PS22 Chorus

This teacher is seriously so inspiring.

Differentiation is encouraging each student to blossom before they close up.

"If you close up when you're in 5th grade, you're going to close up the rest of your childhood." -Mr. B

Baseball Camp: A Metaphor for Differentiation

Today I was reading from this book:

And guess what?! It starts off with a metaphor for differentiation. 

I love metaphors and the one in this book is a good one. 

Baseball Camp: A Metaphor for Differentiation

Coach Mac is the director at a baseball camp called Home Run Baseball Camp. Each summer, he works with all kinds of different children. Male, female, short, tall, big, small, shy, goofy, experienced in baseball, not experienced in baseball, the list goes on and on. Even though they are all different, they all have one thing in common: they are at camp to get better at playing baseball. 

Coach Mac watches the kids carefully, assessing their strengths and their weaknesses. Sometimes he will teach them all the same drill and sometimes he will have them work in groups. The unique thing about Coach Mac's coaching style is that he doesn't just teach them skills required to do well in baseball, but he also teaches the small players life lessons and skills they will need to function in society. He can't control the amount of talent each child brings, but he can control the amount of effort they give toward developing their talent. I love the following quotes from Coach Mac:

"Talent is what you bring. Effort is what you give."

&

"Everyone loves winning, but winning is a short-term thrill. Long-term satisfaction comes from success, not winning. What constitutes as success? Giving it all you've got. Getting better. Growing. That's durable."

A lot of what Coach Mac does during a summer of baseball camp mirrors what differentiation in the classroom should look like. We need to study our students just as Coach Mac did with his players. We need to continually craft our teaching methods according to each child's strengths and weaknesses. We need to teach children life lessons and not just the curriculum. 

I love, love, love the second quote above. The one about success. I want to teach my students about success. I want my students to feel successful whenever they are giving it their all or whenever they are growing. Not everyone will be good at math or reading. Not everyone will love learning about history or science. But everyone can be successful if they are giving it their best. I love the quote so much, I think it could make a really good class creed.

Taming the Fox

Take a look at the following books:

The first book, I read when I was in High School.

The second, I just started today.

Before beginning my differentiation textbook, I never would have guessed that it had something in common with The Little Prince. Then again, it shouldn't surprise me that it does. The Little Prince is jam-packed with over-my-head metaphors that sometimes I can make sense of. But usually someone just has to tell me what that tiny little book and that tiny little prince are talking about.

Thankfully, my differentiation textbook did just that.

Right around page 6, Tomlinson begins to explain that metaphors help people extend their thinking. To further explain this notion, she informs the reader that there is a metaphor in The Little Prince that can help  extend their thinking about differentiation in the classroom. The metaphor she is talking about is called: Taming the Fox. 

"The Little Prince, a young boy who is in many ways representative of all of us, goes on a pilgrimage to make sense of life. In particular, he needs to understand what love means in the scope of his existence. Along the way, he meets and learns from a varied lot of folks-both wise and foolish. Near the end of his journey, he encounters a fox and asks the fox to play with him. The fox responds that he cannot pay with the Little Prince because he-the fox-is not tamed. The Little Prince is puzzled and asked what it means to be tamed. The fox responds that it means to establish ties-an act too often neglected, he observes:

To me, you are still nothing more

than a little boy who is just like a

hundred thousand other little boys. 

And I have no need of you. And you, 

on your part, have no need of me. To 

you, I am nothing more than a fox like 

a thousand other foxes. but if you tame

me, then we shall need each other. To

me, you will be unique in all the world...

My life is very monotonous...

And, in consequence, I am a little bored.

But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun 

came to shine on my life. I shall know the 

sound of a step that will be different from

all the others. Other steps send my hurrying 

back underneath the ground. Yours will call

me, like music, out of my burrow.

(p. 80,83)

But the Little Prince is skeptical. He is very busy, he explains. He has so many things to do-so many things to understand. The fox gives a simple reply: "One only understands the things one tames" (p. 83). The Little Prince agrees to tame the fox. 

The fox explains that taming takes time, patience, and listening. Words, he notes, are often the source of misunderstanding. In time, the Little Prince tames the fox, who shares with his new friend two important truths:

1. "What is essential is invisible to the eye," (p. 87) and

2. "You become responsible forever for what you have tamed." (p. 88)

In the end, the fox and Little Prince must part ways, of course. There is great sadness in the parting, but there is happiness born of fulfillment as well. The two will be joined forever by the small memories they made together-the times they shared."

Tomlinson continues to explain that teachers are like the Little Prince who say, "Come play with me" and "Come do what I ask you to do." Each child, in their own unique way will say, "I can't do that until you have tamed me." Tomlinson states, "In 30 different ways, students in a class of 30 say to the teacher, like the fox, 'Tame me, please.' They want to feel a personal connection to those who share the classroom with them. They want to be affirmed there."

Obtaining a differentiated classroom means taming each child that comes my way. It takes time, patience, and listening. It takes getting to know each child's strengths and weaknesses. It means continually adjusting how I teacher according to their needs. And then once it's summer, I will have to part ways with them. It will be hard, but if I have done my job correctly, then there will also be rejoicing because of the things we have learned and the memories we have made. 

Wow, what a great metaphor. 

When Tomlinson said it would extend my thinking on differentiation in the classroom,

she was right!  

Class Activity: Victims and Sleuths

In my differentiation class, we were assigned to read an article about a teacher named Sharon, who utilized Morning Meetings every single day in her 3rd grade classroom. Sharon is convinced that Morning Meetings are the reason behind her students' success.

The article describes one of the class activities that Sharon used in her classroom and because I want to remember the activity in the near future (or far future), I have recorded it on this here blog.

        Victims and Sleuths

In this activity, the teacher secretly designates one or more of the students as a "murderer." All of the students scan the circle  making eye contact with one another. The "murderer" winks at his or her victim, who then must fall over. At any time during the scanning, a student may guess the identity of the murderer  If the student guesses correctly, the murderer is "done for." The game continues until the last "murderer" is caught.

Results: Students love to be creative and dramatic in their death scenes, and they developed new vocabulary to avoid using violent terms, eventually coming up with "perpetrator" rather than "murderer." The activity also promoted conflict resolution skills among the children as they tried to solve the problem of honesty in the game that is, falling over when winked at and refraining from pretending to be the perpetrator!


Source: "Like Being at the Breakfast table:" The Power of Classroom Morning Meeting by Elizabeth Bandy and Sharon Ketts

My own thoughts: I love this idea for a game! I bet you could do a different version where you send one student out in the hall. Everyone knows who the murderer(s) is except for that one student. Then they stand in the middle of the circle and try and figure out who the murder is. It would be really fun to let them dress up as a detective. And they win a certificate if they can solve the crime!