Last year I decided that I was ready for a new challenge. I wanted to focus on differentiation as much as possible. For each new topic that was covered in my room I would do a whole group lesson on the topic, generally with a Prezi presentation. Then I would have the students break out into their learning groups and rotate through a list of differentiated activities.
Today I am going to walk you through a day (or two) in my classroom teaching figurative language!
Before any activities or teaching has started, all of my classes were broken down into different learning groups based on pre-test scores. Each group was assigned a color. This color would correspond to the activities they will complete during independent time.
Some of the supplies I use for this:
I started the class with a bell ringer from my Bellringers and informed the class that for the next couple of days we would be working on Figurative Language:
After we went over the bellringer as a class, I handed out a copy of the mastery checklist that I created (See later in the post) The mastery checklist has all goals I would like the students to complete and master by the end of the unit. It is a way for the students to monitor their progress and study.
I then handed out the notes for the Figurative Language Prezi. I went through the prezi while the students filled in their notes. We went over any questions that the students may have had. Then we broke out into our learning groups.
Group 1:
This group worked on Figurative Language in Music. During the summer, I purchased some cheap Mp3 players. I put the songs that would be used throughout the year on the mp3 players. I also purchased some ear buds and headphone splitter. Groups chooe song lyrics with THEIR group color and listened to the songs on their Mp3 players as a group. After listening to the song, the groups completed the lyrics activity.
The high group got a copy of the lyrics with only the types of figurative language present listed.
The medium group got a copy of the lyrics with how many of each type of figurative language are included.
The low group got a copy of the lyrics with the instances of figurative language highlighted and the amount of each kind to identify.
Group 2:
This group worked on the figurative language sort. The students cut apart the activity and then began sorting the pieces into the different types of figurative language. High group got no accommodations. Medium group is given how many of each type there are. Low group gets how many of each and an example of each.
Group 3:
This group worked on figurative language color by term. The only accommodation I made for these groups is that I gave the low group a copy of the colored answer key in gray scale. I did this so that students could see how many of each type there were, but not what they were colored.
Group 4:
This group worked on figurative language computer lab activity. I had two computers in my room so I had the students partner up to complete the activity. No accommodations were made for this activity.
Group 5:
This group worked studying for their upcoming quiz/test. They quizzed each other on definitions, made flash cards, read example sentences and identified them. Basically, I am trying to teach students HOW to study.
Quiz:
Once all the activities have been completed the students came to me and got a copy of the quiz to complete ON THEIR OWN.
Throughout all of this I am walking and monitoring and asking random students questions for punches on their reward cards from my differentiated questioning sheets.
Products discussed in the blog post:
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