I have 10 students in my class. There are 5 boys and 5 girls. All of these students come to class pretty regularly compared to other students in the building. There are 4 white, 5 black, and 1 Hispanic student. I would classify 4-5 students as higher achieving students. There is only 1 lower achieving while the rest of the class is average performing. 7-8 students are on free/reduced lunch.
One of my struggles is differentiating instruction with high and low achieving students. There are 3 students who could be in honors geometry but just don't want to do the extra work. They like getting done with their work early and not having to put effort into studying. This messes with my classroom instruction because I feel like I need to challenge these students while not overwhelming the rest of the class. On test days, I make sure to have several activities (math puzzles) to give students who finish the test quickly. However, during instruction I'm not really sure how to differentiate instruction other than giving them a more difficult worksheet or classroom activity. In the past my mentor and I have given certain students a "challenge" worksheet that involved more problem solving skills. Other than this, I'm don't know better ways of differentiating instruction. Any suggestions?
I guess my question is, if these kids are already in a lower class because they don't want to do extra work, how do you get them to do a challenge worksheet with harder problems?
ReplyDeleteI don't really have any grand ideas other than my high achieving students usually ask harder questions and I try and give them more in-depth answers. I also ask them harder questions when they ask for help because I think they can "put two and two together" easier than the rest.
It's not a low class. The higher achieving students do the challenge problems without complaining.
ReplyDeleteWhat about having them help the other students when they are finished with their work when you are giving instruction.
ReplyDeleteI also have students that finish all their work pretty early. When I feel like they have not been challenged enough, I step back and watch the rest of the class that is typically struggling. It is important for me to remember that these "fast" students are only in here because they are lazy - they did not want to be in a higher level class. Therefore,they are doing the work that this course requires.
ReplyDeleteThe things you have done thus far make sense...differentiate with questions/problem as part of existing assignment, during class discussions -- working in groups where the focus is on making sure everyone understands...
ReplyDeletePuzzles and challenging problems are helpful in giving students opportunities to solve more open-ended type problems, but may not relate directly to the topic at hand.
I can share some resources for this...will post to bb site.
BTW, I like the cartoon.
ReplyDeleteI think we are all seeing a similar situation in our classes, a group of students in our class who do not want put in the extra effort to be a higher achieving students.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about having a variety of different ability level students. Since most students have to go through Algebra 2A, we see students that should be in Honors Algebra and also students who should be in Algebra 2 Standard (the lowest level algebra 2 class).
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