FLEXIBLE GROUPING PROJECT - Blog Post #2

 
CRITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Dr. Carol Tomlinson has given much to the field of Differentiated Instruction. At an ASCD conference, in San Antonio, she shared about a critical transformation in her teaching. After I watched this video clip, I thought once again about how important it is to GET TO KNOW our learners.   Please listen to Dr. Tomlinson here before continuing this post:

VIDEO A:.




.
.
Critical Transformations?  When each teacher gets to know his/her students more and adaptations are made to meet student needs, FLEXIBLE GROUPING will be part of that picture.   

Do we know each student well enough to answer the question:

• "WHY does each student do things a certain way?"

We do want to make a positive difference in your future life as a teacher.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

A few semesters ago, I got this note from a student about 2 weeks after the semester was over:

"I hope you were able to relax a little

over your winter break.

I have included a movie that

my father sent me about

making a difference as a teacher.

The short movie reminded me of

the inspirational movies and clips

that you showed us this past semester.

You have definitely made a difference in

the way I will teach

when I have my own classroom.

I hope you enjoy!"

A.G.

VIDEO B:
Make a Difference Movie link:

http://www.makeadifferencemovie.com/FullMovie/

All of life is full of trying to understand the meanings of human interaction, situations, and circumstances. There's a whole lot to learn in each new day.


For several years, I have used my own Global Positioning System to get to know my students/learners.  This is what I used.

G = Genogram 

P = Personality

S = Strengths

G - stands for Genogram!  Many teachers use the idea of a family tree, geneology, geno-gram, family stories, and/or drawings to get to know their students in the first week or so of the school year or semester.   A genogram is a visual way to denote gender, birth order, family relationships and heritage.
P -  stands for Personality!  You will need to click here to take a short personality inventory. You will learn the words/letters that stand for your personality. Once you click on this link, it will give a brief description of what you will be doing. Then, you will click DO IT! That takes you to the personality inventory. Once you have finished, we will use this information to discuss human relationships. 

S- stands for Strengths!  Be a talent scout!  There are more strengths in any one person than can be observed by the human eye.  Ask questions!  Celebrate the strengths of your students!


A year or so ago, a professor came to me and suggested we expand on that idea. It eventually culminated in what we now call GPS - SWIPE.
Just like the iPhone brought us the "swipe" of the screen, I can now bring you a GPS with the SWIPE technology to help you value the uniqueness of each individual student via his/her:

• S -trengths
• W -eaknesses
• I -nterests
• P -references
• E -xperiences 

This will help you to get a good perspective of challenges and needs.  Notice the "S" is in GPS and in SWIPE.  Let it remind you to double focus on each student's STRENGTHS!

When you are observing students, previewing work samples, asking questions, giving or taking inventories, or working with students, be sure that you use the GPS-SWIPE:

 G enogram: Do you know enough about the student's family that you can help him/her make meaningful connections to the content being learned?

 P ersonality:  Do you know enough about how different personalities interact and think, to know what might work best for different students?  Introverted or extroverted?  Thinkers or feelers?

 S trengths:  What is this student good or gifted at? (in and out of class)

 S trengths:  Surely you can come up with more strengths!  List additional strengths here:  social... emotional... non-academic...

W eaknesses:  What are the challenges this student has that get in the way of learning / success in school? (in and out of class)

 I nterests:  What are this student's interests, hobbies, or passions?

 P references:  In what ways does this student prefer to learn/study? Alone?Partner?  Small Group? Research? Create? Drawings? Music? Noise? Total Silence?  Charts? Graphs? Etc.? 

 E xperiences:   What are some things this student has experienced in his/her life that has shaped and formed who he/she is or given them a unique world view?

Enjoy getting started using your new Global Positioning System. 

It could eventually change how you group your students!

~ * ~ * ~

FLEXIBLE GROUPING PROJECT - Blog Post #1

Welcome to your "Partnership for School Success" with Rowan University.  This blog is designed to serve you, for the remainder of this school year, as we consider how to meet an array of learning needs via flexible grouping. 

