ACCOMMODATIONS:
You should have just used the Accommodations List to consider how to meet the needs of as many learners as possible during a given lesson. It's daunting and impossible to meet every student's needs during every lesson...but it should be a goal. When I'm doing gallery walks with my students, I know that if a younger kid had behavior issues, I would have to vary how I do it. When I taught junior high, I used numerous strategies for every lesson, but not every strategy works every time. The key is to diversify how you differentiate. That being said, share how it felt to try to accommodate every kid? What kinds of accommodations did you come up with that could satisfy the needs of several learners (THAT'S the key)... Think Universal Design for Learning (UDL)... You may not have watched the video yet, but it's central to this point. After answering those couple of questions, also pose any worries you have with the group. What stresses you out most about meeting the needs of all students? Blog by
Monday Jan. 2nd and respond by Wed. Jan. 4th
I felt that trying to get a lesson that accommodates every student is really hard and is not always possible. I feel like trying to accommodate every single student in the class is a very stressful thing. I think that one accommodation that could fit most of the students is giving them a test that is either projected or given out loud so that they are not staring at a piece of paper, because I know when I was in high school Trying to take a regular test was super hard for me. Another way I could accommodate most of the class is giving group test, or group tests, putting less stress on the students. Making sure that they are leaning not just passing is the whole thing about teaching. As a teacher we really need to make sure that every student is understanding, so if we have to make different accommodations for students, us as teachers need to do that. The last one that I thought about was letting them answer the questions out loud or write the answers on a dry erase board, because I think getting the students to tell you something, and them putting it into their own words is very important.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea for doing a test out loud or a group test but what about your visual learners? I have a hard time hearing and comprehending things that I have heard right away. Maybe have the test with questions given to everyone and then read the questions out loud?
Delete@Rebecca yeah I think that might be a good idea, However, I always thought it was really annoying when teachers handed out test or quizzes and then read the questions because I could not concentrate.
DeleteFaith it seems you have put w lot of thought into these accommodations. It is very difficult to try to accomodate everyone as invariably you will end up not reaching many. A verbal test as you mentioned will help some but it will also distract the others that are visual learners . Perhaps if you could put the auditory students close together so you can read quietly to them without disturbing the visual students.
DeleteFaith, the accommodations are more for lessons than tests (hopefully you'll be formatively assessing and not just giving tests as summative...those are ultimately for teachers not students). How can you accommodate as much as possible during an interactive lesson? The idea is to show you that just standing and talking at students is not the most effective way to teach. Ideally, you'll accommodate as much as possible because you're right, you can't accommodate every student every time. Being engaging and interactive as a teacher is the best way to achieve that. Varying your instruction is key!
DeleteIt was a real struggle trying to accommodate EVERY kid. First reason is that I was unaware of some of these things that we might have to accommodate for in the classroom. Something else that made this difficult is how small/simple of an assignment that it was that we needed to accommodate for. I think something that was good to accommodate for all the students was making it short so that I could keep a lot of their attention. With the hardest thing being, trying to fit everyones needs, I think that as a teacher it is disheartening that we can not accommodate for everyone and make it simpler/easier for our students that are struggling with the various things.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is disheartening that we cannot accommodate everyone, we can still make a difference in every student's life and I think that is an important aspect to focus on. Also, sometimes students may request accommodations we never thought of or didn't think would apply to that student. For example, in high school I always requested to sit in the front of the class, I still do in college as well, because I was unable to hear as well or pay as much attention as I wanted too. My teachers never considered this until I made the request.
DeleteYes it was a great struggle trying to accommodate EVERY child. I also found it hard to accommodate some of the disorders, different learning styles or the things that I was not aware that affected some children because normally you don't think of some of those things sometimes. It may be disheartening, but we as teachers can find ways to show the students if we don't accommodate them in something, we still care about them and show them how to do it a different way.
DeleteIt sounds like we are all in the same boat and are very challenged with accomodating everyone. I was telling an experienced teacher this and she said she has always struggled with this too and finally she started setting a goal that if she could make a major impact on one student a year then it will be worth it. She didn't focus on just one student but rather expected all of her efforts on all students may make the difference for one. I can see what she is saying in that regards. It is kind of like farmers, they plant many seeds knowing that not all will grow into viable crops, but they give each seed the same opportunity.
