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11/19/2021 5 Comments

Differentiation in Math Class, Simplified!

How to Have Students Self - Differentiate

Differentiation in Math Class, Simplified: How to Have Students Self-Differentiate
Wouldn’t it be a lot easier if you could just have your students self-differentiate?  By this point, they tend to know when they are stuck and having trouble with a particular type of problem or if they are ready and feel prepared for each next assessment or not. Here’s the simple strategy that has helped my students in middle and high school differentiate by location on their own in a lesson.  


Even when your math classes are grouped based on students’ ability, you’re still going to have varying abilities within each class.  You still have to reach all of them.  This method arose naturally out of necessity in my own classroom, but was such a great shift for us. I hope it helps you to differentiate following direct instruction too.



After you teach a lesson, you can think of your students in 3 different categories of understanding: Green, Yellow, and Red.

Green
The Green students understand today’s lesson quickly and do not need further examples or modeling.  Everything made sense to them, and at the moment, they need no further support from you.

Yellow
There are always the in-between students.  These are the students who still have a question or need one or two more examples.  Once they get a little bit more support, they will feel confident fairly quickly.

Red
These students would like more support, additional examples and modeling from you, the teacher.  They need more support before they’re ever going to be able to approach a problem on their own.

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Once you teach the “meat” of the lesson and go over a few examples, instead of asking, “Ok, do we all get it?, I say to the class, “Those who do understand this and you’re ready to go practice on your own, move to the back of the room.  Those who still want to do the next few examples with me, you stay here, and feel free to come move up to the front.”

So, then I have everyone who needs my direct attention right with me.  Those who don’t need my help at the moment are towards the back working quietly. These are the kids who normally had been sitting there thinking “ok, we GET it! Can we just go start our homework now?” Let them do just that, and later on, when the students in the front are ready to finally work independently, you can head to the back group to level up the differentiation for them. You can offer them some more challenging problems to try with you or in pairs, and they will be more ready to tackle those now that they have had a few moments to start their homework and feel like they have gotten ahead.

Once you allow for the initial split after giving notes or lecture, the groups are then fluid.  Maybe after a few problems a few of the ones who are up in front getting guidance will start to feel more confident, and will be ready to quietly move to the back of the room to join the group that is getting started on practice problems independently.

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Essentially, what you are changing is this:
Instead of transitioning the whole class from notes to practice time, allow each student to SELF-TRANSITION individually once they feel ready.





How to Make It Work

The kids love having the autonomy to make this decision for themselves.  Given the option to choose, they almost always choose what I would have chosen for them.  When they make the decision themselves, they feel proud of it.  


Classroom culture
Like any differentiating strategy, you need to have a strong, encouraging classroom culture.  You need support and understanding that different kids are going to be doing different things at different times because they all have different needs.  And that’s okay.


Variety
You have to change it up.  Sometimes, maybe the group in the back is doing a card sort as an extension or challenge.  Sometimes, they’re doing the exact same work. You don’t want them to expect that they’re always going to get their homework done sooner, etc.  You have to have some variety.  Sometimes I bring the front group up to the board to solve the problems right alongside me on the whiteboard together.


Fluidity
Most importantly, you need to keep things fluid.  You don’t want kids to feel like they’re stuck in the same group from day to day, or even throughout one period.  They need to be able to decide where they need to be at any given time. One lesson may be trickier, and all students need to feel comfortable lingering at the front listening for as long as they need to. Other days, someone who normally has to stay up front for additional examples may just have things “click,” and will want to head to the back in the very first group that is released to go work quietly.


This is just a small idea but it can have a big impact on your class and their learning. 

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If the video on this strategy is helpful for you, and you'd like more ideas from Math Giraffe, along with a free toolkit of resources to try in your own classroom, make sure you are receiving my emails here.
5 Comments

11/3/2021 5 Comments

Are You Overwhelmed as a Math Teacher?...

... ​Here are the balls you can actually drop

PERMISSION GRANTED TO DROP SOME OF THE BALLS. (Just pick the right ones.) Here are some non-essential things you are probably still doing and how to stop.

PERMISSION GRANTED TO DROP SOME OF THE BALLS.
(Just pick the right ones.)

Here are some non-essential things you are probably still doing and how to stop.

Math teachers, are you feeling overwhelmed? Maybe a little beat-down or disheartened?  You’re not alone.

In fact, it’s pretty universal. First, take a step back, take a deep breath, and make sure your own glass is full before you try to fill others’.  If you need help with the teacher self-care end of things, revisit this blog post: How to Relax as a Teacher (without just wasting time).  

