Week 6 Post: Differentiated Instruction

Learning about the Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCE's) are a necessity for teachers. The GLCE's are guidelines that are compsed by the state government for teachers to use as assistance for planning lessons. These guidelines were very well thought-out and carefully implemented. These guidelines are organized by grade level so that a teacher is able to look at the grade level that they are teaching, as well as the GLCE's for the year prior and following to know what also needs to be touched on in the classroom. The combination of the benchmarks and standards are what the lesson plans of a teacher should revolve around. As a future teacher, we have had a great deal of experience with this document, especiallly when planning lessons.
The articles for today, Marcus' story and the Breitfleder article, both are written about adaptations and accommodations for special students in the classroom. The Marcus article was very intriguing to me because of this child's story of going from a student who appeared to be gifted to one that actually needed special assistance. In addition, the Breitfleder article about how to accommodate early childhood had some great ideas for my future classroom. Many of the ideas in this article are things that my CT already does in our classroom, which is very interesting because the students are so young (kindergarten). I asked my CT why she uses these strategies in her classroom and she told me that it is for a couple different reasons. First, she does many of the things from the article, such as a daily calendar, schedule, and special helper, because the students are in kindergarten and they need some type of predictability and organization in their lives because it is their first year. Second, she also told me that she uses these strategies in particular because due to the students' young age they have not been tested for learning disabilities yet, so it is possible that some of her students possess a L.D. My CT told me that by using these strategies she is able to assist in the future L.D. students' learning by trying to accommodate them the best that she can. The strategies written by Breitfleder are very important for me as a future teacher to read and understand how to implement because it is very probable that many of the students' in my future classroom will be in serious need of these techniques and strategies. It is our job as teachers to do what we can for our students and these techniques are simple strategies that can be implemented to make a huge difference.
Finally, I read chapter 1 of Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry for this week. So far the main characters are Cassie, Little Man, their siblings, their teacher, and Mama. The children are at their first day of school and the first and fourth grade rooms are put together with the same teacher, so Cassie and Little Man are in the same room. Little Man, who is typically very well-behaved and respectful, throws a tantrum when he opens up his textbook to find negative notes about his race inside. He refuses the book, as well as Cassie, and both students get in big trouble, while their teacher sees no problem with this unjustice.