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One actionable step that I can take for my classes would be focusing on C - Competency.

Many times when I designed achievable tasks, i forgotten to celebrate their success and progress. Hence, I would like to look into this area in CAR strategy.

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Question: ​

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What is one actionable step you can take to implement the CAR framework and ensure your next lesson plan's assignments are both purposeful and meaningful for your diverse learners?​

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1. What is DI to you?

DI to me means that every student in the class will be able to achieve what will was supposed to be learnt. With DI, it shouldn't be a one-size fits all approach but rather, flexible and student-centred approach that should be adopted.

2. How is your DI journey so far?

As FCE we have designed standardised set of materials for the students learning, DI in my classes in these cases would be the aided resources where students are given the flexibility to chose the resources that could help them to progress their tasks, although with much prompters. Whereas for upper sec NFS, it will be easier to implement DI in terms of scaffold as I can provide personalised feedback when the students are working on their individual tasks.

3. What are the challenges you face in adopting DI in your classroom?

Student profile matters when DI is implemented. For the engaged students, regardless of the DI approach I used, they will be enthusiastic to learn and ask questions. However, for classes with disengaged students, I faced much difficulties.

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1. A way to modify approach, content etc. to suit the different learning styles of the students.

2. For lower sec, we differentiate assessment tasks according the students level of readiness and progress into level of abilities.

3. I find that in some classes, classroom dynamics does influence students level of progress e.g. getting into the routine of completing their 'exit pass' as homework; or reviewing upcoming weeks task and assignments on padlet. While for my upper sec, my higher ability student may not necessarily want to work on task that is more scaffold to his/her level due to the fact that he is already able to 'score better mentality'.

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DI is an approach to create a more engaging and effective learning environment for all students by recognizing that they have varying backgrounds, readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles instead of one size fits all.

DI journey is an on-going and challenging one. Needless to say, Coursework subject(D&T) itself embraces DI due to the nature of the subject as it involves designing and making where it is an art and science to facilitate students’ in their learning. Students of varied abilities come together to design and make products. In the process, teachers apply DI to facilitate students(of varying abilities) throughout the process so that students are able to turn their ideas into physical prototype. Thus, as a D&T teacher, it is part and parcel in our T&L.

The challenge is DI is an ongoing, continuous process; more time is needed for quality DI in coursework facilitation. *To side track, it will be wise and beneficial to approach CPDD specialist for in-depth discussion eg. DT.

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1. DI is to cater to the varying backgrounds of students, and their learning abilities, while still ensuring that they can all meet a common learning outcome. This enables the students to move at their own pace and allows them to present their work in a form they are most confident in.

2. In the ukulele and keyboard module, students move to the higher levels of chords and accompaniment patterns only when they are confident in the lower levels. Most of them are intrinsically motivated to be "upgraded" to the master shifu level.

Pop band module/ assessment:

students are given the autonomy to choose their song, instrument, and how they would like to accompany the song. Guidelines are given to them so they know what they are expected to produce.

3. There is a lot of prep needed in DI as students will be working on different things in the same lesson concurrently. Some students will be happy with to stay at their "lower" level and never challenge themselves to learn more.

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1. For Art lessons, we try to provide scaffolds for different groups of students.

2. Bite-sized tasks are designed for students you need more guidance and attention.

3. AI tools were also introduced to the Upper Sec classes. These tools were useful to help the low progress learners to churn out ideas and composition designs.

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I will start my lesson on time 10 min after the bell and late comers will be questioned later (so that lesson is not disrupted) They are also required to find out what they have missed. At an appropriate time... I will "lecture" them on the need to be punctual and ready for lesson as the world outside of the school gates and fence will not wait for them. If they miss the plane... they will need to take the ship... if they miss that... they count themselves lucky if they get onto a sampan... otherwise... they swim.

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1. DI to me is using teaching approaches that are suitable and effective in bring my students (of varying readiness, ability and interest) up to at least a baseline level of attainment.

