Shawna Rothgeb-Bird Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Planning

Everyday Accommodations for All Students

I, like most teachers, have many students each year who have IEPs. I have worked with students with a variety of needs, some requiring more complex accommodations than others. It can be daunting to read IEPs and see the lists of accommodations you’re required to put into place for your students, but I promise it’s not usually as hard as it sounds.

Over the past few years, I’ve found that many of the accommodations I put into place for these students are beneficial to all of my students – so now I plan with these accommodations in mind, whether I am “officially” required to have them or not. Keep in mind as you read through these that I am a Middle French Immersion teacher, meaning that  my students are all in their first or second year of learning all subject matter other than Math or English in their second language (French).

1) Strategic Seating – I doubt this one is a new idea for anyone. I rarely allow my students to choose their own seats in class because for me, strategic seating has always been a priority. I teach a second language program, so I need to make sure that the different levels of linguistic ability are spread around the room and that everyone has someone at their level to converse with when appropriate. I don’t want there to be a table of strong French speakers or a table of weak French speakers. I want every table to have a few speakers at each ability level. The confident French speakers encourage their peers to keep speaking in French. It’s a really important element of an FSL classroom, to me.

At the same time, I also need to keep in mind attention skills, social skills, aptitude in other subject areas, friendships, not-so-friendly rivalries, and a few other kinds of needs as they pop up. Planning seating arrangements takes me a long time… and I change them regularly. My husband can only laugh at this point when he watches me spend an hour planning a seating arrangement only to realize at the end that I have one student left to place, nowhere appropriate for them to go, and I have to scrap the whole thing and start over. I have always found it worth the effort, though, even if that one evening I spend working on it gets a little long!

2) Simplified Formats – Teachers love to dress up handouts and make things look fun and interesting. When you’re teaching a second language to beginners or novices, though, all of those extra things – fancy fonts, illustrations, etc. – can make it really difficult for students to understand the language. I’ve really worked hard at stripping my handouts down to the bare minimum where possible. It doesn’t just help with language comprehension, of course; this is often a suggested accommodation for students with NVLD, ADD, or LD.

3) Breaking Work into Steps – I love projects. I am all about projects. Some of my students love that, some hate it, and it’s almost always something my students use to describe me as a teacher. “She makes you do a lot of projects.” (Exchange the punctuation for more enthusiastic or frustrated symbols as appropriate.) The thing about projects, though, is that they usually require planning and time management.

I don’t know about your students, but I find that my Grade 4 students are not all that skilled with either of those concepts. They need a lot of training. Consequently, any project I assign has been broken down into steps for them to follow, usually with a checklist that I have to sign (for each step!) before they can move on. What I have found is that breaking the work up like this forces students to plan ahead, whether they want to or not.

At each step, I conference with every student (not really all that time consuming) where they show me the completed step. If I’m satisfied that their work in that stage is done, I initial their checklist and send them off to start working on the next one. When they’ve finished their project, they hand the checklist and all of their planning in with the completed task.

It’s not as time consuming as it sounds, I promise. We’re talking about steps like Brainstorming (they show me their spider web organizer), Storyboards (they show me their stick figure storyboards for their graphic novel), Sketches (self explanatory), Revision (they show me their rough copy, which they have gone through and revised on their own or with a peer), etc. It takes a matter of seconds to look over each step and sign off on them.

Overall, this has made my students’ work more cohesive, logical, and detailed.

4) Written and Oral Instructions – This one is really, really easy but has huge benefits for students. I used to have a bad habit of only providing instructions orally. Then, when I had a student with Executive Functioning Disorder, I learned why it was important to provide instructions both ways. Now, when I give students a list of instructions, I also write them on the board (usually with numbers). I provide a lot more detail orally than I do on the chalkboard; the written instructions are just a reminder for students about what to do next.

5) Extended Time Limits – On the rare occasion that I give something like a quiz, I never give my students limits on how long they can take to finish it. I find that giving them a specific amount of time really makes some of them panic, which doesn’t really lead to them doing their best work on the quiz. I try to plan an activity after a quiz/test period that they can easily jump into a little late, or ideally a work period for one of the many projects they’re working on all the time. I do also allow students to stay in at recess to finish something, but I try not to do that too much because I’m often calling parents, attending meetings, or supervising at that time.

