9/25/03
THE DIFFERENTIATED CLASSROOM
You're teaching in a differentiated classroom, right? Well, who isn't? In fact, what teacher at any time or any place hasn't faced a room filled with students with different learning styles, different abilities and different interests? I know my mother did when she taught in the San Fernando Valley in the 1920's. I know I did several decades later, both in public and private schools
The greatest challenges of teaching - and, in my opinion, the greatest rewards - come from making sure that all students are involved in the learning process. They won't all learn exactly the same thing, even if it's math or history, no matter what techniques or materials you use - and we'll really never understand why. I excelled in math and foreign languages all the way through school. However, I didn't "make" an honors English class with all my friends. Instead, I struggled with identifying different parts of speech, diagramming sentences and getting at the underlying meaning of a particular fictional character's actions.
So, it was quite a surprise when my principal requested that I teach English the following year when I had been hired to teach math. I protested, but as she handed me the teacher's manual, she said, "You'll do fine, dear." And, much to my surprise, I did! As an adult, I finally "got" the parts of speech, the relationship of words in a sentence to each other, and, therefore, diagramming sentences was a snap.
With my own difficulties in mind, I became interested in how and why people learn - or don't learn when intelligence is not a factor. Over the years, I discovered a variety of ways to help all my students learn, not just for the test but for the long haul. I learned that bridging the differences students bring to class is at the heart of being a teacher.
As a result of my experience, I decided to publish the vocabulary system I'd been refining into the Word Web Vocabulary curriculum. By assigning words to one of the levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced, etc.) I designed a way to reach everyone.
As you probably have discovered, certain words, concepts or new subjects can really fire up a student who has remained rather passive and seemingly disinterested or unable to learn. The Periodical Pearls feature and the Real World Words were two of the tools that turned my failing students into productive and happy learners, and I am sure that you will meet with the same success.
Won't you please share your Word Web experiences or questions with me at emiller@seepub.com? I look forward to hearing from you.
Elinor
