Differentiating Instruction through Student Choice

I was fortunate to do my student teaching with an amazing mentor, supervisor, and friend, Deb Blaz. As I student taught, she was writing Differentiated Instruction: A Guide for Foreign Language Teachers, and I was completing some action research and writing my Ball State Honors College undergrad thesis on the same topic. She helped me take the theories of differentiation I learned as a student myself and turn them into real lessons that produced results. One of the most intriguing ideas was that student choice could sometimes shift the decision making in differentiation to the students, allowing them a voice and some autonomy while meeting their needs.

One means of offering differentiation through choice is as easy as offering a Tic Tac Toe grid of options for the learning process. The teacher simply offers nine learning activities, mixes them up by interests, learning styles, and/or readiness, and allows the students to choose any 3 activities he would like to complete to make a Tic Tac Toe on the grid. This differentiates the process of learning and practicing the skills, and the student is free to make the choices.

Ch 1 Vocabulary Tic Tac Toe

Write a poem of at least 16 lines that uses all 10 vocab words	Create a comic strip of at least 6 panels that uses all 10 vocab words	Create a Frayer Model organizer for each vocab word
Create a crossword puzzle for all 10 vocab words, using the definitions as clues. Turn in a clean copy and a copy a classmate has completed!	Complete all of the activities for this chapter in your vocab book	Write a short story, at least 1 page long, that uses all 10 vocab words
Write a context-clue rich, juicy sentence for each vocab word	Find examples from the “real world” for at least 6 of this week’s vocab words	Draw a picture to represent each vocab word

Another way is to offer review activities at a unit's end which cover the variety of skills and ideas included in the unit; this may look and feel like learning centers. Students would have to choose which activities to complete (always offer more than they could finish, to ensure everyone is learning the whole time), thereby differentiating the content of the lesson for themselves based upon their own unique needs and interests.

But perhaps my favorite idea for allowing students to differentiate instruction through choice is on assessment, where my student teaching mentor would build an assessment worth more points than she truly intended (usually 5-10% of total test). She would then give the assessment to students that way, allowing them to "skip" the number of points she didn't need. This is tricky, and it takes some time to train the students how to do it correctly. Since some questions or sections of the test may be worth more points than others, teachers have to keep the students focused on the number of points rather than the number of questions. Also, students are never allowed to use all of their "skip points" to skip an entire section of the test, so they have to attempt at least one of every type of question or skill. Finally, it's best to have the students write "skip" in place of the questions answer, so the teacher has no question on the student's intent (did you leave it blank or want to skip?). Even for Scantron/bubble sheet users, students can write skip to the left of the number! Finally, if students choose not to use their skip points, it's not bonus; the number they get wrong is simply subtracted from the total points intended on the test. This teaches them to be purposeful in deciding which questions to complete and which to "skip."

While some content is non-negotiable and we certainly can't provide "skip points" on standardized tests, allowing students to choose in the classroom leads to more relevant, targeted, differentiated learning. In fact, it can teach students to differentiate for themselves and develop more ownership of the learning process. Just because it's not allowed on the five days of testing doesn't mean we shouldn't try it the other one hundred seventy-five days we have our students!

How do you allow for student choice in your lessons? Do you have any creative ideas for differentiating through choice? I'd love it if you would share!

Where does grammar belong in the 21st century ELA classroom?

I grew up having two English classes every day, from third grade through eighth grade. In "reading," we read, discussed, and wrote, while in "language" class we wrote, learned spelling words, and, most heavily, learned and practiced grammar rules. These were my two favorite classes every day! Many of my classmates enjoyed reading class, but few of them had the zeal for grammar I did. It just made sense to me; I loved dissecting the sentences we diagrammed, especially when they were so long and complex that we had to do it in chalk on the parking lot, for the sentences were too big to put on a paper. Even grammar worksheets seemed fun, for they seemed like logic puzzles. Being able to explain and debate a word's usage afterward was a bonus, and I loved the challenge of it all. When I got to high school, my English classes rarely focused on grammar separately, but I found the joy of grammar in my Latin and French classes.