2. DI in teaching content is challenging as lesson material requires time to differentiate. Nonetheless, I have tried some differentiation in the learning of electronics by providing scaffolds and giving student the flexibility to decide if they need it and to what extent. I find DI easier to implement for coursework where I can differentiate my guidance/consultation based on a realistic level of attainment that I think each student can achieve for each criteria of the assessment rubric. I

3. Perhaps I'm not skillful enough yet... I still find that preparing lesson material for DI can be challenging. I could spend up to 2 to 3 hrs preparing for a 1 hr lesson. The economy of scale is not there for me as I will be using the resources for only one class. As mentioned, DI is easier to implement for approaches that do not involve visual aids and/or worksheets (eg. Coursework)

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1. DI is to bring every student to achieve the learning objective regardless of their entry point of the topic. In order to make this happen, it requires teacher to have a good understanding of the student, their readiness, interests and learning preferences as well as who are their buddy of learning. With this knowledge, teacher can plan and design lessons that can reach out to every student in the class.

2. I am not gungho to my practice DI. Due to nature of my subject, i would DI in a manner of one standard instruction that pecks at the mid-abilities and provide necessary scaffolding to support the weaker students in the class. I advocate peer learning among my students and my students will have a learning buddy. The buddy is not fixed, usually it is their shoulder partner.  The higher ability students will be “tutors” for their peers. This approach has worked well so far, it improves students engagement and ownership of learning.

3. Challenges are setting priorities and a status-quo mentality. There are other things at hand that requires my attention and time, especially the graduating class coursework. The challenges of coursework is different year on year, this might due to the deployment rotation that every teacher will rotate taking different streams every year. This approach is good for PD but it's can be challenged as the strategies deploy to each stream is quite different due to the profiles of students. If it is a school directive to do DI, I think i will dedicate time to work on it.

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To make collaborative learning successfully, teachers need to know the profile of students and plan the activity that can engage students.

Effective collaboration can take place by getting stds to understand the success criteria and the task can be varied to sustain their interest and attention.

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1. What is DI to you?

(Consider specific examples from your own teaching experience or observations to illustrate your understanding of differentiated instruction.)

2. How is your DI journey so far?

(Share the frequency of adopting DI in your classroom and its

impact on student engagement and learning outcomes.)

3. What are challenges you face in adopting DI in your classroom?

(Share the constraints and difficulties you face, or areas for growth in carrying out differentiated instruction in the classroom.)

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Besides carrying out the GREAT routine every lesson, I use cues to get students to stop work such as "Ukulele Down" and "Hands up". They may only resume their work after I give them the "start work" signal.

I also write down on the board what we will be doing for the lesson so more advanced students can move on to the next activity instead of waiting. I think I can improve on this by giving students a score/ "tracking" card so students can see what they can work towards to, and at the same time, I can see if they are on task.

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I reinforce the GREAT Routine for all my classes. And for the SEN students I will make a conscious effort to approach them first to go through my expectations too, especially if its a practical lesson.

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I will continue to reinforce force the GREAT classroom routines and explain explicitly for the students to internalise. I will try out the volume control expectations for class routines.

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GREAT classroom is what I do at the start of each lesson. This helps to set the tone and set routine

I would like to apply the volume control routine for my classes this yr

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I give students 10 minutes to travel from their classroom to my design room. Some students will come early; others will arrive on time. I would like to try to get the early birds ready for the lesson by allowing them to access the materials and learning intentions for the day. By doing this, I am respecting my students who came early. I hope this practice will influence others to come early for my lesson. Another strategy I would like to try is volume control. I hope my students is able to take cue from me and have self-awareness of what is happening in the environment.

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I practiced the great classroom routine whenever I can as it is the school approach. Students understood the rationale without much explanation and practice them regardless of classes.

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At the start of the lesson, students are reminded on the school core values and expectations of an art student . This constant reminders helped to set a routine for my students. Most of them come prepared with their materials for lessons.

