Field Week 11: Differentiation Practices in the Classroom

 Week 11: Differentiation Practices in the Classroom

First week back in the field! This week was pretty relaxed; juniors had job shadowing on Wednesday so there were only 3-5 people in each period that day. Other than that, we just started a new chapter on triangle congruences. Mrs. Goney uses guided notes, so each class consisted of going through some new material with the class, doing a few examples, and having the last 10 minutes or so for work time.

As far as differentiation goes, due to the guided notes there isn’t much active differentiation when it comes to the notes. But, Goney does differentiate when it comes to the test and homework. For example, last Friday apparently over 20 students were absent (I’m not sure why), even though it was the day of the chapter test. Because of this, there are a lot of tests that students have to make up. But, instead of making them due by a certain day or making students do them at a certain time, students are allowed to work on the test during work time, CRT, or in another teacher's classroom. She is also flexible when it comes to the deadline, if the students don’t get it done in one day then it's not a problem. But, she normally does limit it to roughly one week after the test, unless there are extenuating circumstances. 

After she has all the tests in, students are allowed to do test corrections if they turned in their notes packet and homework. In a sense I think this could be considered differentiation, as students are also given flexible time to work on the corrections, and are able to get help from her when correcting a problem. This could also be considered differentiation since it benefits students who don’t do well on tests or have test anxiety. This allows them to work on the corrections on their own time, without the worry of time or other things that come with test taking. The same could be said for tests, as she allows students to use their notes on their test. Those who need them use them, and those who don’t don’t have to. 

Overall, a good first week back in the field. I have solidified the unit I will be teaching, and am currently working on my unit plan. I’ll be teaching angle bisectors and perpendicular bisectors, along with circumcenters and incenters of triangles. 

If you were to draw the corresponding bisectors through the bottom two vertices, you would have the incenter of the triangle where all of the lines meet!