WEEKLY STAFF BULLETIN
February 18-23
WEEKLY STAFF BULLETIN
Good morning.
Hope everyone enjoyed the three day weekend. There are less than 30 days to Spring and only five weeks left before Spring Break with lots of events going on in between. If we haven't scheduled your second observation, let's touch base to get an idea of when you would like for me to observe before Spring Break.
Have a great day and week!
Aim High and Dream Big!!
Trish
What's Going This Week
This week is Science Supervision.
Monday- No School
Tuesday-
Wednesday-EH- Focus Groups- 6th Grade Girl's With Goggles
Thursday- BLT- Science Fair
Friday- Hangout 2:30-5
How to Differentiate Instruction (Without Losing Your Mind) By Liana Loewus (Ed Week)
Instructional expert and esteemed blogger Larry Ferlazzo wants you to know: Differentiation isn't as hard as you might think.
In an animated video published by Education Week this fall, he explained that differentiating instruction is really about getting to know your students and being flexible with the ways they demonstrate their learning. It is not, in fact, about spending your evenings planning a separate lesson for each student.
Today, we're publishing a video about differentiation featuring Ferlazzo and veteran teacher Katie Hull Sypnieski. (They recently co-authored a book called The ELL Teacher's Toolbox.)
In the video, below, the teachers talk through the kinds of questions they ask themselves when planning a lesson for a multi-ability classroom. What will students do if they finish early? How can the materials be modified to make them useful for all types of learners?
The goal with differentiation is to make any single lesson accessible to all students. "Not everybody will get the same exact text or use the same strategy, but it's fair because you're meeting every student where they are."
For more information (and tips) on differentation, see Differentiated Instruction: A Primer and this collection of blog posts from Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo.
You may also want to check out this widely read 2015 opinion piece by educational consultant James R. Delisle about why "Differentiation Doesn't Work" and the response from education professor Carol Ann Tomlinson.