However, I'm pretty sure these sentiments identify me as some type of warped, sadistic person destined to become a language teacher. It is not "normal" to think grammar is fun. My first year teaching high school English, the entirety of my grammar lessons was a bomb! While I didn't focus on it, any time I asked students to consider grammar was like pulling teeth! Students had a completely fixed mindset about their grammar skills, and they saw no reason to try to improve their understanding. Activities resulted in large numbers of As and Fs, with barely a grade between them. I was frustrated, half of the students were frustrated, and the other half was bored! I backed off on grammar completely for a couple of years after an evaluation where I tried a ten minute grammar lesson and was criticized for it; that administrator was of the opinion that teaching grammar at high school was pointless.

Now, I do incorporate some grammar in my lessons, but usually just focus on usage rather than explaining or learning rules. As I reflect on a very low grammar school year this year, our first year with 1:1 technology, I wonder: What is the place of grammar in the 21st century, collaborative classroom? Does it have a place? Let's discuss this week, #slowchatela friends!

Q 5/11: What are your personal feelings and experiences related to grammar?

Q5/12:  Has a supervisor or administrator ever pressured you about grammar one way or another?

Q 5/13:  How do you approach teaching grammar in your ELA classroom? What's your philosophy?

Q 5/14: How can we shift the student perception of grammar as boring and useless?

Q 5/15: How can we bring grammar into the modern classroom? What are your ideas for the future of grammar instruction?

Giving My All, All the Time

On Friday, a student turned to me and exclaimed, "Mrs. Manahan, you're the only person I know who 'goes hard' all the time!". I had just turned on the Google Education on Air Conference to watch during my lunch and planning period, which, thanks to a crazy testing schedule, were miraculously together and comprised two hours of my day. The plan was to watch, add to the conversation on Twitter, and maybe get a little grading done. This student was incredulous that I would work so hard when I had this leisurely schedule, and he continued to ask me why I always worked hard and encouraged other to do the same.

That made me wonder, what does make some people give their all while others feel free to take a more "scenic" route? I found this TedBlog by Jessica Gross that examines 7 studies and their findings on our motivation to work hard, and I completely agree. I am motivated to work hard because I see the tangible results of my effort every day in the growth and learning of my students; as they progress throughout the year, I always feel I am on a whirlwind journey with them to improve their understanding and explore new ideas with them. Even on the worst days, I know I am making progress with at least one of them. Since I can see and track this progress, I know I'm going in the right direction. I also know that the work I am doing is helping someone, whether it is the students in my classroom or the teachers I connect with, who are in turn helping students in their classrooms. I am driven to work harder because the whole goal is to improve someone else's life, which in turn is improving my own! A cycle of motivation and improvement!

I am the type of person who at least tries my best to go "all in" on every project or assignment, a character trait that is both exhilarating and terrifying. On one hand, I honestly have the drive to see a project through to the end, to check up on it, to modify it if necessary--but I always have a plan.  In fact, I always have several plans. I once received an email from an administrator with no less than 6 alternate schedules for testing in case of different weather situations on different days of testing (after that he listed a final plan in case of a zombie apocalypse!), and I could sympathize! Even though I generally have several plans in mind, the worst (or best?) is when I come up with a new alternate plan while things are happening! But, on the other hand, I can drive myself, and the people around me, crazy because my brain is always "on." And I can easily wear myself down making plans for all the ideas in my head, and always trying to improve upon them.

Sometimes the swing set is the most important thing

The only thing that can truly make me pause or slow down is my children. My boys mean the world to me, and if I find I am not truly present with them, I try to shut off all distractions and live in the moment. I don't want to miss these moments, for I know I'll never get them back. We spend time singing, dancing, talking, and coloring while I cook dinner, and if I need to order take-out because the swing set or a bike ride was more important than so be it! In the whirlwind of the school year's end and my search for a possible new job in school administration next year, I'm glad I have my boys to make me pause; that's probably the only thing truly helping me keep my sanity!

Our Google Education On Air Conference Party

Back to that student, he might not understand, but he's seeing an adult modeling continuous effort, improvement, and learning. In fact, since he's my aide, he watched much of the Google Education On Air Conference with me, and he enjoyed it! He might not understand right now why I am the way I am, but I hope he, all my students, and especially my boys grow up to find a vocation they love as much as I love education! Then, they will understand why I give my all, all the time!



What drives you to work hard, and what helps you to pause or slow down? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

My Top Six, Can't-Live-Without Chrome Extensions

I've already confessed to being a Google Chrome addict, and I keep finding more apps and extensions that make my life easier and more productive. After giving a Tech Tuesday presentation this week to some fellow teachers that left them reeling from all of the exciting possibilities, I was inspired to create this list of my top six, can't-live-without Chrome extensions!