6) Visual Schedule – I’m still struggling with getting this into my routine (it usually takes a student mentioning it before I update it for the current day) but it REALLY helps my students prepare for the day when they know what’s going to happen. I think my most loathed question (after “how long until lunch?”) is “What are we doing now?” Put a schedule on the wall. It doesn’t have to be detailed – often just having the subject and time is enough for them.

 

Those are by no means the only accommodations that would be useful to all students, but they’re definitely my top six that I always put in place no matter the needs in my classroom.

Photo of Tammy Axt
Tammy Axt General, Planning

How To Write an Original Song With Your Class For 5 Dollars (With No Music Knowledge)

This year, I tried something brand new with one of my music classes. We wrote lyrics to a song, sent them off to a song writer and performed the original song called “Gymnastics” at our spring concert! This is how we did it.

The idea came earlier this year when I was trying to come up with ideas for our spring concert. I usually ask each class in January what they would like to do for the concert and then they create something to share. This year, our concert had lots of creations, including a tableau piece about anti-bullying, a Japanese fan dance with ORFF instruments, some black light performances and the original “Gymnastics” song.

The grade 3 class that wanted to do the original song was interested in working with a song writer. (I probably could have written a song, but it was WAY more exciting sending the lyrics off). Our first step was to decide what the song was going to be about.

I handed out a blank piece of paper to groups of three and told them to brainstorm some ideas for the topic of the song. After they brainstormed, I asked them to narrow it down to three ideas that they were really interested in. As a class, we did a community circle, and shared our favourite ideas. I noticed that the topic of sports came up in every group and highlighted that for the students. I asked the students to think of a sport that could show off the talents of their class. Immediately, gymnastics came up and the song was on its way! (This class is full of twisty, fidgety, wiggly students. Gymnastics couldn’t have been more perfect.)

Their classroom teacher took over the next part of the activity by letting the students do an inquiry-based assignment about gymnastics. They watched videos about, read, and studied the sport of gymnastics. By the time they came back to me, they were a fountain of knowledge about gymnastics. Our next step was to come up with ideas that we wanted to have in the song. We then compiled all of our ideas into a list and got them ready to send off to our songwriter.

We chose our song writer from the website www.fiverr.com .

www.fiverr.com is a website where you can hire people to do a wide variety of services for five dollars. There is a large section on the website for songs. You can have rap songs written, ukulele songs, etc…. I chatted with the song writer we chose and gave these simple instructions:

  1. The lyrics can go in any order
  2. Write the song in either C major, D major, F major or G major
  3. Please don’t make the melody have large jumps between notes
  4. The range of the melody should be from about middle C to D (one octave plus a note)
  5. Make it upbeat and fun!

 

The song came back and it was amazing. It was a big hit at our spring concert and I am sure the kids will always remember the gymnastic song that they wrote.

 

Mike Beetham Before School Starts, Classroom Layouts, Classroom Management, First Week Reflections, General, Planning

Sweat The Small Things

Contrary to what you may have heard or read, in a classroom it is critical that you pay attention to the small things. Those intricate details are what can either make or break a classroom. Each teacher has their own style and that is as different as each student is from one another. Therefore when you get new students every September they are products of the teacher or teachers they had in the past year. Every component of the school day is based on what approach was taken with them (or not addressed) in the past. Once again you must start with your vision. What do you want your classroom to look like, feel like and sound like. From that point, you backward plan to achieve your goals. This approach is necessary whether it is September, starting an LTO in March or whether you are moving into a new division. Each component is dependent on fulfilling many small, intricate details.

The following topics are key domains that I focus in on and plan out every detail to assist me in reaching my goals:

  1. How will I make my classroom a learning community where every member is valued and contributes to the overall success of the classroom (relationships)?
  2. What routines will need to be developed to ensure maximum on task time and therefore student success?
  3. How will I track student achievement and communicate to both parents and students about their growth and next steps?
  4. How will my classroom set up contribute to student learning and the development of positive relationships?
  5. How will I develop a student’s ability to self assess and not only be reliant on adults telling them how they are doing?

