a question for the students related to the topic to review, or a topic they will do that day and get them to write the answers in a notebook. The teacher can check these daily and the students can practice their writing every day.

Assessments to meet the standards:

1. One way teachers can assess if the students are meeting the standards by having them read out loud every day and checking for the difficulty deciphering texts, asking specific questions to the students about their reading. If this is done regularly, the educator can assess if his/her student is understanding the story and being able to segment and blend the words that this young learner is reading. This indicates if the student needs to go back and concentrate more on phonics or if they are easily reading the text and understanding, then the teacher can give the student longer words or reading material that could be more challenging.

 2. Another way to assess if the students understand punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure is to give a quiz on a paragraph with mistakes in it where they have to correct these mistakes. If the student is repeating similar mistakes, they may have to get extra help.

3. Vocabulary tests are another great way to check if the students understand key words from stories. This also helps the student in improving their spelling and writing skills as well.

Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Video and Reflection

Module 4 Unit 6 Activity 4

Video and Reflection

Both Ms. Felix and Mr. Torres started the school year trying to genuinely get to know their students using name cards, superstar boards, introductions etc. This is a great way to enable students to feel better integrated, comfortable in their classrooms, and to get to like their teachers. I have also tried these techniques in my classes and I believe those teachers and myself are very similar in the way that we respect, love and show care for our students. I do have to admit that I am a bit stricter at the beginning of the school year, because it is easier to loosen up than to try and enforce stricter rules to a rambunctious classroom later.  

As the video progressed, I could see that Mr. Torres and Ms. Felix had issues with their classroom management. Being nice to your students and just showing them that you care is not going to make a classroom organize or behave itself. The teachers had problems because they were not very strict with the rules and the procedures were not clear to the students from the beginning of the year. Though Ms. Felix’s idea of brainstorming rules and consequences with her students was great, she did not follow through and enforce these as the year progressed. As I stated before, it is much easier to start off strict than try to gain control of an unmanageable classroom.

Having high expectations and challenging the students was a good way to manage the classroom. Ms. Felix’s warm up activity was very easy and because of this, the students started playing around without focusing on what they were supposed to do. When teachers make activities that are challenging and focus on learning instead of giving easy tasks such as just copying a picture and labeling it as she did it actually makes the students want to learn and accept the challenge and apply themselves especially if the topic is of interest. Mr. Torres did a better by enabling students to use math and solve real world problems. This also makes the exercise more authentic and the kids focus more when it feels like it is a real problem that they are solving.

One great thing that I do and I heard the mentor speak about was that there should be a certain tone used when expectations are not met. When a student crosses the line, is disrespectful, or another serious issue occurs, the teacher must be able to use a firmer tone demanding more authority. They must be able to correct the behavior instantly and give feedback explaining what is an acceptable or an unacceptable behavior in the classroom.

Overall I haven’t had major issues with behavior in my classroom so far as I am lucky to live in South Korea where the students are very respectful but I am also known in my department for being a little stricter than others. I make sure my rules and procedures are very clear from the beginning of the year and make sure I enforce them throughout the year. This is very important but I also make sure that I demonstrate that I am a caring educator who really respects and cares about my students and their learning.