1. Extensity
This extension allows me to turn all of my apps and extensions on and off with two clicks, keeps my toolbar clutter free, and helps my computer run faster! I simply enable/disable extensions as needed. Bonus--I can launch any Chrome app  I have from this extension! THE must-have extension for Chrome addicts like me!


2. Save to Google Drive
With this extension, I can save screenshots or web content (including Office Docs, PowePoints, Spreadsheets and PDFs) to my Google Drive. It allows me to rename files and choose a folder from my Drive to put it in!  This is a great feature when I'm browsing for ideas for a new lesson I'm teaching, or when I find awesome content I'm afraid I'll lose!

3.  Grammarly Spell Checker and Grammar Checker
When we made the switch to Google Apps for Education in my school, one of the biggest complaints I heard from my fellow teachers was the lack of spell check/grammar check in Google Docs. Enter Grammarly to the rescue! Not only does it check your spelling and grammar in Google Docs, sheets, presentations, drawings, etc, but it also checks it virtually anywhere else on the Web! No more (or at least fewer) errors in tweets and Facebook posts! While a paid, premium version exists, I get much help from the free version of this extension!

4.  One Tab
I can be the Queen of Open Tabs if I don't watch out. This used to slow down my browsing experience, but it doesn't happen any more thanks to the One Tab extension. This easily, seamlessly converts my open tabs into one tab with links to all of my pages. I can restore a single tab, or I can choose to restore all of my tabs at once. The description boasts that One Tab can save up to 95% memory!


5.  Adblock Plus
Have you ever tried to show a video from Youtube in class, think you have everything in control, and then suddenly find yourself stuck with one of those ads you can't skip? Worse yet, the ad is invariably inappropriate, right? Well, that will happen no more with the Adblock Plus extension!  I never have to deal with annoying ads popping up any time I browse with Chrome!

6. Goobric
With the addition of Google Classroom to Google Apps for Education this year, Goobric has proven to be an amazing extension that allows me to work towards a paperless classroom by attaching a rubric I have designed to any rubric I have designed to an assignment in Google Classroom. I don't have to click on each assignment individually; Goobric allows me to scroll through and mark assignments quickly and easily! Check out this awesome video from Jennie Magiera on how to use it!

So many more amazing extensions exist, and new ones are being developed each day! I'd love to hear about your favorite Chrome extensions and how you are using them in the classroom! Please add your comments below!

Five Things We Need to Stop Pretending

Inspired by the recent wave of Five Things We Need to Stop Pretending posts by educators across the country and a crazy April of new initiatives and preparations for state testing, here are my thoughts.

1. The education we received is good enough for our students.
If I hear one more educator say this, I just may scream. What was good enough last year may not be good enough this year! Each group of students is unique, with their own strengths, weaknesses, interests, and ideas.  We should not treat them like they are! Factor in the advances we've made in understanding how the brain functions, the technology available to us, and the way our world is changing, and it's obvious to everyone that the education you received is not good enough for the students in our classrooms today! That doesn't mean it will be easy-change is always difficult! But the evolution of our teaching as we learn and grow should be a top priority for all educators!

2. Banning technology is the answer.
Love it or hate it, tech savvy or novice user, technology is a part of the lives and world of our students. Classrooms should not be isolated islands of tech free space or only-when-the-teacher-oks-it use. Have we been to a staff meeting, a workshop, or a conference lately? In the "real world," we're always using our technology, and sometimes we're even encouraged to use it! Yes, students will use the tech at inappropriate or inconvenient times, but we need to take on the responsibility of modeling, monitoring, and teaching appropriate use of technology. It's a new type of classroom management, but one all of our students need!

We can not pretend our students will learn everything about appropriate tech use at home, or that they won't make mistakes at school with tech, even if we have banned it from our classrooms. Just like every teacher must find the classroom management strategies that work for him or her, educators must find the tech strategy that will work for each of them. But a strategy at work is a vast improvement over pretending we won't have situations to address or that we can pretend the technology doesn't exist.

