SMART Goal Update #1

Differentiation
Seen in Practicum:
1/26/15
I was in charge of the station that allowed the children to play candy land. On each of the cards
was the block color they had to move to and also a sight word. Children were encouraged to say
the sight word as best as they could and then move their marker up the board (children did not
have to say it perfectly to move their marker). One group of children had a separate bag of cards.
These cards had simpler sight words like the and you one etc. One bag had more
difficult vocabulary terms such as little yellow good etc. For the third group, the teacher
instructed me to have the students say the word and ALSO put the word in a sentence (with my
help if needed).
On this day, the teacher separated the students into groups based off their academic abilities.
However this is not always the case in my practicum classroom!
2/3/15
The classroom was split into four different stations and the one I was in charge of taught science
concepts including predicting and measuring. The students had to guess which one would weigh
more; a bag of 100 beans or a bag of 100 paperclips. A part of the worksheet looked like this:
Which one is more?
100 beans
100 paperclips
Guess: __________________
Prove: __________________
Below level learners: Circled what they thought and proved
On-level & above-level learners: Wrote down 100 beans or 100 paperclips next to guess:
and prove: in the space provided.
Reflection: This is an example for very simple differentiated instruction. The students are all still
learning the same thing, doing the same activity, and learning the same material, but the belowlevel learners only have to circle their answer.

IECE464 (Social Studies):

At first I didnt see much differentiated instruction in my practicumpartly because I didnt
know what to look for! I was looking for specific things the teacher was doing to change up her
lessons in order for everyone to understand. After a few weeks of learning about diff. instruction
in my IECE classes, I understand now that diff. instruction is used every day in my practicum
classroom! In IECE464, we learned that students have different learning styles. The learning
styles include:
-

Auditory
Tactile
Visual
Kinesthetic

During play time (centers), the teacher has all kinds of things in her classroom to support
children with different learning styles.
Other places Ive seen differentiated instruction:
On February 13th, I took a trip to my sister Rachels fifth grade special education
classroom. The students come and go to her classroom when they need a place to cool down and
when they need more one-on-one help with a concept. My sister sees many students in the
morning to go over what their day will look like (if there is a sub in one of their classes, if
something has changed, if they are going to have a quiz or test etc.). She will see these same
children at the end of the day to check-out with her (review their day, their behavior, their
quiz/test results, their homework etc.).
Some groups of children come into the classroom every day, some groups every other
day, and some children only come in when they have a test to take and need assistive technology
or a quiet place. When I visited last Friday, there was a group of students learning about the
features of the ocean and the ocean floor. Rachel had them cut out a chart that listed vocabulary
terms in some boxes and definitions and descriptions in other boxes. The students were
instructed to put the vocabulary terms with the corresponding definitions. Rachel and I assisted
with cutting when needed and helped the students one-on-one if they needed help. She then had
students go out into the hall one-by-one to attach the right vocab term to the correct place of the
ocean map. This has students more engaged and allowed them to manipulate the cards and place
them in the right spots.
The biggest issue my sister has with her students is getting them motivated. In order to
help teach lessons, she makes fun games or cool charts or allows them to do something online or
in a magazine. She traces maps of something they are learning about and will attach Velcro to the
maps and the vocabulary cards that go along with the map. She knows which students may need
more assistance than others and for example, when filling in the ocean map, she told me which

students need a little encouragement and which ones need more. She also told me which students
know the song that will help them, and which ones absolutely hate the song.
It is important for teachers to know their students individual capabilities and in a
classroom setting it is important for teachers to have high expectations for their students while
making the learning do-able. Teachers need to allow the students to learn all the same things but
in different ways and at different paces.