Differentiated Learning

differentiated learning

Girls and Math: Busting the Stereotype

January 10, 2012 | 11:47 AM | By Tina Barseghian

Flickr:WoodleyWonderworks

Do girls need special attention when it comes to science, math, and technology topics? In response to last week’s article about Techbridge, the after-school science program specifically geared to girls, some readers strongly refuted the notion that girls need the extra nudge.

“‘Steering’ something suggests directing it in a path it would not normally, of its own inclination, go!” wrote reader Julian Penrod. “The very title connotes a program to give an impression of female overall interest in the hard sciences, even though it wouldn’t necessarily, on its own, exist. In other words, a fraud.”

The reader raises a subtle but important issue — but it goes much deeper than that. According to Claude Steele, author of Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us, it’s not that girls aren’t necessarily interested in science and math, it’s whether they’re discouraged from following their interests because of the persistent stereotype that girls aren’t good at that sort of thing.

“The idea of the ‘gift-that-girls-don’t-have’ is likely to be a key part of what’s keeping them from pursuing those careers.”

Steele has examined this very phenomenon closely for years and has identified it as a stereotype threat. The issue is much more complex than the very basic tendencies of what naturally interests either gender. Steele pinpoints the problem to what happens after girls follow their interests in science and math studies, when inevitable obstacles come up.

“When you perform in science and math… in the larger society you’re stereotyped as not being good at it,” Steele says of girls. “You experience a little frustration, you say, ‘Am I confirming that stereotype and am I going to be seen to confirm that stereotype? Am I going to have to live under this pressure for the rest of my life if I choose this as a career?’ So there’s a pressure coming just from those stereotypes that discourages women from engaging in those fields and, and staying in those fields even when their skills and abilities are A-plus. So that’s an extra burden.”

Steele says it’s a subtle but crucial mindset that can make the difference between a girl choosing to go into a STEM field — or trying harder on a math or science test — and choosing not to. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Big Ideas, Culture, Teaching Strategies, Carol Dweck, differentiated learning, STEM, stereotypes

Love of Reading Sparked by Love of Subject in the Future School Day

February 2, 2011 | 11:34 AM | By Tina Barseghian

Flickr:FontFont

Innovative educator Lisa Nielsen has been working toward the ideal school day of the future for a while now. In her inspirational blog, she pushes the boundaries of traditional ideas about progress, thinking ten steps ahead while being firmly grounded in today’s realities. When I asked her about her ideas the future school day, she sent along an article she wrote last year that addresses the topic directly. Here’s her take.

SETTING THE SCENE

Sam is an eleventh grader who has struggled with English Language Arts courses in secondary school. He is accustomed to the cycle of failure after years of low and barely passing grades in elementary school and repeating eighth grade before being allowed to continue on to high school. Although eager to learn and eventually finish high school, Sam has already failed two quarters of English. He is frustrated by the continuing cycle. He often finds himself bored and unmotivated in school, which he thinks might have something to do with his less than stellar performance and motivation. He has friends that feel the same way and they notice there are other students in their classes that seem to have stronger educational drive and performance. He’s just not one of them.

An alert English teacher took notice of Sam and recommended that he participate in a unique class of students with similar academic needs. He was given a chance to participate in an online credit recovery program to make up the credits lost by failing the two quarters of English. The Credit Recovery Program is an Internet-based curriculum for high school students. Students work individually and at their own pace using laptops. Each course is organized into units based on each of the seven standards. Each unit has lessons composed of several different activities. The units and lessons are structured to address varying learning styles and include audio, video, animations, interactive segments as well as traditional text.

Participating students have a teacher/mentor who has been specifically trained in online instruction and can focus on individualizing instruction for each student. Students receive timely feedback on assessments. Sam knows that he must complete all activities and receive a grade of 70 or better in order to move on to the next lesson or unit.

In New York City, there are seven English Language Arts performance standards that high school students must meet. They are: E1) Reading E2) Writing E3) Listening, Speaking, Viewing E4) Conventions, Grammar, and Usage of the English Language E5) Literature E6) Public documents E7) Functional Documents. In our online learning credit recovery model students must demonstrate achieving mastery in each area. One area that Sam failed in ninth grade English Language Arts was Standard E1b: Read and comprehend at least four books on the same subject, or by the same author, or in the same genre. In this case study we will take a look at how Sam was able to demonstrate mastery in the 21^st century classroom.

