Differentiated for equity
“One of the ways teachers may be told to
meet the needs of their culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms is to
differentiate instruction” (Baecher, Artigliere, Patterson & Spatzer,
2012). As I read readings for this week, I started
thinking about the importance of differentiated for equity. I have a strong opinion of differentiated instruction making education
more equal and efficient. Not only for language learners, but also for
marginalized students and student from minority groups. Differentiated
instruction is not making a distinction between different groups of student.
However, it is a positive strategy to inquire equity for students with special
needs. As there are a lot of concerns about curriculum and teacher’s quality in
the chapter 7, I believe that to inquire differentiated instruction for English
learners, we need to differentiate curriculum and give our teacher a stage to
learn differentiated instruction skills.
To inquire the
differentiated instruction, there are 10 principles were listed in reading:
·
Know ELLs’ strengths and weaknesses in
English.
·
Set a common content objective and
differentiate the language objective.
·
Make differentiation manageable for the
teacher.
·
Make learning manageable for the
students through differentiation.
·
Identify a base activity for
higher-level students and tier downward.
·
Use yourself rather than a higher-level
student to serve as the differentiation in the lesson.
·
Use flexible rather than fixed grouping.
·
Offer a choice of activities to let
students do the differentiating.
·
Recognize that cognitive complexity is
intertwined with language proficiency.
·
Allot the same number of minutes
for a
differentiated task.
From my experience, I would like to focus on the
differentiated curriculum and differentiated educator and resource.
I have talked about my friend who teaches a minority group of students
in Xinjiang, China. For my linguistic assessment I took a video call with her
during her class. Unfortunately I can't provide the whole class video due to
her school’s policy, but this class was thought provoking and it made me
believe that a differentiated textbook, teacher, and teaching resource can be
much more helpful to Language learners than we think. Literally those Uygur
kids have three languages class in school, Chinese, Uyghur, and English. When
they basically have foundations of Chinese and Uyghur languages, they will start studying English in 4th
grade. For the Chinese class and Uyghur class, they use textbooks in same
content but written in different languages. And during those two classes, their
teacher will encourage them to use both book to study and have a contrast. For
the English textbooks, it was written in both English and Chinese. I feel
language learner will feel comfortable and confident in that way, they won’t
face with the situation that they totally can not understand their curriculum.
My concerns of this differentiated instruction
is what if we need to face with students from more than two different
backgrounds? It will take a lot resources, times, and money to make a
differentiated instruction environment. Another thing is I noticed some
students feel more comfortable with their home language and, they keep using
textbook that written in their home languages but resist to use the other one.
Some questions I was thinking about after reading:
Some questions I was thinking about after reading:
·
From state level, how to
inquire the differentiated instruction for ELs?
·
From school level, how
to inquire the differentiated instruction for ELs?
·
As a teacher, how to
inquire the DI in your class?
·
What can I do to improve
DI skill?
·
What if I don't know
their home language? What if I have students from different backgrounds of
native languages (like more than three)?
·
How to let students feel
more comfortable with DI?
I really like how you talk about not only differentiating for English Language Learners, but also for marginalized students. When I think about differentiation, or the lack there of, I am reminded of my time teaching out in Seattle. I worked at a school who prided themselves on the many cultures they served. I believe the school was home to 50+ languages. There were parts of the school that were so progressive and catered to our diverse population, but there were also some huge problems. The one instance I'm thinking of was on one of the writing test given by common core. The students were asked to explain how Ellis island represents American ideals.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading that question and getting irrationally angry. How can you ask a group of diverse learners about "American ideals". Who's ideals are you thinking of? This and other instances within curriculum and instruction create barriers for our students. The state, schools, and teachers need to do a better job of differentiating so we are not creating unnecessary roadblocks for students.
