Work Smarter, Not Harder
by Bryn Williams
On October 23 rd, 2009, the BCASCD held a professional development workshop with renowned educator and presenter Carolyn Chapman. I brought three teachers from my school and one student teacher and we all felt that the day was well worth the drive out to the rainy Coquitlam golf course. The day began with an excellent opportunity to catch up with colleagues and friends from around the Lower Mainland.
Whether the members of the audience were well versed in differentiated instruction or were just being introduced to the ideas, the day provided insight, ideas and suggestions for all educators. After introducing DI and what it looks like, Carolyn began by leading the audience through a series of interesting and ‘ready for the classroom’ examples. By connecting current research on the brain and learning, Carolyn showed what different assessments and activities could look like in the classroom.
The theme that assessment guides the curriculum before, during and after lessons focussed the day. Through self pre-assessments, such as traffic lights and her road analogies, Carolyn showed various models of curriculum compacting, tiered assignments , choice boards, cubing and TAPS. These methods are very well detailed in her book Differentiated Instructional Management (published by Corwin Press).
As a classroom teacher, I found that the road analogy resonated the strongest with me. Carolyn sets up the pre-assessment for this by describing four types of roads as metaphors for prior knowledge/understanding: Dirt Road (Rarely), Paved Road (Sometimes), Yellow Brick (I have it), and Highway (often). With four groups, it may be more convenient to combine the Yellow Brick and Highway groups. Another important point is that the “I have it” and “Often” groups do not want to help the other groups and often lose their skill level while attempting to teach to those other groups. Once the pre-assessment has been completed, the development of tiered assignments, where three levels of activities are developed from the same concept within the same time frame.
A major part of the day was also spent on teaching vocabulary. Examples were shown for all subject areas and included kinaesthetic, musical/rhythmic, and visual ways of understanding terms. I do not think I will ever forget the word asthenia (loss of body strength). And the trio masterpiece where the term, definition, and diagram index cards were used as a group-making exercise.
Carolyn Chapman’s approach to instruction and learning provides students of all abilities to be successful. Her workshop reminded us that educators must include various differentiated instruction and learning techniques to create environments learning can happen for all students, from the gifted to the adapted/modified learner. By using these techniques to guide the curriculum before, during and after lessons and providing opportunities for curriculum compacting, all students can be successful.
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