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For sec 1 classes, in Term 1, I got students to sit in groups based on their skills (combination of low and high progress learners). The lessons were focused on drawing and shading so the student with higher ability was able to help the students who needed more guidance. The students found such grouping useful as they could ask their peers for immediate help/guidance.

The Sec 2 sculpture project was designed as a portfolio assignment where students had to complete different sections of their research, development studies and the final product. This flexibility ensured that all the students were able to complete their work by the due date. They also posted their works on Padlet, which made it easier for teachers/students to monitor students' progress and make changes to their works based on the task requirements.

Visual rubrics were also used for assessment. Students have a better understanding of the requirements and different levels of achievements.

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I do- We do- You do:

The structure of such a tool is to allow for a gradual release of responsibility for my low progress learner. Here's an example on the topic Special diet: Different types of vegetarians.

I-Do:

Teacher showcases a recipe and breaks it down to help them identify: which type of vegetarian it is suitable for? What proof/ evidence supports this? What is the main protein type in this recipe? What can it be served with? [Frayer Model]

We-Do:

Student already seated with their similar/ higher ability pair [readiness grouping]

They will work out the next recipe together based on their readiness level.

Teacher can move around to check and ask probing questions.

Sharing presented by pairs [collaborative learning]

You-do:

Students will individually apply the same Frayer Model on another recipe.

Typically, there is at least another 3 different sets for the different ability students to attempt [DI]

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Check-in & Exit pass: Nutrition and Food Science [NFS]

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Check-in & Exit pass: Nutrition and Food Science [NFS]

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For 313, I made it a point to arrange for check-in and exit pass activities in the form of Quizlet, Jamboard, Deck toys, Booklet, etc.

These strategies allows both teachers and students to do a self-assessment on the level of readiness of any topic. And it was also adopted as one of the recommended study skills tools for our PLT's Low progress learners so that they can work on their competency.

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This year, for lower sec art, I used padlet to record and discuss on students works. Students took photographs of images related to their topics and uploaded them. These first- hand images are useful as resources for students to make reference for future assignments.

For the upper sec Art class, students upload their preparatory works weekly on padlet. Their classmates then will give their feedback on their works which help them to further improve and refine on their works.

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Sec 2s used SLS discussion board tool to peer evaluate other group's projects. They used the praise-polish-question feed forward strategy. This also allowed the students to get more ideas for their own work.

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Differentiation in product through Google Classroom - Music

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Differentiation in product through Google Classroom - Music

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The sec 1s all learned the base level of playing of chords. Their task was to record the chords for a chosen song, and chord progressions differed from song to song.

Students got to choose their song and their playing styles. Students of a higher readiness were encouraged to record the higher level of playing styles. Video tutorials are on google classroom for them to learn at their own pace.

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Use of blooket/ kahoot to reinforce and recap identifying notes and chords on the piano keyboard.

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Sec 2s learned about copyright issues, and how they can use royalty-free music and sound effects from websites such as Youtube Studio and BandLab to create their projects. They also learned that most Youtubers only use Royalty-Free music and music whose copyright have expired.

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This year, I tried using SOLO (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) taxonomy to create visual rubric as a form of formative assessment for my 313 students. Why visual rubric with text is because there are some criteria in D&T coursework can be explained using text alone. The SOLO taxonomy focuses on the depth of understanding and is organized into five levels: Pre-structural, Uni-structural, Multi-structural, Relational, and Extended Abstract.

Most of the time, students do not know where they are in the learning continuum. Using visual together with text, helps students to understand the expectation of the criteria and make incremental improvement to their sketches to achieve a higher level in SOLO. It also help them to take ownership of their learning. It also help me to establish clear expectations and provide targeted constructive feedback. See attached of an example how a visual rubric looks like.

Moving forward, I will continue to explore rubric with visuals in another criterion and streams.  I hope to see that students will be able to use it for self-evaluation and making improvement in their design work.

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SOLO rubric for My Illuminant (final)(Std copy)