Sabbath,
DeleteI have had a similar experience during my student teaching. I student taught at IPS 79, Carl Wilde, in a kindergarten classroom. The school took a lot of pride in the fact that there were over 70 languages spoken. Many of the students who enrolled during my time there were from refugee camps in Nepal and Burma. Although there were over 70 languages spoken at 79, the ELL teachers spoke only two of the languages, Spanish and a language that I can not recall, but I know it wasn't one of the more spoken languages within the school. From what I saw and what I can remember, there was no differentiation for any of the students who spoke languages other than English. They were expected to perform in the same manner as their English speaking peers. I will say however that I saw mainly kindergarten and first grade classes, so more may have been being done in other grade levels.
Differentiation for ELL students becomes tricky when thinking about "standardized" assessments. I agree that the state needs to do a better job to alleviate unnecessary roadblocks for students in terms of testing.
You're right Brittany. I think that the state does need to do a better job with standardized testing when it comes to ELL students. But it seems to me that this is something that has been going on for a long time. It is obvious that Ell students are struggling with a test that is not made for them. It is unfair and would be the equivalent of an native English speaking student going to any other foreign country and taking a test in that language, failing, and then being told that they were not smart enough and need to take remedial classes. The real issue is that America, and any native English speaking country, has grown an enormous ego, because English is being spoken around the world. It is the "language of power", because it is the language of the most powerful country in the world. The issue in this country is since there are so many immigrants, especially those of Hispanic origin, English is not "the main thing on the menu" anymore. But, you still have politicians trying to assimilate these ELL students into perfect English speaking students. It is reminiscent of the White settlers trying to assimilate the Native Americans before they took their land, and we see how that turned out. Just saying...
DeleteBefore I came to the United States, I can never imagine a school have students speak over 50 languages. We as teachers clearly need to try to care all of our students from different culture backgrounds. I was thinking as we use a common core to evaluate our students, is that unfair to the students who are bilingual or ELL? My answer is yes. And I have a strong opinion that the younger kids are, the more harmful this common core effecting their interests in language learning.
DeleteAdditionally I agree with Brittany, it reminded me about standardized testing too. I think this differentiated is not only about educational instruction, but also about differentiated accountability system.
Standardized testing isn't fair for most minorities, but it is even more of a challenge when a test is not even in your language. Unfortunately, our government is rooted in white supremacy and doesn't care how this is affecting children who are non-white or from low-income backgrounds who struggle with these type of tests.
DeleteYunlu,
ReplyDeleteThe readings surrounding differentiated instruction and your blog post, reminds me a lot about the curriculum course we took with Dr. Flowers. Curriculum content needs to be geared to include every child, minority students as well as White middle-class students. I agree that differentiating instruction should be for every student. We, as teachers, shouldn't only be providing differentiation to ELs or Special Education students. Knowing your students really well, their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their cultural background can help educators incorporate their students into the content being taught.
For me, small group instruction is the way that teachers could differentiate instruction for all students within their classroom. Whole group instruction is something that I personally see little value in. However, I know that totally moving away from whole group instruction may not be what works for every teacher or every kid.
I would be interested in viewing the video you recorded of your friend's classroom!
Brittany,
DeleteI have a same feeling with you! It reminds me of our summer class and the assessments class. I was thinking about who to use the differentiated instruction better into an real multilingual class. I think a small group instruction will be great, but I concerned about this approach seems will use a lot of resources and money. As what I know about the current education environment of minority groups of student (maybe not right), the majority of their schools have problems with offering resources and foundations. That is a part that I feel difficult, differentiated education requires more foundations and resources, but usually those school lack of the necessary components.
By the way the video is speaking all in Chinese, and because of the school policy issues it's super short... But I'll explain to you! LOL
We are currently working though these issues at our school. We have adopted a reading program that is very Eurocentric. Our students (not just our ELL students) struggle with concepts like ice fishing and vocabulary like culverts and backhoes. We are working through using the program but also supplementing with books where children see themselves and also can genuinely engage with the concepts.
