Standard 2 Curriculum and
Instruction
Provide appropriate in-depth instruction for all readers and
writers, especially those who struggle with reading and writing.
Before developing a more in depth understanding about instruction
for students who struggle with reading in writing, I had to practice following several
different IEPS in my general 11th grade English classroom. Many of
these IEPs instructed general educators to complete simple tasks, such as “give
the student more time to complete work.” “Allow the student preferential seating.”
“Break assignments down into smaller steps,” and “read assessments out loud.”
Although these are all beneficial accommodations, anyone who has experienced teaching
in a classroom with a variety of learners knows that differentiation is more
difficult than just checking off the guidelines on an IEP. In many cases, I
found myself monitoring the students that struggled by giving the class bell
ringers about a topic we covered in the previous lesson. When I saw where
students struggled, I made a point to go back and cover that topic again with
different examples and modeling. I also utilized collaboration and group work
when appropriate. After weeks of collecting data, I learned that students don’t
necessarily need an IEP to need differentiated instruction. In one particular situation,
I had a student in my first block who did not have any specific accommodations,
but needed a lot of help due to what I perceived as extreme social anxiety and
a struggle to read on a 9th grade level. Every week, I made a habit
of completing an informational article about a current event that would
interest the students. To improve comprehension skills, I modeled how I wanted
the students to annotate the text by writing out questions, highlighting
important points, writing short summarizations, and drawling arrows to connect
points. While most students could complete the task after the model, I found
that several students needed extra help. To accommodate this, I broke the lesson
down into several steps, developed an annotation guide, and had the students
work in pairs to check their work. I allowed the students to support each other
by adding different annotations to each other’s work. When I completed the differentiated
lesson, I felt that many students who struggled were at least able to grasp the
concept of text annotation. I continued to have the students practice in this
way so that reflective reading became like muscle memory. While this experience
further confirmed my belief that teachers need to be reflective and flexible with
their lessons, I also walked away with many questions. How do I differentiate
instruction without singling students who struggle out? When placing students
in a group or pair, how do I make sure the struggling student is staying
engaged in the activity and not just leaning the assignment up to his or her
partner? When coming up with differentiated lessons, I often find what I come up
with a beneficial refresher for all of the students in the class. Because of
this, I typically introduce the instruction to the whole class or in a rotated
group the first time, then continue the process with the struggling readers. Is
this fair for students who are above average in reading and writing? Although I
do make lessons to challenge them more, I feel that some classes are tailored more
for students who struggle. Differentiated instruction is something that
teachers should develop every year, as they receive different students with different
needs each semester. While my knowledge in lessons and strategies for students
who struggle grow, my ability to manage these lessons with a variety of
students will as well.
Below are selected screen shots of the lesson I used to help struggling
students annotate a text. These slides were accompanied by my modeling the steps and students working in pairs.
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