Each and every one of the above domains require specific attention to details in order for them to yield the results I desire. By sweating the small things, I am able to accomplish many BIG IDEAS!

 

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Mike Beetham Assessment, Before School Starts, General, Learning in a Real Life Context, Planning, Student Ownership

Zipper Club

I truly admire and hold deep appreciation for all of you who teach Kindergarten or Junior Kindergarten. You establish the foundations that will support a child’s academic life and that will allow the rest of us to build upon.  I had to share this great concept that I watched evolve from one of my colleagues who teaches Kindergarten. It is called the Zipper Club. The premise is that he is trying to develop and foster independence in his children (which can be transferred to all aspects of school life).

As his children grow from an academic, developmental and gross motor standpoint they are provided with success that fosters a belief of “I can do anything’. So as each child masters the famous jacket or hoodie zipper, he posts their picture in a public display in the hallway. This is then shared with our school so that all can see and celebrate. His students start to feel all grown up and this new found independence fosters many additional side benefits to his class such as less time dressing equates to more on task time.

I have adapted this style of setting targets and working toward those targets with exemplars of what success looks like, sounds like and/or feels like. To this point I have enjoyed many types of both individual and group success. By far the most beneficial has been in my understanding of how important targets and success criteria is.

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Lisa.Taylor Assessment, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, General, Planning, Report Cards

Updating the IEP

With the end of Term 1, comes the IEP review and update process. While the intention is that the IEP is regularly reviewed and updated, many IEPs lay stagnant all term and are dusted off at reporting time to be updated. Teachers are excellent at setting goals, supporting goals, working with children to achieve goals, and even revising and modifying goals along the way. We often slip up in the record keeping portion of the process. How many times have we called the parent of a student on an IEP to talk about how they are doing, what they can be working on at home to support progress, etc., and not logged it in the IEP contact record? I often forgot to include that until it was IEP review time and then I would grab my communication binder and update. It is so important to keep the IEP up-to-date always. If you set a goal for a student to be able to count up to 50 and notice that they can count to 60, that goal needs to be changed on the IEP immediately! The whole point of the IEP is to have goals that are attainable, but not too easy. The hope is that we will push the student beyond their current ability level to extend their knowledge, hopefully closing the gap between where they are currently working, and the level their class is working at.

When recording communication, goals, assessments, accommodations, etc. on the IEP, I find it helpful to include as much detail as possible. Many IEP engines have drop-down menus, check boxes, etc. This might not always provide you with everything you need to paint an accurate picture of the student. Don’t be afraid to use the “other” box and explain. If you are doing something that is “outside of the box” for a student and it is working, document it!

We like to think that those students will be at our school forever and so will we, but that is not always the case. Unfortunately, families move, teachers move, people get ill, things happen. If you are suddenly not able to be at school, it is important that those records are up-to-date. Last year, I became ill and was quite abruptly sent home from work to await surgery. I was given next to no notice that I was not going to be at work, and the duration was undetermined. In the time that I was gone, two of my students moved. Had I not had their records up-to-date, I would have had to come in off of my sick leave (which might have jeopardized my leave) to collect up my data to update their records. Keeping things thorough and detailed also means your colleagues who have the student in the future know what things have been done for the student, what works, where the strengths are, etc., without having to track down previous teachers. With Lay-Offs, School Surplus, Transfers, etc., the staff in a school can change pretty rapidly. That document might be he only thing left in the school that really knows a student by the end of the staffing process in a given year.

There are lots of sites that will help with writing goals, scaffolding to ensure goals are progressing toward a larger goal, etc. It is often easy to get the IEP completed once you sit down and get to work. It is feeling the urgency and the importance that the document holds that really motivates a teacher to keep the IEP updated on paper, not just in their daily planning.

Alison.Board Assessment, Classroom Management, Differentiated Instruction, Integration, Planning, Report Cards, Use of Technology

Starting Over

 

 

January can feel like September. It is an opportunity to initiate new routines and expectations or inject something new into your current program. For many teachers, the last weeks of school in December before the break is challenging. Students are excited about the anticipated break; programs are interrupted with practices for concerts and special assemblies; and teachers are hanging on as they maintain or try to maintain a normal environment.

