How Do Teachers Do It? Differentiate That Is...

As I mentioned in a previous blog, the sixth grade class to which I've been assigned has - incredibly - only 22 students. The enrollment numbers in the upper grades of the school simply worked out such that the best solution was putting 22 students in each of two sixth grades. Furthermore, if you count me, we'll have two teachers in the classroom for half the year. Even so, the prospect of adequately differentiating the curriculum to meet the variable learning needs of the students is daunting. I can barely imagine how a single teacher with thirty or so heterogeneous students might manage.

My master teacher and I spent some time at the end of the day today going over a math assessment given this afternoon. As expected, the two students who spend most of their in a self-contained special education classroom were unable to complete much of the assessment, which was based on material covered in fifth grade math. Among the other twenty students, the range of skills was still quite large. Nearly everyone could shade a figure to show one-third, and most could add 2/8 + 3/8. They could pretty uniformly add two 3- or 4-digit numbers with a decimal point. However, things fell apart for many kids when they were required to subtract with regrouping, add or subtract fractions with unlike denominators, state place value to the right of the decimal point, or place fractions and decimals on a number line. No one could list the prime numbers between zero and twenty.

Our challenge will be to address the diverse needs of these kids. Some will benefit from enrichment, while others will need extra help, practice or time. We don't want to overlook the benchmark kids. My MT says that in the past she has often resorted to putting the advanced kids on the computers when they finish early, but that she's not really happy with that as a math solution or as a message. Certainly, we have an opportunity this year to try to create alternatives within the curriculum and to work with smaller groups. I am excited about the possibilities, and can imagine it will be frustrating to pull out at the end of this month, not to return until January. Hopefully I'll return from my stint in a middle level math placement with new ideas that will carry over to this classroom.