Differentiation

Hi bloggers! I have been busy preparing for next year. I got a job in a different district, teaching kindergarten again. However, unlike my current class, who is generally homogeneously grouped, next year I will have all different ability levels in my classroom. My goal will be to differentiate instruction so that all learners are challenged. I have a few ideas of how I hope to accomplish this.

For math, I plan to have a whole group lesson at the beginning of class. This may involve either a pre-assessment to determine ability grouping, or just an informal assessment with white boards at the carpet area. From there, I will have choice time. There will be 10 tubs available to students for choice time while I meet with groups. Inside the tubs are activities/games of concepts we’ve already learned, or things tied to this unit’s objective. This is determined by how much of the class needs to review concepts previously taught. The tubs are labeled 1-10. In the 1-3 tubs will be activities that are low on the Bloom’s Taxonomy framework (knowledge, and comprehension). Tubs 4-7 will have application and analysis. Tubs 8-10 will have activities that require the students to synthesize and evaluate concepts. During choice time, I will work with groups based on ability or knowledge of that particular objective. When the school year begins, I will post activities that I put in each tub, and how they are classified under the Bloom's Taxonomy framework.

For language arts, I hope to begin with traditional literacy centers (with reading activities found in FCRR, Words Their Way, and Bevery Tyner’s Small Group Reading Instruction), and differentiate activities at each center. Once most of my class has learned to read DRA level 3 or 4 books, I will begin implementing the Daily Five framework. I am very familiar with this framework because I’ve implemented it before in a kindergarten classroom. It has always worked surprisingly well. However, I’ve always had to wait until my students acquire some fluency and automaticity in reading before I can introduce it. This summer, I have been reading the Café book. In it, the Sisters make the point that their reading groups are skill based. In other words, students at each reading group can be reading different groups. However, the one thing that ties the group together is the reading skill or strategy they are working on. I have never grouped my students by skill instead of DRA levels. However, I did think this was a unique concept, and the Sisters have a great amount of research on which they base their book. For the time being, I am going to implement their method of data collection for each student, and the strategies taught on the Café board. If I find that I am able to implement these things successfully, I will begin grouping my above grade level readers based on the skill they are working on in the café board. I will keep you posted on how my implementation is going.