Differentiation Tricks & Treats

How do you differentiate in your classroom?

 

As a special educator, I'm always reading and learning about accommodations and modifications to help all our learners. I check the official boxes on the IEP forms, like "check for understanding" and "visual cues," but I know that teachers are doing SO much more every day with all of their students.

 

Next weekend I'm attending a Special Needs conference which will include "think tanks" brain-storming sessions and workshops, such as Speech and Language Development, Using MAP data to create rigorous IEP goals, etc. I can't wait to attend and experience more than a few "a-ha" moments!

 

My all-time favorite activity though is touring the schools on Friday. This is where the magic occurs - observing teachers who naturally differentiate for every single learner, whether moving up Bloom's to extend a student's thinking, or providing a cue to keep a student's attention.

 

I can't wait to report back all the amazing tricks and treats I learn!

 

I am quite sure my differentiation tricks & treats would not show up on an IEP document, but they still work with my awesome small groups! I'm not above singing, dancing, miming...anything to make learning joyful so it will "stick."

 

My tried & true tips for sight words include color-coding:

 

 

& we make a BIG deal of recognizing sight words in our environment & other curriculum activities:

 

We draw eyes on sight words past & present.
This is from my BOO! CVC game.

 

I also use quick activities to pre-teach upcoming units. So much of my teaching involves re-teaching (reactive), so I'm super-psyched when I can incorporate hands-on exposure experiences (proactive)!

 

This year I've FINALLY found a successful way to support calendar math - hallelujah!! I've been working on this for years!

My small group experiences calendar math with their classmates at the carpet, but I swear this seems to be the time they play with their shoes, a piece of lint, or something! I often join them at the carpet & nudge them to raise their hand to participate, but it's just not the most effective approach. Until this year... when I started using this:

 

 

The glare makes it tough to see, but it's a monthly page that covers the "basics" from calendar math. I pull a small group and together we review the date ("yesterday was the 27th, so today is...") and count up to the number of days in school. Then we represent the number with base ten blocks (pre-teach - place value unit starts next week!) and coins (oh. my. YIKES!). It's been a welcome & fun addition to our morning routine.

 

Here's an alternative November calendar page freebie 

to try out with your students!

 

Graphics from Scrappin' Doodles
Font from Rowdy in Room 300

It's from my Calendar Counting unit...there's two pages for November (1 for Thanksgiving and this non-holiday freebie). Just insert it into a page protector and it's ready to go! Please let me know if you use it with your students!

 

I would LOVE to hear your tricks and treats for differentiating learning for your students! Please leave a comment below  - thanks! Today we are supposed to experience Sandy - there's already false rumors about schools being closed Monday! It's so unfair to toy with teachers' emotions like that!

 

 I'm having a storm sale this weekend- it ends tonight!

 

Frame & clipart form Graphics from the Pond

 

I hope everyone has a safe weekend!