Teacher Tech Cafe
Differentiating Student Products with Technology - Choices!
Master Concepts by Creating Differentiated Products
This week's tip is more like a challenge! I challenge you to give your students choice in showing you they understand what they are learning.
Consider Having Your Students Create a Mission Statement or Rules of Engagement
Dare to Innovate!
Multiply Your Voice - Lab Station Instruction Videos
Our students need to be at the center of their learning, and they need to have the ability to take control. As a scientist who became a teacher, I believe kids have to experience science. Science is something you do...not just something you read about in leveled readers or passages. Because students worked at multiple lab stations at once, I needed to multiply myself for instructions. Have you ever given the instructions for four or five table stations before beginning and, then, repeated yourself several dozen times after students began? Me, too. Consider using video instructions for stations if you have the devices available. This also works well if you are a BYOD classroom.
Here is a sample video done with Tellagami for a fifth grade science work station where students are introduced to a production assignment.
Set Your Expectations High and KEEP THEM THAT WAY!
Expectations and Rubric Sample
Set high expectations for every student, and provide the scaffolding they need to get there. Do not accept second-rate work from any student!
TEKS:
5.8 Earth and space. The student knows that there are recognizable patterns in the natural world and among the Sun, Earth, and Moon system. The student is expected to:
(C) demonstrate that Earth rotates on its axis once approximately every 24 hours causing the day/night cycle and the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky; and
(D) identify and compare the physical characteristics of the Sun, Earth, and Moon (Texas Education Agency, 2010).
The following link will take you to the full Google Doc Expectations and Rubric.
Characteristics of Sun, Earth, and Moon Student Sample
Here is a sample student product done in iFunFace - an app that is not considered an educational app!