Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Group 9 Discussion # 2 Monica Stirling
I am tutoring two girls for literacy, and they are on totally different levels. Their initial assessments put them relatively close, but they seem to have strayed from the running records that were performed. I understand that this is real-world, as our studetns , even in the same grade/classroom, will not be on the same level, but it is difficult to plan a lesson when one will be done and bored long before the other will complete the assignment. Any suggestions for differentiating instruction for these girls? What about during reading time--should I just partner read with them individually, rather than having them partner read together? Any suggestions for writing? (The slower one writes more slowly, too).
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4 comments:
I think that one thing that I would do is give them different types of work or give one a little more work to do and the other a little less. This way the one that is more advanced will still be doing work instead of just sitting there. I would read with them individually at different times, because if you stick them together the one that is more advanced will become frustrated trying to help the other and the child who is at a lower level I’m sure will become a little embarrassed to read in front of the other child. I think you have to keep them separate in order to better suit their individually needs. If they were more on the same level though I would let them partner read and work together.
For writing I would do the same thing as with the reading assignments. The more advanced students has to write more than the child who is more behind. This way the slower one isn’t embarrassed and the advanced child is not board.
I think you need to prepare a different activities for each one of them based on the lesson plan. Now I have first grade classroom for my practicum and there are students who cannot write untill now. And when I am doing my lesson plan for all class I usually prepare a different activities based on the lesson plan. If all students have to write a short paragraph I am leting them to copy a paragraph from the book.Sometimes I prepare sentence strips which they have to put in right order. Regarding reaing I will suggest you to partner them. And if one of them is working on writing the other one should do reading.
I think that it depends on your students if they want to partner read together. In the $th grade class I am in there are a few students that are low level readers but they usually sit next to someone they can work with and the stronger reader helps the student. If the advanced reader is bored quickly it would be best to have them read seperately. I think that you could give them the same material to work with but you need to change the objective when you are working with both of the students. Maybe with the struggling reader focus on fluency and with the advanced reader focus on comprehension. As for differentiating the their lesson you could change the kinds of questions that you ask them after they read. Then you wouldn't be giving one student more work than the other because they are advanced but rather the same amount of work but at their level. You can use the same material but examine it at different cognitive levels.
I tend to lean toward some of the suggestions offered in the previous posts. While I do not see the instructional benefit of giving one student less/more work, I do feel it's important that realistic expectations are set. If your students are comfortable in cooperative-type work, I think pairing students up is a great idea. Of course, you've got to realize which personalities work well together and which level readers will work well together. The higher leveled students may not always be so quick to help a struggling student. You can also provide work that is on that particular student's level. The same amount. Just different. Higher leveled students may work which requires higher levels of thinking. Not so much with the others. It all depends on what works best for your kids.
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