Differentiating Instruction for Classes

Okay, I’ve realized this before. My 3rd period and 5th period, although both Algebra I classes, are two very different classes. Their behaviors are different, the way they respond to activities are different, and so it should have clicked earlier that the way that I teach them should be different. But hey, I’m still learning. Here’s my (very) long-winded story of my little frustrations/successes that lead me to realize what I need to work on.

When the school year first began, my 3rd period was the “better” of the two. They were less rowdy, and got more work done. On the other hand, my 5th period struggled to get ANYTHING done. However, once I started finding strategies that worked with them, such as the individual white boards (I don’t know why they love them so much, but they do) and activities that allow them to get out of their seats and move around, they started improving… so I continued with it.

Now, 6 or 7 weeks into the year, with two tests down, I only have ONE student failing in my 5th period. There are still more D’s than I would like, but still far less than when I first started.  On the other hand, my 3rd period has fallen far behind, and I only have six students with a C or better in that class, with nearly a third of them failing.

What now?

I changed things up again. I started doing more direct teaching, with the same old, “I do, we do, you do” routine, then practice, practice, practice. What happened? My 3rd period actually responded well to this! I saw improvement on quizzes and all the little informal assessments, as well as more confidence from the students in their work.  However, whenever I tried pulling off the same lessons with my 5th period, it was like pulling teeth.

Here’s what happened today. My very simple, straight-forward, nothing fancy lessons consisted of the following:

1. Practicing writing equations in slope-intercept form and point-slope on mini white boards

2. Taking notes of examples on how to convert an equation from point-slope form to slope-intercept form, by just distributing and solving for y. (Mind you, many of these students still have trouble just writing an equation in slope-intercept form when I explicitly give them the slope and y-intercept.)

3. More practice on the white boards, adding this step of converting to slope-intercept form.

4. A “Ticket Out the Door” assignment with both new and review problems due before the end of the period (complete and correct).

About 75% of my 3rd period finished the assignment on time. I also chose random problems from their paper where they had to explain what they did and why they did it before I would accept it, and I was actually impressed on how well most of them explained their work, including their use of vocabulary.  The 5 or 6 students who did not finish, I did hold in for a several minutes during lunch, as they scrambled to finish, or re-learn a concept so that they can explain to me in their own words how they completed the problems. Were they upset that I held them in? Well… they pretended to be. But at the same time, after I would let some of them go, a couple students still responded, “oh can I help ‘so-and-so’ understand this problem better?” How could I deny them? The last student left 15 minutes into lunch.

My 5th period on the other hand… Well, let’s just say, they started off well, and they ended well, but the in between was very rough. This class already had a lot better understand of writing equations in slope-intercept form and point-slope form. A few problems in, and we were already into the notes. Here’s where it fell apart. The examples should have taken 5 minutes, 10 at the most. Yet, I stood there, waiting, and waiting, constantly stopping because the students could not focus. I already knew that NO ONE was learning.

I got through one simple example, and only half way through a second before I finally stopped and asked the class, “What’s the point in me trying to teach this if I know that I’m going to have to reteach it to everyone one individually?” Already, I don’t like to much direct teaching, but I did because I thought it would help them at least learn the procedural steps and we would continue to build from there. But now, I knew they weren’t even learning that, and the students knew it too.

My solution, whether or not it was wrong or right.

Me: Okay, let’s try this. I’m going to hand you the “Ticket Out the Door” assignment. I will not assist with this assignment in any way, but only tell you if your answers are correct or incorrect. If you need help, you may ask each other, use your notes, OR wait until after the bell rings when I will take the time to teach it to you after school.

What happened next amazed me.

The students got straight to work, trying to figure this out. I had probably three students complain to me that they didn’t know how to solve the problems. I just listed their options again on how to get help. After about 15 minutes, I had three students turn in their assignments, one I had picked up off the desk as he was kindly “sharing” his work with others (which didn’t really help them, since they would still have to explain their work). I didn’t bother those students once I had their assignments. But instead, as more people started finishing their work, I started seeing little study groups forming. In one corner, one student who had already completed her assignment was helping about 4 or 5 other students. And they sat their, with the white boards out, working on problems, checking their work and DISCUSSING what they were learning.

It wasn’t just, “Here, this is how you do it. Let me show you” type of help. It was the “Okay, think about what your next step is” type of discussion. This? Happening in my 10th-12th grade Algebra I class? Without me forcing them to?

In the end, I only had three students stay after class, and not longer than five minutes. And only two of them were because they could not explain how they got their answers.

Now how can I foster this type of learning environment every day in those classes? It’s easy in my Algebra II, but this totally took me by surprise in my Algebra I.

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Oh and just another little victory in one of my students in my 3rd period. This student, I didn’t even remember what he looked like for the first few weeks of class because he hardly showed up. When he did, he sat there doing nothing unless I stood over his shoulder as he wrote. These past two weeks, he now comes running to my classroom to be on time (even he exclaimed that he couldn’t believe that he’s literally running to my class), and he is working every day. His grade is improving although he is still failing, and he still has a lot to work on, but I hope we can get him to keep up his current habits and pass the class. Hooray.