With the much needed break, students and teachers return to school refreshed. Many will not admit it, but look forward to the return of a regular routine. Take this opportunity to get your students quickly involved in new learning that may have been hard to tackle in December. There are at least three weeks of school before the cut-off for term one reporting. Assigning projects the first week back will focus the students directly, and provide you with assessments needed at the end of January.

Over the holidays, I have prepared an outline for the Biodiversity Infographic that I will be assigning my Grade 6 students the first week back. It will provide assessment both in Science and Media Literacy. I have also been considering an autobiography or biography project for my class. I am still working on the outline but I am thinking about a booklet that will include entries in writing and art. To differentiate to all levels for both projects, I will provide graphic organizers, allow choice of topics, and encourage students to create their works in print or with technology.

Take something that has inspired you over the holidays, (travel, nature, art, movies) and find a way to bring that interest to the classroom. It is surprising the connections you will make to the curriculum and the enthusiasm that you will share with your students.

Alison.Board Assessment, Classroom Layouts, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Math, Planning, Professional Learning and Growth, Resources

Teaching Math

 

 

I have always considered myself more of an “English Language” teacher. So, when I moved into the junior and intermediate classroom, I felt less confident in my abilities to teach math. When planning for the year, I surveyed some other junior/intermediate teachers for recommended resources. And when planning for the classroom environment, I made sure to have a corner dedicated to math, which includes a gallery wall, manipulatives, math dictionary and texts as well as tools like calculators.

Although I was given a set of textbooks, I don’t plan or teach from the textbooks. I print the curriculum expectations specific to the grade for each strand, and use them as my guide in planning the units. Then I refer to some other resources for ideas in activities that involve group work or problem solving. Some of favourites to support my math program are:

  • Introduction to Reasoning and Proof, Grades 6-8: The Math Process Standards Series, by Denisse R. Thompson and Karren Shultz-Ferrell
  • Nelson’s Ontario Numeracy Assessment Package
  • Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Mathematics, by Marian Small
By referring to these resources, I am able to understand the concepts that need to be taught and how to differentiate using broader questions for the range of math learners in my classroom. I enjoy providing mini-lessons on strategies to support the students as well as encouraging them to share their strategies with me and the rest of the class. Our math class has become engaging and interactive, not repetitive and boring as I had feared.
We use a gallery wall to display group answers to problems. This has become an invaluable way to quickly assess understanding. Students are given the opportunity to view the gallery, see how others have solved the problem, respond with their own ideas or suggestions and acquire new learning. A week of math classes includes a range of instructional strategies, independent work, paired and group work. One of our common “go to” questions is “Does this make sense?” We are aiming for understanding rather than rote learning of facts and steps (as I learned in elementary school). So, I am enjoying learning with my students as I discover new ways to approach and solve math problems.
Alison.Board Assessment, Classroom Management, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Learning About Your Students, Planning

From Teacher Directed to Student Directed Learning

 

As a new teacher or a teacher with many years experience, you hear about the importance of planning for student-directed learning in the classroom. Keeping this approach in mind as you plan in all subject areas benefits student learning and also benefits the teacher. Benefits include:

  • Engaged students – most students want the opportunity to talk as they learn, not just listen. When made to only listen, they look for distractions and classroom management issues often arise. If students are provided time to collaborate on a topic that interests them, they are engaged in the process and positive learning outcomes are the result.
  • Student interest – this leads to the content. Provide students with choice and select topics within the curriculum expectations that are of interest to your group of students. Students will demonstrate more initiative and take more responsibility for their own learning if they have choice of relevant topics. For example, in my grade 6/7 class, I modelled writing a monologue from the perspective of a character. Then, the students were all provided with a rubric to create their own dramatic monologue based on a character of their choice from a book from their choice.
  • Differentiated instruction – allowing choice of topic or type of presentation/project differentiates for the range of learners. Again, as an example from the monologue assignment, struggling readers selected books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, while others selected more challenging texts like Journey to Jo’burg. Similarly, students will select an option for a project on what they are comfortable with (creating a slideshow vs. a video). By allowing students choice, you are more inclusive, not lowering your expectations for those who can surpass them, or challenging your lower level students to frustration. And as a result, the students who select the more accessible choice, often learn from the students who are demonstrating success with a more challenging topic or type of presentation.
  • Assessment – student-directed learning allows time for ongoing assessment. I have spoken to teachers who plan detailed lessons and present to the class in a lecture style format with little time for collaboration or independent research. These teachers lament that student’s aren’t “listening” enough. They also wait until the end of unit to assess students with a paper/pencil task. By facilitating students in a more self-directed approach, teachers can support student where they are at with resources and mini-lessons for those who need it. Why provide the same lesson to the whole class if they do not all need it? When students are working in small groups or pairs, or even independently, the teacher is provided the time to interact with students, find out where they are in their understanding and provide the necessary support (assessment for learning).
Student-directed learning isn’t students learning on their own. It is more like students learning within a framework set up by the teacher, and supported by the teacher. It benefits all those involved!

 

 

 

 

 

Photo of Tammy Axt
Tammy Axt Building Inclusion, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Equity, General, Planning

Teaching Students who are Hard of Hearing

This is the second year that I have had a couple of students who are hard of hearing in my music classroom. How do you teach someone to sing or play instruments when they can’t hear the sound they are producing? This is the question that I was faced with last year. After some trial and error and a brand new book “Music for Children with Hearing Loss” by Lyn Schraer-Joiner, I am by no means an expert, but I have learned a few things.
First and foremost, the students that I have act just like any other student in my class and want to be treated as such. They do not like to be singled out or have any attention brought to them, so when I make modifications to the program for them I try to be subtle about my changes.

When the two classes come to see me for music, I am very aware of a few things:
1) I only speak when I am facing the students. I do not speak when I am facing down to play an instrument or when my body is turned to the blackboard.
2) I ensure that the students who are hard of hearing are beside a good model for singing songs. This can be a skilled student or myself.
3) When I am speaking one on one with the students who are hard of hearing I lean down to their level. I speak normally and do not overemphasize any words.
4) In all of my other classes, I do not repeat the answers that have been given by students during class discussions as I feel that it diminishes their voice. The exception to this rule is in my classes with my students who are hard of hearing.
5) I bring manipulatives beside my mouth so that the students can focus on my mouth and the manipulative at the same time.
6) Brand new learning for me this year was to place the soprano glockenspiel, xylophone or metallophone on a raised music stand or table as this will make it closer to the chest cavity, which will help the student hear the instrument more clearly.
7) When I do activities where the students have to match the feeling of the music on the piano, I arrange it so my students who are hard of hearing are closer to the piano as the notes get higher.
In a nutshell, after working with my students who are hard of hearing, their singing and instrument playing have really improved over the course of the year or so during which I have taught them. Singing and instrument playing is a skill that all can achieve given the right instructional practices.

Photo of Mike Beetham
Mike Beetham Assessment, Before School Starts, Learning in a Real Life Context, Planning

But Why? Part 2

Why I have chosen a video? Why I have allowed them to work in groups? Why am I allowing my students to have choice in their learning?  Why have I assigned homework? This is the question I start with for every instructional unit (and in practice, every classroom decision that I make). Why am I doing what I am doing? What is my desired learning outcome? How will it move my student’s learning forward?

My change to using a backward planning model has been one of the most significant improvements to my teaching practice. I now start all of my instructional planning with the following question:

What do I want my students to know, be able to do and value at the end of this instructional unit?

 Of course my answer always starts with the Ontario Curriculum and the overall expectations of that subject area. The next phase on my planning is where I try to visualize what does that learning look like in the life of a 10 year old (or 15 year old or 7 year old etc…). I try to find the context for the learning so that it becomes real for my students. That context increases the level of engagement, which in turn bolsters the intake of learning.

A caution I always have to remind myself of is that I am viewing the learning tasks and content through an adult focussed brain. To be more effective I have to train myself to screen my teaching through the developmental age of my students. When you know why you are teaching something, the actual teaching becomes so much easier.