DeleteTo me accommodating everyone is the most challenging thing as a teacher. At first I just thought it was an issue I have as I worry too much about making sure everyone is happy for instance if we have a large group of people over for dinner it stresses me out that we have a menu that everyone likes. However as I talk to more teachers and the discussions in this class, I see that is a more universal concern everyone has. In my classroom it really bothers me because looking at it from a parents standpoint, you are really only concerned about your child and you want to make sure they are getting the attention they need. As a teacher though, it seems impossible. Varying lesson presentations helps but there are still some you going to miss because there are variables even within the different learning styles. In my computer applications classrooms I have found that once I get an idea of how well the students are going to be able to work on their projects, then if I group them together it helps me. That way I am not spending critical class time moving from opposite ends of the classroom. Also they are usually in the same section of the project so I can work with a few at once instead of just one. I also worry that I am so concerned about the students at the poor end of the achievement scale that I am not effective enough of the upper end. So then I try to compensate and work with them and then I worry about the ones in the middle.
ReplyDeleteMaybe when you group your students you could also mix the students together. For example, you could put a student on the lower end of the achievement scale with one who is on the middle and another on the higher end of the achievement scale. This would benefit both you and those three students. If either one of those students need help, there is at least one student and yourself who can try to explain what needs to be explained. We also learn things better when we have to explain them to others and this creates more respect between peers.
DeleteI also did not know that as many teachers have trouble with the fact that they can not accommodate every child. As a person I do agree with you that trying to make sure every one is happy is hard, I deal with that myself. Trying to make everyone happy and make sure everyone likes everything is hard. So I think as a teacher we try to make sure all the students feel like they are getting the education they need, but while we try to make the majority of the students happy, we are leaving out the ones in the middle. Maybe not meaning to, but it does happen. I think that this class is really opening my eyes on how many people are thinking the same things as I am.
DeleteMaybe the fact that we care too much is good because we want to help out students as much as possible. But I think we need to also not destroy ourselves when trying to accommodate for everyone and instead just try and do our best and thing will all turn out alright.
DeleteAfter reading through our assignment again and looking at the assignment list, the first thing that crossed my mind was how am I going to accommodate this one assignment for all of these students? I think what makes this hard for teachers is that we may never know which students we have in our classroom until they are in there so it is necessary to plan as far in advance as we possibly can. Small assignments, like our quizzes or crosswords, could actually offer a much harder time trying to create them to meet accommodations than larger ones because there's not much wiggle room. I feel that you could let the class answer as a group (each child can get points for attempting to answer the question and if the answer is wrong the teacher can help guide them to the correct one), white boarding or task cards could be used or even for students who like to color you could print out a color page with numbers and let them color in the number when the answer is correct (this would require having someone sit down and read the assignment to them). What stresses me most about meeting the needs of all the students is that there may be something I overlook or I may not plan for a certain need.
ReplyDeleteI thought the very same thing at first. Like how am I supposed to accommodate everybody, some of the things I did not even know I needed to accommodate for! But not knowing the students is hard, because how are we as teachers supposed to know how each student learns. We get a new group of students every year so we may have to change how we teach every year. I also feel like sometimes I may over look a child's learning style or I may plan a task one way and have to change it to accommodate that specific class.
DeleteI hope that I can find out what my students strengths and weaknesses are so that I can help build them up and make learning easier for them. I like the idea of group/class quizzes, when I take them with people I feel more confident also it was not as stressful. Something about sitting at a desk by myself with a quiz/test in front of my stresses me out, not as much as it use to though.
DeleteRebecca you are correct in that it takes time to figure out a student especially if you only have them one hour a day. I have some students too that do a good job being busy and I think they are doing project work as I walk the room but when it comes time to turn things in or assess they haven't done hardly anything. I didn't really realize this was something to look for and I try harder to catch those students but it is very difficult sometimes.
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