Once you start to feel rejuvenated you must take a look at your classroom and address what’s necessary to avoid burning out again in the future. You may need to drop the ball.  We’re always scared to drop the ball, but some are actually ok to drop. Not all of your daily tasks are equally important, even if sometimes it feels that way. 

Of course, some of the “balls” you are juggling are very fragile and cannot be dropped, or they could break. But others may be the kind that will bounce back. And some are non-essential and can be dropped altogether!

As a teacher, you are sometimes going to have to let some things go so you have time and energy for other responsibilities. Keep the breakable balls in the air, but drop these other less critical ones to save yourself!

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Grading

1.  Stop lugging around piles and piles of your students’ notebooks; instead walk around and grade notebooks while students take tests.  Before you pass out a test, have the kids place their closed notebooks under their desks, or even on top in the corner if they have room. As you walk around the room supervising test-taking, flip through the notebooks, check that everything appears to be there (a very quick skim will usually do the trick), and jot down a grade right then and there.  
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2.  Stop grading everything; instead only inspect what you expect.  Grading daily homework assignments for multiple classes will surely lead to burn out, and honestly isn’t all that effective.   Only grade what’s important to help the students learn and grow. A good rule of thumb is that if it’s not an assessment, and kids have self-checked it (like for homework), just a score for completion will do. It’s also ok to tell kids as they work on classwork that you plan to collect it. Without officially committing to whether you will grade it or not, you inspire them to do their best just in case, while maintaining the option to either grade it or not later on.

​3.  Stop taking time to sort papers, and instead put students to work.  If you do take a completion grade for daily homework assignments, or assignments like daily warm-ups, ask students to be your helpers.  For example, if you have five collected stacks of daily warm-up quizzes sorted by day the way you gathered them throughout the week, have a student sort them into stacks for each student and staple.  Then, you can can check all five assignments for the same student at once, give a single grade for the full week, and save a ton of time.
Extra help/ tutoring

1.  Stop giving students so many different options to meet outside of class; instead limit your “available” hours.  Your job is to teach your students.  If they need extra help with a concept it’s totally reasonable for you to open up office hours at lunch or after school.  It’s also totally reasonable to want and need time outside of your school’s hours for prep time, or even  just for you.  A solution is to limit your “available” hours, whatever that may look like to you. Set a schedule for extra help, and stick to it. It’s good for students to take responsibility to learn to plan ahead when they need you, and not always count on you to suddenly be available on short notice whenever they realize it too late.

​2.  Stop tutoring one-on-one; instead assign specific days for specific groups of students.  Allow only your Algebra 1 students to come on Mondays before school, and your Geometry students to come on Wednesdays after school.  Mixing class periods is usually fine, as long as the content they are reviewing is the same. By tutoring groups instead of tutoring individuals, you will save a ton of time, and often they actually can help each other too.

Administrative Tasks

1.  Stop writing the standard on the board each class; instead write out a specific, standards-based goal and have a volunteer read it aloud at the beginning of class.  This frees up some time and energy, as well as allows students to comprehend what they will be learning.  Trust me, the students do not care about the exact standard.


2.  Stop checking emails all day long; instead make it clear that you are teaching and focusing on students when they are in your classroom and will not be able to reply to parents or others during those times. Once before the first bell, and another check during an afternoon free period should be enough. There is no need to check it constantly, and no one should expect a reply in the morning, and then another one continuing the same conversation at lunchtime. That gets overwhelming very quickly. If anything is urgent, then someone who does not get a reply within an hour and feels they need one can call on the school phone.


3.  Stop doing simple tasks like updating the classroom website, bulletin boards, and homework calendars; instead ask for student helpers.  It’s probably not too hard to update the class site with daily homework or important updates, but it does it take a few minutes of your own time and mental space- time and space that could be of better use.  Have a rotation of students whose job is to update the class site for you each day.

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4.  Stop creating everything from scratch; instead use templates. There are templates available for games, classroom websites, newsletters to send parents, conference forms, and so much more. My doodle note templates are one way to save yourself a lot of time while still providing engaging lessons. We also have plenty of tips on how to make the best of templates in class here: Using the Templates
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At the end of the day, it comes down to what’s best for your students.  Only you know what’s best.  Maybe dropping one of these “balls” would be detrimental to your students, or place your job in jeopardy.  In these cases, obviously don’t drop the ball.  

You need to assess in your own classroom if there are some tasks that are okay to let slide.


What responsibilities do you think are okay to drop in order to put your students first? Feel free to comment below. 

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5 Comments

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