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The differentiated activities I have done include, students going on to Lexia during their break-outs and the intervention lessons provided through Lexia during 1:1. Reflecting on previous differentiated writing activities, students may not have the accountability due to home circumstances.

10 Tips Article:
Before reading this article, I used time as my main differentiation strategy. I would give the same assignment to all of my students and adjust the amount of time they had to work on it, based on their learning needs. Talking with my mentor along with the information I gathered in this articles, meeting the diverse learning needs of all students, includes offering more than one way to engage with the content. One piece of information that was very insightful was student choice. Giving students the power to choose how they would demonstrate their learning.   As a first-grade teacher, early readers and writers are maybe not yet at the place where they can write a response to or orally read to demonstrate their knowledge. There also may be some who are capable. Offering choices to my students allows all varying levels to be met and challenged.

Reflection:
What I am taking away from this PD, is a deeper understanding of differentiating. It extends beyond just time modifications. You are the teacher do not have to be the one to determine what a student can do, you can let them be an agent in their own learning to decide for themselves. I also have a deeper understanding of how to use the standards from different grades as a tool for differentiation.

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Asynchronous Work - Literacy - Marissa Lopes

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Asynchronous Work - Literacy - Marissa Lopes

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Everyday I assign 20 minutes of Lexia to my students. This provides them practice at their level. As a whole class, my students participate in a menu board. At the moment we are reading the book "Wonder". Students listen to an audio book to get them back into the motivation of reading. Every night, they are to complete one of the menu board activities: answering a comprehension question, matching game with characters and dialogue, predictions, and summarizing. Students will need to complete their desired 4 menu board options by Friday.
I differentiated these nightly reading assignments for my students on an IEP and students below the 5th percentile. These students understood their reading, but struggled to apply what they read. I decided these students will listen to the nightly chapters, but will create a Flipgrid to tell me what they read (summarizing), and their personal thoughts on the chapter. These students must do this 2 nights a week, and the other 2 assignments are optional -- menu board, or Flipgrid.

"Ten Tips..."
I was very surprised but proud when reading the article. I found that before this meeting, I was differentiating for my students with honoring student choice, selecting audio books for them to listen to, and applying and sharing their learning in a format that makes them comfortable/interests them. Something I learned and that resonated with me was "When it comes to plain old practice, try to provide students with work that is just a bit over their comfort level." I loved that it said "comfort level" and not "skill level." It is always good to push students with what they are capable of, but motivate them to get to that next level of their learning.

Reflection: Reflecting back on my learning, I realized that looking at an assignment and creating differentiation does not have to include extra hours of tweaking and assignment. You can take something you already have and tweak it to achieve a more cognitive load, but you can also tweak it for the students who are just not there "yet". In my own teaching, I will be looking for more ways I can reach all of my students -- above, grade level, and near/below.

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As a grade level, we have divided our students into two academic groups (high/low). We start with 20 min whole group instruction, then 20 minutes of small group instruction with one group while the other group works on Lexia in an asynchronous break out room. During the next 20 minutes we switch groups. Being able to work at a pace that is attainable, for each group is one of the success'. Some challenges have been to keep students accountable when working on Lexia during small group asynchronous breakout room time.

"Ten Tips......"
One thing I learned, and know that I need to practice more of is giving the students the opportunity for lots of choice when showing their understanding. We recently gave summary response choice this past week, and I can that students felt more comfortable, and much confident in selecting a question stem that they felts most prepared to answer.

The continuum is an excellent tool to refer back to when understanding how to support students who struggle, or students who need accelerated learning. Since the progression is universal, we educators can feel comfortable and confident in our approach to supporting and differentiating instruction.

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The way that I implement literacy centers in my virtual classroom is through small group work as well as through LEXIA. Our ELA time is broken up into three sections, a twenty minute whole group ELA lesson, a twenty minute small group lesson, followed by another twenty minute small group lesson. Students are split into these two groups based on their academic needs/the academic support they need. These small groups have allowed me to provide that differentiated instruction that my students need in order to grow academically. When students are not with me during the designated small group time, they are in a breakout room participating in a LEXIA lesson that is tailored to their academic needs. This has been successful in providing my students with the academic support needed, however I am still struggling in ways to provide additional differentiation during distance learning.
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"Ten Tips for Honoring Students in Distance Learning Environment"
One thing that really stuck with me in this article is that sometimes in order to provide the best/most appropriate differentiation for our students we have to first connect with our students and provide that active responsive. If our students SEL needs are not being met then they are not going to respond to any academic differentiation that we try and implement in the classroom.

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When we were teaching in person I would follow the daily 5 model. I would have a word works station, read to self, listening to reading, work on writing, I also added Lexia to the centers.  2 Things I used in class and still do virtually is using seesaw as a center and Lexia.

10 Tips Article: One thing I took from this article is to be purposeful and stick to the important basics of learning. Also not to feel guilty about not covering everything I might have in the past.

Reflection: What I learned from this PD is how to use the continuum as a resource for differentiating how I teach a standard, also being mindful of the struggling learner as well as a learner who needs extending activities. The asynchronous activity examples helped me think about how I can adapt my learning centers to meet my students needs.

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-Using Lexia and Power Up

-10 Tips for Honoring Students in the Distance Learning Environment- Allowing students to express their learning that is interesting to them. Like using videos and flipgrid.

Reflection- I will continue to utilize small group/Individualized instruction to differentiate lesson given to them by their teachers. Having the continuum present will planning for individualized activities.

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I assign 25 min. of Power Up to my ELA students.  Then, as they complete lessons, we monitor and use the recommended lessons to support their weaknesses.
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In the article, I like how it states to "prune" away the things they'll forget and focus on most important.  Also, how we need to let students have a choice (ways to express their learning that is interesting to them). Make this learning time as positive as possible.
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Reflection:
Even though Power Up is at the students' individual levels, often the recommended lessons that come up need to be modified/tailored. Looking at the lesson, breaking it up, and going step-by-step is often necessary. -- Since my students are getting ready to finish their independent reading books (reading on own time).  I am going to let them choose the type of report that fits their level & interest (Ex: .a written book report, book talk, book jacket...).

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In kindergarten we are assigning seesaw activities, 15minutes of lexia daily, and during small groups we  do ABC bootcamp. During class we try to make learning more engaging by adding frequent brain breaks and making lessons more hands on but it has been really difficult. Some students lose their materials while others have really poor internet connection.

10 Tips for Honoring Students in the Distance Learning Environment

Something I learned from this article is that it is okay if we don't get to everything. It is really difficult to go over everything we have planned. We have to remember that it is okay. Just focus on those fundamental skills.

Differentiation is tailoring instruction to meet the needs of individual students. Something we can use to help us differentiate instruction is the continuum for the California standards. If a students is struggling look at a level below and base your instruction off that level. You can also do this for advanced students, look at the level ahead and challenge those students.