Sam reports to school at the beginning of the school day and picks up his laptop from the OLC (Online Learning Cafe). Although all 25 students taking a variety of classes report there, they can use their laptops in any of the school’s various study spaces connecting to the Internet through high speed wireless connectivity.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Sam logs on to his laptop where he has his online bookshelf filled with a variety of texts including contemporary literature (both fiction and nonfiction), magazines, newspapers, textbooks, and more. These books were part of the previous unit he completed that addressed Standard E1A. As Sam logs on, he thinks, “Wow, if reading was like this before, I probably wouldn’t be taking this class.” Sam’s bookshelf is made possible through a variety of partnerships with entities such as the Public Library, NetTrekker, Book Glutton, LuLu, Blurb, Blogger, and Google Books. Here Sam has a collection of every book he has read since entering the school and all those he plans to read.

“The teacher just showed us bins of raggedy old books and magazines and told us to pick one we liked. I didn’t like any of ‘em and was left with a bunch of books about Ronald Reagan.”

Sam is actually excited about demonstrating mastery in this area because as he clicked on the standard in this module, his animated teaching assistant explained that this standard is intended to encourage students to invest themselves thoroughly in an area that interests them. He learned that such an investment will generate reading from an array of resources, giving him more experience of reading as well as increased understanding of a subject. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching Strategies, differentiated learning, online learning, School Day of the Future

10 More Useful Apps for Autism

December 2, 2010 | 10:39 AM | By Tina Barseghian

Adding to our report of apps for autism, here’s a list of 10 useful applications for iPhone and iPads, as listed by Gadgets DNA.

The key to the value of all of these tools is communication. Creating pictures, flashcards, voice recordings, and being able to express feelings with the use of these tools is thought to help autistic children learn to communicate more effectively.

FILED UNDER: Digital Tools, apps, autism, differentiated learning

Are E-Readers Helpful for Dyslexia?

November 2, 2010 | 12:24 PM | By Sara Bernard

Flickr:ChirantanPatnaik

By Sara Bernard

The many bells and whistles of e-readers are fun to use, but for dyslexics, they can be essential tools for basic reading.

For example, the book reader for the iPad has a text-to-speech feature built in called VoiceOver and the Intel Reader can take pictures of text and convert it into audio files within seconds. Readers can then choose the speed of playback for those audio files, helping them sound out words they’re struggling with.

E-readers with built-in dictionary features can also help readers quickly see the pronunciation and the order of syllables in a word. And readers can customize reading modes, such as font, size, and color. “All the books I’ve found so far tend to be on white, but there’s an option to make it a dark yellow which is good for me,” notes one member of an online forum.

There’s even an iPad and iPhone app called “Tips and Tricks for Beating Adult Dyslexia” includes general information about diagnosis, techniques for dealing with symptoms, and first-person stories.

Still, there’s little significant research to date that supports the claim that e-readers help students with disabilities — it’s primarily anecdotal evidence so far, since all of this is so new. An article in Education Week explores the use of e-readers in special-needs education and concludes that “the jury’s still out.”

This might be because some students might need to rely on the physical pages to skim headings and subheadings quickly to organize their thoughts, one researcher says.

But the advantages are clear to those who use them – students show independence without help from adults. According to one teacher, “It is not only liberating for the kids, but also liberating for the teachers.”

FILED UNDER: differentiated learning, dyslexia, iPad, learning disabilities

Learning Better, One Kid at a Time

October 18, 2010 | 4:29 PM | By Tina Barseghian

Flickr: Frerieke

What if each student had her own teacher at school? Would she benefit from individual attention, progressing at her own pace, learning the way that best suited her? Clearly, it’s economically and physically impossible to provide each student a separate teacher, but technology can be a powerful tool in helping that process along.

In today’s Wall St. Journal, writer Barbara Martinez discusses how teachers are using laptops a few hours a day in the classroom to help kids learn to read at their own pace. What they call the “blended learning” approach allows students at P.S. 100 in the Bronx to combine online learning with traditional teaching techniques — with the educator taking the role of a facilitator — and is proving to show great results.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: differentiated learning, individualized learning, tech tools, Technology in Schools

Video Games in the Classroom? Yes!

September 15, 2010 | 4:49 PM | By Tina Barseghian

Flickr: Pleasance

What place do video games have in a classroom? Aren’t they just a distracting waste of time for kids who should be memorizing multipication tables? Sara Corbett eloquently answers these questions in her illuminating article in the New York Times, which aptly sums up some of the controversies around bringing technology into the education system.

My favorite passage in the piece, which will appear in Sunday’s New York Times magazine:

What if teachers gave up the vestiges of their educational past, threw away the worksheets, burned the canon and reconfigured the foundation upon which a century of learning has been built? What if we blurred the lines between academic subjects and reimagined the typical American classroom so that, at least in theory, it came to resemble a typical American living room or a child’s bedroom or even a child’s pocket, circa 2010 — if, in other words, the slipstream of broadband and always-on technology that fuels our world became the source and organizing principle of our children’s learning?

Continue reading →