3. Students aren't capable of big plans and game-changing ideas.
We have the unique opportunity as teachers to work with young people each day, to hear their hopes, dreams, and ideas. We need to take these seriously! Our students need us to be their cheerleaders, their coaches, to put them in touch with the right people, in person and through social media, who can help them transform their ideas into realities. While I've always known this, it was never more apparent to me than it was last weekend as I sat with a tentative group of "tech team" students from my school amongst more than 250 other middle and high school students at the Hoosier Student Digital Leaders Conference. The keynote speaker, Kevin Honeycutt, challenged the room to think of something they were passionate about, and how they could use that passion to change the world and improve the lives of others. After hearing two students share responses, he allowed time for the students to talk among themselves about ideas--and the room was alive with conversation. With the right guidance, how many of those ideas will become realities?

Four young ladies from my school spent their time discussing ways to help bring education to girls in countries where their government or religion does not want them to be educated; nearly a week later, these girls met during our school activity period to brainstorm ideas to make this happen! Our students don't have to be eighteen or have college educations to dream big and want to make a difference!

4. Non-educators should be the major decision makers in education.
As we prepare for state testing (and as I teach freshmen and sophomores, ALL of my students will experience at least one major standardized test this year), my high school students are smart enough to question the need for all of this testing and what is done with the results. These are the most tested students in our history, and I see two types of students that the testing emphasis has manufactured. One type of student is so stressed out by the thought of tests and grades that any minor slip or mention of the word "test" brings about anxiety attacks, hyperventilation, and sometimes tears. These students are the ones who are afraid to be wrong, afraid they won't measure up, and afraid they are the equivalent of that test score. On the other hand, I also see students who no longer see the value in tests or the point in doing their best work--after all, they will just have another test in the future. For this group, a test isn't proving anything and has lost meaning.

I've been rebelling against testing this year in my own classroom. Other than the midterm and final, I rarely give a test as assessment. Instead, I've asked my students to write from a character's perspective through RAFT assignments, to argue a point through an "Epic Rap Battle," to tweet a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, and to write letters to authors. I am much more interested in my students creating things to show me their knowledge, and I can assess their learning just as much, probably even better, from a project that required making something to show evidence of learning as I can from a bubbled-in test answer sheet. My students know that I have recently earned my administrator's license, but they have been urging me to pursue a political career rather than a principalship. Even our students know that those who are not in our schools, with our students, and living the state of public education can't possibly know what things are like or what is best for our students. We need more educators, students, and parents working together with all stakeholders to determine the best decisions for education.

5. A silver bullet exists to fix our problems.
Working in two different school districts and substitute teaching in several others, I've seen so many initiatives billed as the answer to our problems. The truth is, none of these are THE answer. Many of even the best designed and best-intended initiatives don't stick around long enough to make a dent in the problem they were intended to alleviate. Part of this is natural, because sticking with any change is difficult. Just think about how many of your own New Year's resolutions you've made and broken! But another issue here is the inability to prevent new obstacles from getting in our way. Personnel changes, new standards to tech, new evaluation systems, newly elected policy makers--the list is long and in constant flux.

The truth is, no single solution exists and no two situations are the same. All we can do is try to be better than we were yesterday, last week, last year. We need to learn and grow, be accountable for and learn from our mistakes and celebrate and share our victories. If we can do this, we will be the best versions of ourselves, which will mean our schools and our students are the best versions of themselves as well.

Epic Rap Battles as Assessment

With one to one Chromebooks this school year and fewer restrictions on internet browsing, the opportunities for meaningful technology integration in my classroom have grown exponentially. I have been able to post youtube videos to my Google classroom that students can watch at home and make flipped instruction possible, or even hold a Twitter chat to discuss the literature we read. But I would be kidding myself if I said students mostly used their Chromebooks for instruction! Our Chromebooks have also meant fun, a new toy for many students who might not have had their "own" devices before this experience.

One of my most adventurous assessments this year was born from combining my students' love for the fun of their Chromebooks with my love of redefining instruction with technology and alternate assessments--the Epic Rap Battle! Based on the Epic Rap Battles of History (example-Shakespeare vs. Dr. Seuss) my students love to watch on Youtube, I created an assessment for Ayn Rand's novel Anthem that is an Epic Rap Battle (assignment here)! One part poem, one part argumentative essay, one part performance, this assessment covers many standards!