DeleteI think that many strategies are necessary for differentiated instruction not only small groups but a type of scaffolding for a whole class. The small groups can be a type of priming for whole class instruction. This gives the opportunity for students to work not only at their own level but to be challenged by the next level of activities and assignments.I agree that knowing cultural background helps in teaching, and displaying diverse cultures in the classroom, especially those of your students, demonstrates interest in the student as an individual as well as respect.
ReplyDeleteAs for Ellis Island, if the students were asked what that meant to American ideals, someone might have asked the same of Angel Island. Maybe a more inclusive and relevant example of American idealism could have been used where all students could view themselves as cultural stakeholders. Afterall, Ellis and Angel islands as processing centers for immigrants have an unwelcoming, and exclusive element in their histories (A park ranger on my visit to Ellis Island had no trouble expressing the down side.)
To be honest, as I saw this writing topic, the first thing came up in my mind was not "American ideals", but "What is Ellis Island and where is it?". Sometimes the English language is not the hardest part for English Learners, the knowledge of this country, the Ideals, and even common sense can be challenges.
DeleteYunlu,
DeleteI agree - I wonder if ethnocentrism plays such a role in all history lessons throughout the world? Is intentionally used as a way to teach our young the ideals (and now our immigrants) they should find to be the most necessary to promote patriotism or is it simply a ploy to continue the cycle of oppression that has always been extending it to the next generation?
I agree that working with differentiated instruction is a challenge when standardized assessments are employed. I wonder how many schools that I have worked at are really devoted to it. My impression is that the needs of students who would most benefit from it are secondary to those of students that are "mainstream." when it comes to standardized assessment I have heard some educators express a triage attitude, which involves on concentrating on students who might have some chance of success and teaching other students as an afterthought.
ReplyDeleteI agree that differentiated textbooks, videos, and other teaching resources can be helpful, as well as teacher who are fluent in languages additional to English. I don't know if the schools that have multiple languages spoken provide those tools and expertise, especially in languages other than Spanish.
I think that differentiated instruction is something that should be done in every classroom regardless of if you have ELLs or not. Students so not all learn the same way, differentiated instruction should be something that every teacher should be on board with. When I was at my old school, I had to use differentiated instruction all the time. At first, I used it because I had to being the SIOP teacher in my grade. I posted content and language objectives on the board everyday and went over them with the class and used them to differentiate my instruction to them. When I came to my new school, I was not mandated to do what I did in my last classroom, but I still do it. Is it good practices to teach every student the same thing the same way, even though research has proven that not all students learn the same? Are you giving the best to your students? These are questions that I ask myself every time I start planning for the week. I admit, differentiated instruction is more timely, but it is definitely worth it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with it! I think differentiated instruction is a huge concept that can use into a lot of areas in the educational field. The basic core of this concept to me, from my understanding, is teach students in accordance with their aptitudes and devoting to equity.
DeleteHowever, it seems hard to me to achieve this concept because of the components that concept required, just right is what they lacked.
I feel strongly about differentiated instruction. I like the suggestions in this blog post. I know as a teacher we all have so many little personalities in our rooms that require small levels of differentiation from how we ask questions or interact with students. This creates rapport and helps students to learn.
ReplyDeleteWe are pushed to differentiate to the point we don't want to hear it or feel overwhelmed due to the long list of items we are asked to do daily. I believe there is so much more differentiation that happens daily we need to give ourselves credit for.
The list you provided is so helpful and prompts so really great ways for us to think a little deeper about our daily lessons and plans to incorporate differentiation for ELL and every student.
My mind is conditioned to think of one native language and that’s Spanish. As teachers, we must be open to other home native languages besides Spanish. How do we know the student’s home native language? That is a great question for teachers to ask themselves. Researchers say we must embrace the student’s home language and culture –Start by saying, “What is this word in your language?”talk about, ask about it, and look for opportunities to implement it into the class lesson and other projects.
ReplyDelete