How do I help my students take ownership of the record-keeping process? Before I answer that, I must decide if I want to. I do want my children to take ownership of their learning, so I do want them to have access to their records, and to be aware of their personal progress or lack thereof. The best thing about an electronic gradebook is that students and their parents have access to grades and completed versus missing work. I do like to conference with every student, and for that the data notebook and graphing are very helpful. It's also rewarding for most students to see a consistently good graph, or to see a graph go up. The students whose graphs don't look so great tend to avoid doing the graphing. May be we could graph just the vocabulary questions, or just the open response, or the fill-in-the-blank are that would most benefit the student.

Week of 11/14; “Final Thoughts” (pages 97-106)

Choose one of the strategies from the Appendix to implement. What are some of the techniques you learned in this book that you could use in conjunction with the strategy? What would it look like in your classroom? How would you measure student success?

Week of 11/14 Chapter 14; “Grading in a Differentiated Classroom” (pages 93-96)

Choose one question to answer and respond to at least one other person’s answer.

1. Generate a list of descriptors for how you feel grades should be used. How can you get closer to that in your classroom? What do you feel the effects would be if you were able to achieve your ideal?
2. How can you help students take ownership in the record keeping process?

Working on that Jane Goodall Project:

Product: Create a newspaper section

Choice: which may include letters to the editor, editorial cartoons, feature article related to the text e.g. a news story about what students do to save wildlife, an article about Jane Goodall. Perhaps there could be comics ala' Mark Trail? Advertising?

Students will work in mixed ability groups, with each student responsible for their own content.

All content should include details from the text, and at least one fact and one opinion.

Each student could present their piece to the class and tell the class which statements are fact and which are opinion.

Audience: first our class, the n the final product could be shared with the grade that studies endangered animals (2nd?)

Grading: Includes fact(s)
Includes opinion(s)
Includes detail(s) from text
Edited for correct spelling and punctuation

That leaves out the public service announcement, unless perhaps it could go in as advertising? It would also be cool to put this together as a web page but that is beyond me.

Ideas for Inclusionary Classrooms

Below are you tube videos with excellent ideas for lessons. I actually found quite a few good videos as I was surfing the site. You never know where your next inspiration will come from!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCn4qDyuZVE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek951kXTBzo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDR68Ty_Sic&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=DkY2D-f3JNo

How do I decide which strategy to use in my classroom. Vic used to complain that i did it by the seat of my pants, to which I replied that they were very educated pants. I have noticed that I need to differentiate my differentiation this year. I love to use math games to address weaknesses and challenge advanced students in math. This year I joined a group of boys who'd decided they'd rather play poker than Division Top-it, and Go Fish instead of First to One Hundred. So I think I need to use exit slips! Last year I had students invent a game to practice rounding and that worked well. Maybe those students can create a GO Fish that involves fractions!
I have noticed that this year I have students who excel at talking but are not so good at listening. So I also think I need to make use of the dance routine from our PD day. Well, we didn't call it that but since they dance in the hall I'm sure the walk around until the music stops will become dance around. The hard part will be getting the discussion topics prepared. My energy is sapped from dealing with the daily paperwork. That and not sleeping.

Next week we will read "Jane Goodall's 10 Ways to Save"
I believe it is wildlife, and thinking about how to differentiate. My students read the text in circles. The skill is fact and opinion, so I think this would be a good place for a letter to the editor or a public service announcement. Either product would allow the student to demonstrate an understanding of Jane Goodall's ideas by applying it to everyday life in the letter or announcement. I want students to have a choice of product because I know that I have some very good writers, but others are much better at telling what they know. Now I need to go figure out when to fit this in...
I am glad that this chart is included. I had a list of 100 possible products from WOW training that I misplaced. I need a list because "make a poster' is my go-to product and I definitely tend to over-use it. I was also glad that making the implicit explicit was include. Having FCA's for a project is a good idea.

Week of 11/7; Ch. 13 “Differentiating Product” (pages 85-92)

Choose one question to answer and respond to at least one other person’s answer.

1. Think about your most effective product assignment. Analyze the assignment by using Figure 3.1 and the accompanying explanation. What are the areas of “match” between your product and the assignment guidelines? Areas of mismatch? What insights does this analysis give you about the product assignments? About the guidelines?

2. Choose a product from Figure 3.1, “Product Possibilities” on page 89 for your class. Describe the activity and the accompanying product.

Week of 11/7 Chapters 12-13; Ch. 12 “Differentiating Process” (pages 79-84)

Choose one question to answer and respond to at least one other person’s answer.

1. How do you decide which instructional strategy is best suited to particular learning goals in your classroom?

2. Share a scenario from your classroom which, like the examples in the chapter, show how you differentiate (or might differentiate) process based on student readiness, interest, and/or learning profile.

Differentiating content
1. Many,many years ago, we always started the year by giving a learning style survey. For some reason, it went out of fashion; but I still find myself making mental notes about who has to have quiet, who prefers to work alone, who is always asking to have the lights turned off . Also, the child who absolutely has to have quiet to read may be the student who has to talk out math. So kid watching is important.
2. My learning style is bright light, but not as bright as our new lights, piano music, boring surroundings, and food. I usually only decorate one wall of the room because less decor is better for ADHD students. I have words everywhere this year and it's driving me nuts! I need to remember to include a variety of learning styles. For example, the auctioneer who visited my classroom had several students rap for him to show how that was like the auctioneers chant. While I often ask students to draw, I need to remember to include performance options.
3. The before and after charts of lesson design were overwhelming at first . Wow, different reading levels, different questioning levels, different tests! But then I realized that the new Focus on Science provides different reading levels, and while we find some of the materials boring our reading series does provide various levels. So I need to practice using exam view to create a variety of tests. which is a good idea because when they take the OAA they'll have a different form of the test then the child beside them; and it can provide scaffolding to develop their question answering skills.