Since we had already used the music creation site Soundtrap (soundtrap.com) for our Poetry Is Music Marketing Project (lesson here), it only made sense to use the service again. I was immediately drawn to Soundtrap over other music creation services because it is collaborative in nature (more than one student can work on a song at a time) and my students can sign in with Google! Since Soundtrap had been very interested and supportive of our classroom use before, I asked the company if they could provide some prizes to help motivate my students to do their best work on this assignment! To my delight, they happily agreed to send some lanyards our way as soon as they were printed!

Our Epic Rap Battles didn't turn out as amazing as I had hoped for the first round.  My students were able to cite some text evidence, build arguments, and write some decent poems, but they REALLY struggled in the performance aspect. Since this was a major portion of the grade, I was forced to re-evaluate this time around. Next year, I plan to focus much more on the performance aspect of the project to help make this a non-issue.

Winning Epic Rap Battle Groups

Here is a good example of some ladies who brought attitude to the performance, even if they didn't rehearse enough not to need a script!

How do you incorporate student interests and/or pop culture into your lessons? Do you ever use music in your non-music classroom? I'd love to hear your stories!

Redesigning Our Research Paper for Community Involvement

As we reviewed, updated, and rearranged our curriculum to correlate with the new Indiana College and Career Readiness Standards for Language Arts after our state opted out of the Common Core Standards last summer, we determined The Odyssey would be our major literature companion to our research paper. This research paper is our last major paper of the year, but it is the first "real" research paper our students ever write. I have generally helped facilitate this process by having all students write on the same topic, just choosing which direction to take that topic. While many papers are similar, it gives me a chance to focus on the skills and formatting of the research paper.

I wanted to give my students a topic that was recent, relevant, and in some way involved our community, since one of my major focus areas this year is to provide opportunities for home, community, and world interaction with our learning. Thinking of Odysseus's 20 years away from home and eventual happy reunion made me reflect on what life was like after the story ended. Would Odysseus live happily ever after with his family in Ithaca? Would he be satisfied no longer having adventures and visiting exotic lands? Would he have nightmares from his war days or losing his men on the way home? Would he be content to rule just Ithaca since he is "Master of landways and seaways"?

This line of questioning led me to recall a college classmate of mine who struggled to come back to normal life and classes after 14 months of active duty he had never anticipated. I had just begun my freshman year in fall of 2001 when September 11 happened.  Of course I'll never forget that day, but I'll also never forget when one of my classmates disappeared in February and the professor told us he had been deployed to Iraq. After the initial shock of the announcement, I really didn't think about him at all until he arrived back, as suddenly as he had left.in two different classes I was taking the next school year. Our college had put him back into the same classes he had been enrolled in upon his return. He struggled. Everyone could tell sitting still for nearly two hours, even fifty minutes was torture for him. He always faced the door, searching for something or someone unknown who might enter. When those last 6 weeks of the semester ended, I never saw him again. Every once in a while, like trying to determine a topic for this research paper. I think of him again. I never saw him again after that semester; I have no idea if he followed through and became a teacher.  But I hope he did.

With these two thoughts in mind, I knew immediately that I would have my students research the difficulties soldiers returning from a war zone, like Odysseus r my college classmate, might have in returning to a "normal" life after their experiences.  Most of the research is from after 9/11, and many of my students have a family member or acquaintance who has served or is serving in the military. Next, I knew I wanted to have a veteran come to visit my classes and offer first-hand experiences. I sent out several text messages and emails and made a few phone calls, but a good friend of my brother-in-law was my first and only response. It can be extremely difficult to get someone away from a real job to fit in time to accommodate our school schedule!

When the day of our guest visit arrived, my students were amazing as always! We had already generated a list of research questions and begun reading articles on our topic, so they had plenty of background knowledge AND curiosity to fill a fifty minute class period with questions for our veteran to answer. My students listened attentively, took copious notes, and fired away questions the entire class period!

Perhaps most impressive of all was their reactions after our interview sessions. In EVERY class period, at least one student approached our guest, shook his hand, and thanked him for his time that day and his service to our country. Without any prompting, they immediately asked the next day if we could send a thank you card-one student even brought one in herself! They talked so much the following day about how difficult it must have been for ur guest to share such personal information with a room full of strangers, and how several of them went home to talk more about the topic with a family member who has served in the military. Our papers aren't drafted yet, but I'm already calling this new research paper a success!

How are you building community connections in your classrooms? What are some of your ideas for reinvigorating the standard research paper? I'd love it if you'd share!