It is that time of year...April....where everyone has to start reviewing for STAAR. While I am not on board with just cramming test info...that soapbox is for another time. What I am on board with, is differentiating and giving choice to kids. So with the biology STAAR test upon us, here is what we are doing to provide just that for our students. Get Your data!For this to work, you must have data. Our high school does a mock test about 2 weeks before the test to pull data on what the lowest categories are for our students. Each student is flagged with their two lowest categories. When the teacher gets ready to implement review, it is differentiated based on student needs. Giving students choiceNow the students don't have a choice on the subject matter, but they will be given some choice on how they practice the areas they are weakest in. The re-teachFirst, there needs to be a re-teach. So in the choice menu, you will see an area that is for re-teach. In our case we used EdPuzzle. Each student will login and get into our class using a code. Then they are given the list of videos that they must watch for the re-teach portion. Most content areas only have 1 or 2 videos. Here are some examples. When the students complete each video, they will get a teach initial. This shows that there is completion, but more than anything it is a time for the teacher to ask questions and check on progress. THE practiceThis portion of the review we want the students to have some choice. So here they are given anywhere between 3-4 options, but they only have to complete 2 of them. We tried to vary the options allowing for them to try online tutorials/quizzes, hands-on review like puzzles, reading passages, or summarizing. Some of the options allow for more creativity as well. Here are some examples. THE Assessment5 questions (mostly STAAR type of questions) are then placed in a Microsoft Form for easy grading. When the student is finished with the first 2 portions, then they will take the assessment. The pathway has a place for them to place their grade and get initials from the teacher. Again, this gives the teacher an idea of how much more help the student needs, or it can allow them to move on to their next lowest tested area. Here it is all togetherI hope you found this post helpful and easy to understand. But most importantly I hope you see how simple and easy it can be to differentiate and provide choice for your kids, even for something as cumbersome as STAAR review.
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One of the areas I wanted to focus on this year and helping teachers was in RTI and differentiation at the high school level. Many times, the students are given work and most of it doesn't vary from student to student. So if students are filling out a review, for example, they are all filling out the same one, regardless of what their needs are. So I wanted to create something that was super simple, but effective, for differentiating. This doesn't differentiate for EVERY kid, which is fine! It does, however, differentiate into 2 main categories: kids who need more help and kids who don't. So we remediate for those kids who need more practice and give an enrichment assignment for those kids who get it. Create your formative assessmentStarting here first, we created a SHORT formative assessment that would gauge whether our students really knew the content or not. For example, in our IPC class students were studying chemical bonds. But in particular, we wanted to see if they could 1. predict formulas and 2. draw a lewis dot structure for either an ionic or covalent bond. Both of these topics were covered previously. So here is what those questions looked like. choose activities for remediationNext, we chose some activities that we would do for kids who needed remediation. In this case, if they missed predicting formulas, what activity would help them to practice? So we chose a worksheet that walk them through the steps of finding oxidation numbers and then using the criss-cross method. We did the same thing for the second set of questions over Lewis Dot Structures and bonding. Choose your activities for enrichmentFor enrichment, the kids who got the questions right, needed something more than practice because they already knew the answers. So if they got all the questions in either group then they were to create a poster, powerpoint, video, etc over how to complete the problems. This would allow them to be the teacher. Putting it all togetherPutting it together is simple. We created a table in a word document. The questions went on the right hand side and the directions for remediation or enrichment went on the left hand side. Students were given the assessment at the end of class. The teacher quickly went through and graded the assessment and highlighted the areas of needs or enrichment for each student. The next day the students were given back the assessment. Depending on their need, they completed the assignment that was highlighted.
That's it folks. You differentiated for kiddos and the extra work was limited. As the teacher you knew who your students that needed the most help and could divvy up your time in class to give some 1 on 1 attention. What is 4 Corners?This is a strategy designed to get students to think about how or what they agree with and to what extent. Traditionally, a question is posed to students. Each corner of the room is labeled with an agree, disagree, and to what extent statement. Students think about the question and then move to the corner. From there you could call on people to explain their reasoning or set up a debate. Here we will look at how to use OneNote to facilitate this strategy. In this case, while the kids lose the movement they do gain the ability for all to speak their mind. You could combine the two strategies and allow students to record their thinking and then move to the area of their choice or vice versa. OneNote Page SetupIn this OneNote page I created a 2 column and 2 row table. Label those with your disagree and agree statements. The prompt is written off to the side. Students then choose which topic they agree with. They click in the box they would like to talk about. At the top they go to the Insert Tab and choose either Record Audio or Record Video. You can then set parameters as to how long or what should be covered in the videos.
