Lesson One: Students want Differentiation
My mentor teacher has five different preps this year. This gives me the opportunity to see students at different ages and dispositions engaging with science. It also means I have 9th grade students struggling through LE Biology, 11th grade students disengaged with their last science class, an elective in Forensic Science, and 12th grade students who are so academically advanced they are bored in College Physics. Meeting the needs of all these students is daunting, but so important. One student reminded me that even if it is more work for me, the students, and the mentor teacher, it is important to provide each student with the developmentally appropriate differentiation they need to succeed. This student, who struggles in Biology, announced to his table-mates – “You know what would be a good idea? If you got an individualized review packed based on your grade in the class. Because some people need more review than others.” This student wanted to ask for more work, because he knew he needed more review than some of his classmates.
Lesson Two: Teaching is Personal
My mentor teacher was out on Wednesday, and while there was a substitute in the room and on record, I acted as the lead teacher. I found it incredibly challenging to take my mentor teachers plans and implement them, because it is much less genuine to adapt another’s plans than to create your own. I found myself trying to incorporate formative assessment in a lesson where historically there was little student talk. I was surprised with the amount of push-back I received from the students, who were more concerned with finishing the review than ensuring that each student was learning. Students called out for me to speed up, fearing that we wouldn’t finish going over the extensive problem set, which their exam the following day would be based on. I, suddenly afraid of and for the students, speed up, but found that it resulted in me talking more and faster, no student talk, and empty pauses as the students called out for me to wait, they hadn’t finished copying down the answer. This, then, became my assessment. The students wanted me to speed up, because they valued the write answer over understanding and sharing in the process.
Lesson Three: Students are Complex
Yesterday, another teacher came into my classroom to meet with my mentor teacher. They were discussing a student I have in two classes and her issues with turning in work on time. I found out that she had so much missing work, that she had been tirelessly trying to make up before the marking period ended, because she had missed much of the past month of school. She was homeless, and had been staying with a family member in another county. She was now back in school, but struggling to find places to stay each week. It suddenly made sense – she was often doing other work in classes rather than paying attention to the tasks at hand. She was trying to finish schoolwork before she left for the day and had more important things to worry about. Later that day, I ended up grading her make up work and it became apparent that she didn’t understand any of the last unit, but she took the test and quizzes to get partial credit. I am struggling with what I can do – I want to offer to help her catch up, as the class is often cumulative, and if she doesn’t understand this unit, she will be lost for much of the rest of the year. At the same time, she clearly had other things on her mind, and while I mentioned earlier that some students want the extra work, I don’t want to put more on her plate than is already there. I am hoping to meet with the counseling office next week to discuss what solutions can be found.