At our first workshop, you experienced FLEXIBLE GROUPING via 3 stations "21st Century Skills" style:

1. Communication and Collaboration  (for a supportive learning community)
2. Creative Thinking
3. Critical Thinking (critically thinking about Bloom's Taxonomy and LOTS to HOTS)

Let's begin by looking at these 3 areas in relation to your own classrooms.  You have classrooms full of children with a myriad of differences and an array of learning needs.  Different needs and challenges can often be extremely frustrating for a teacher who has so many curriculum learning outcomes that are also needed.  How can you transform yourself into a teacher who looks at your different students and says, "Not right! Not wrong! Just different!"?
.
It starts with a decision... a mindset... and then the willingness to create "A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY" for all students. When a teacher addresses differences via his/her instruction, it creates "A Land of Opportunity" for students. You may watch this video via this link .
.

"A Land of Opportunity" is a SUPPORTIVE LEARNING COMMUNITY! 

1.  A SUPPORTIVE LEARNING COMMUNITY IS FULL OF COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION:

It can be exhausting with all the needs of your students and the challenges of teaching content while addressing their needs. You can hardly breathe with the extra demands that you feel are being put on you. The weekend comes and you have individual and family time/responsibilities, and of course, much more work to do to prepare for next week.  I do feel your pain! Let's put bandaids on both heart and head, as we remember to do the same for our students.
.


As you look into the eyes of your students, you want them to communicate with you:

• What do they know or not know? 

• How do they learn or not learn?

 

• Why do they do what they do or not do it? 

.
You want to be the "all seeing eye"...

...but the enormity of the situation often leaves you bug-eyed!

The secret really is FLEXIBILITY and a whole lot of the 100 - 0 principle. 

Please consider this video link and think of your students as your "customers". 

http://www.100-0principle.com/

The 100/0 principle reminds me of another principle:

• The Q-TIP principle - Quit Taking It Personally

You can give and give and get nothing in return.  Please, do not take it personally!  Collaborate with others to get ideas from and realize that they are going through similar challenges.

To maintain a SUPPORTIVE LEARNING COMMUNITY, you will need to Q-TIP and be FLEXIBLE!

Understand that being FLEXIBLE in your style and classroom management is a must for your "rubberband not to snap".  

A Supportive Learning Community allows for flexible classroom management, communication, and collaboration!

2.  A SUPPORTIVE LEARNING COMMUNITY ALLOWS FOR CREATIVE THINKING!

FLUENCY and FLEXIBILTY are the first steps to creative thinking.  Push your students to name as many things as they can think of on a certain topic.  Then, push them to see how many they can name in different catagories or different uses for.  Here are a few activities / links to get you to thinking about incorporating creative thinking in your classroom.

http://library.thinkquest.org/J002783/flex.htm

http://www.minds-in-bloom.com/2009/09/creative-thinking-fluency.html

http://www.minds-in-bloom.com/2009/10/creative-thinking-flexibility.html

http://www.sanchezclass.com/creativity-activities.htm#fluency

3.  A SUPPORTIVE LEARNING COMMUNITY ALLOWS FOR CRITICAL THINKING FROM LOTS TO HOTS!

Blooms' Taxonomy shows how to move from

L ower

O rder

T hinking

S kills to

H igher

O rder

T hinking

S kills 

 Before ever getting to the pinnacle thinking skill of creativity, there is a whole lot of critical thinking that can take place via analyzing and evaluating. 

 http://pinterest.com/lisa77584/bloom-s-taxonomy/



http://ebookbrowse.com/blooms-taxonomy-activities-grades-3-5-pdf-d385978719

Pushing for Higher Order Thinking Skilles includes knowing how to ask the right questions. I continue to observe teachers who ask closed questions... questions that require only a "YES!" or "NO!" answer or a fill in the blank answer. That might be okay for the first step or two of thinking, but not for the rest. Here are some words to get thinking started at a higher level. We'll call them "question starters":

.

REMEMBERING

• QUESTION STARTERS: tell / list / describe / relate /locate / write /find / state /name

.
UNDERSTANDING

• QUESTION STARTERS: explain / interpret / outline / discuss / distinguish / predict / restate / translate / describe

.
APPLYING

• QUESTION STARTERS: use / solve / show / illustrate / construct / complete / examine

.
ANALYZING

• QUESTION STARTERS: analyze / distinguish / compare / contrast / catagorize / classify

.
EVALUATING

• QUESTION STARTERS: judge / choose / select /justify / debate / verify / prioritize

.
CREATING

• QUESTION STARTERS: create / predict / compose / plan / construct / design / devise / formulate / imagine

.
How about our emphasis with technology? Have you tried hooking Bloom's with technology in these ways?

.