The First Few Days: Before You Differentiate Instruction

A differentiated class will be most effective if at first you focus on creating a culture of learning. I teach high school 9-12, the bulk of my students are 9th-10th graders.  By this point in their school career they have undoubtedly developed beliefs about themselves and school.  This is why it is so imperative to spend the first few days of school (more days really as it is an ongoing effort) to lay the foundation of trust in the classroom.  

I begin by asking my students to define the word "respect" in small groups.  

In my 18 years of teaching I have learned that I cannot simply throw the word "respect" out as a coverall for a classroom expectation without first discussing what it means. Students come to us with different backgrounds and cultural beliefs.  What is respectful to one person may be seen as disrespectful to another.  It is important for each class to define what respect will represent when referenced in class.  

Students then continue working in small groups to discuss/define these phrases:

• point chasing v *knowledge seeking 

• fair is not always equal

*Note to self, if you are going to ask students what knowledge seeking looks like you better be pretty darn prepared to show them what they will be able to know and do for various levels of readiness while in your class (this is a blog post for another day). 

After groups discuss these phrase, I ask each small group to share out the group definitions.  During the class discussion I ask kids questions such as:  

• "By this point in your life you have likely experienced what it is like to be given an assignment you are not ready for...how does this make you feel? 

• "And certainly some of you have been given an assignment that is so easy you wonder why you even have to do it....how does that make you feel?"  

I also ensure I tell students:

• "Fair is not always equal. Therefore what we do in this class will always be fair but what is fair to you may look different for the person next to you."

Undoubtedly, when I first give assignments that are different I will hear:

•  "So this is the dumb assignment?" That soon goes away as my response is, 
• "When someone has the ability to learn something new does this make them dumb?" 
• They almost always answer "No" or something that equates to "no" and I reply with, 
• "Then if you are learning by working through this assignment, then that must make you smart, right?" 

At this point I usually get raised eye brows or a shoulder shrug because struggling students have not thought of themselves this way before.  These conversations help foster growth mindsets and build trust between the teacher and student.

It takes time, patience and fairness to earn the trust of students...however, I ask the same of them for me:)  Keep your eye out for upcoming blog posts on how to build your framework for a differentiate class.  For resources to help you with the start of the school year, see below.

RESOURCES FOR YOU 

TO KICK START YOUR SCHOOL YEAR

• For my lesson, What's Your Definition of Fair: Out of the Mouthes of Babes, click HERE.

• For access to my Google student survey, Who are you as a student and a learner?, click HERE for the Google form.  MAKE A COPY FOR YOURSELF BEFORE EDITING
• IMPORTANT STEPS TO ACCESS THE FORM SEEN BELOW
• CLICK ON THE HYPERLINK
• MAKE A COPY FOR YOURSELF
• THEN GO TO THE FORM TAB AND VIEW THE LIVE FORM
• THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO TWEAK THE FORM FOR YOUR CLASS