The "Say Something" strategy uses pauses and interruptions in a student's reading of text, to give them time for thought and reflection. This post will show you how to use the audio/video features in OneNote to use this strategy. Creating Your OneNote PageFirst, choose your text and break it up into sections. Find places in the text where you want them to answer a question or reflect upon what they read. On a OneNote page, create a 2 column table and enough rows for your different sections of text. Column 1 will be your text, label the first row in the first column with the name of your text. In the 2nd column, 1st row, you will put in the questions that you wish the students to answer as they read. In the rest of the rows in Column 1, paste your sections of text. Each section in a new row. Example is below. Collaboration Space vs. Notebook SpaceThe question now, where do you want to distribute the assignment? Placing it in the collaboration space would allow all students to see/hear each other's responses. It also allows them to delete.....(you can always restore through page versions) but some teacher's or even students may not be comfortable with this. The other option is to send the assignment into each student's notebook. This would keep their answers private. So other's can respond, you could then copy and paste videos/audio that were thought provoking or well done and put them in the collaboration space or content library for all students to then view and possibly discuss later on. Directions for the AssignmentHave students begin reading the first section. Then choose a question they would like to answer. Each student will then place their cursor in the 2nd column of the first section of reading. Go to the Insert tab at the top of OneNote. They can choose to Record Audio or Record Video and respond. After, they move onto the next section of text and continue. Examples of QuestionsSomething I agree with is... Something that puzzles me is... Something I am remind of when I read.... A new idea is... Something I disagree with is... Something I wish was explained more is... Something I would like to talk more about... Something I don't understand is... Here is a question that I have... I enjoyed the part when... I predict...will happen next. This reminds me of when....happened. If you like this strategy and use it your classroom, let me know how it turns out!
I was creating a Vision 21 meeting specifically for my History teachers when I came across this strategy. I absolutely think it is brilliant. Here is the original post: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/crop-it. My hope is to show you how this can be done in OneNote using the Snipping Tool. I mean, who doesn't love the Snipping Tool?!?! What is the purpose of Crop it?This strategy is to help students dig deeper and analyze images. For history, analysis is a major player in their TEKS. By using this strategy, students will be able to distinguish and respond to different parts of an image and then use that information to analyze the overall meaning and impact. How to conduct this activityPlace the image you wish students to analyze in a OneNote page. Create a table below it with 3 columns. In the first column, place a prompt you wish the students to answer in a separate row. In the 2nd column, students will use the Snipping Tool to place their image response, and in the 3rd column they will explain their response. Here is an example. Using the Snipping Tool: Open up the Snipping Tool and select NEW. Then drag over the portion of the photo you wish crop. Click the COPY button and then paste into the correct cell. Examples of Questions
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| Using the vocabulary words: Momentum, Velocity, and Mass, explain the video to left. Think about how mass and velocity play into momentum and how that might effect "big" hits in a football game. |
Using the words: hypothesis, problem, and conclusion explain the short video clip to the right. | |
| Watch the commercial and explain how personification is used. Do you think this has an impact on branding? |
Explain the process Yako used to multiply the 2 digit numbers. Be sure to include vocabulary such as; multiply, add, ones, tens, and place value. | |
The term Digital Native refers to someone who has been brought up in the age of technology. But guess what....they still stink at using technology. Ok, so they can get on Snapchat, create awesome YouTube videos, and navigate Madden 2017 like nobody's business.....but they struggle with forms of technology meant for school and the workforce.
Don't overestimate students knowledge of tech
A costly mistake many teachers make is assume the students know how to do what you are asking them to do. You ask them to upload a paper into OneNote or insert a picture into a Google Doc......those words may have very little meaning to them. So what happens? The teacher gets frustrated that they didn't do the assignment right, blame the tech or the student, get annoyed, students still doesn't know to fix it, so everyone gives up. Or maybe they have more perseverance but still end up frustrated and more reluctant to use tech in the future.
SAVE YOURSELF THE FRUSTRATION AND DON'T FORGET YOUR TECH DIRECTIONS.
SAVE YOURSELF THE FRUSTRATION AND DON'T FORGET YOUR TECH DIRECTIONS.
Creating directions
In my case, I make all my directions in OneNote, since that is what we primarily use. If you are a Google guy or gal then use docs, sheets, or slides to keep your directions.
1. Brainstorm all the different "tech" applications you typically use. Maybe it is inserting a picture, emailing a file, uploading a video, creating a table, using the audio features, etc.
2. Start creating the tech directions for those items. As you write the directions, perform the task. You want to be as clear as possible and write the directions as your students would use it.
3. SAVE your directions in whatever form you would usually use them. So if it is OneNote directions, save it in your Master OneNote notebook. If it is docs directions, save it on a Google Doc, same with slides, etc.
4. When it is time for to use the directions simply open the file you already created and copy and paste into your assignment. For me, I use the Snipping Tool and snip a picture of the directions and paste directly onto the OneNote page. This will save you time in the long run.
It is super simple, but can save so much frustration for you and your students, and allow you to focus more on the learning and less on the tool. Here are some examples I have created in my OneNote notebook.
1. Brainstorm all the different "tech" applications you typically use. Maybe it is inserting a picture, emailing a file, uploading a video, creating a table, using the audio features, etc.
2. Start creating the tech directions for those items. As you write the directions, perform the task. You want to be as clear as possible and write the directions as your students would use it.
3. SAVE your directions in whatever form you would usually use them. So if it is OneNote directions, save it in your Master OneNote notebook. If it is docs directions, save it on a Google Doc, same with slides, etc.
4. When it is time for to use the directions simply open the file you already created and copy and paste into your assignment. For me, I use the Snipping Tool and snip a picture of the directions and paste directly onto the OneNote page. This will save you time in the long run.
It is super simple, but can save so much frustration for you and your students, and allow you to focus more on the learning and less on the tool. Here are some examples I have created in my OneNote notebook.
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