Reflection: Compass Points

'''In this reflection about differentation strategies, I use the compass points strategy to think about them. This strategy uses questions to help you know the necessities, suggestions, concerns, etc. related to the application of differentation strategies:'''

After working on differenciation I can say that I understand it much better and I am much more aware of the importance of taking into account the differences between our students and teaching to each individual being concious of their personal characteristics (knowledge, skills, experience, etc.) It is essential to take into account the teaching triangle in each activity, based on the class as the most important aspect in which the teacher has to act as a leader, the students are the base of the triangle and the content has to follow their interests and to make them feel motivated. Consequently, I am going to use the strategy of compass points to reflect about differentiation: What more do you need to know about it? I think that after doing the activities related to differenciation I have clear the theoretical concepts, so what I consider that would be the next step would be to do a deep investigation of the strategies to apply the six elements of differenciation in class (content, process, product and readiness, interest, preparation) and after having it more clear, using them in specific activities in class.

What suggestions do you have for moving yourself, your area or school forward? The suggestions that I want to apply in my teaching experience is to be aware of the specific differences between my students through a deep observation of each of them and prepare each activity depends on these differences. For example, I consider that establishing three different levels (low, medium and high) can be interesting in the same activity and help my students to feel confident in which they are doing, but at the same time, being a challenge. So I would use assessment tools to know how they progress through the different activities.

What do you find exciting about it? What I find exciting about using differentation in my classes is to see the progress of each student and they way that they follow to solve the problems or situations in each activity. Also, I find interesting to observe how they work in groups using some specific strategies of differenciation. For example, focusing on the strategies that I want to use in my planner which are 'Tiered activites', 'Stations' and 'the cubing strategy', there are several aspects that I find interesting. First of all, about the first one, I want to see how each group reflect about the different questions, since they are open-questions, each of them will solve them in a different way due to the fact that each student is different and has a specific way of thinking. Regarding the second strategy, I consider that it is a very challenging activity since having different corners with different activities around the class present more difficulties, but it is also an interesting way to see preferences and capacities od students and how they work in a free way. Lastly, about the third one, I think that it can help me to know in which intelligence level is each student more or less confident.

What do you find worrying? I think that something that can make me feel worry is to have clear in which level I would have to situate each student to make them feel challenged but not overwhelmed. To solve this problem, I think that I have to carry a previous observation in several activities and situations and to take notes about each of them to have all the elements clear and be able to reach the best decision. Also, being able to vary the same activity through different levels can be difficult, so it is a challenge for me as well, since I have to develop several activities in the same one that teach the same knowledge and improve the same skills, but using different levels of difficulty. Moreover, I am know more aware of the differences between students, so what make me feel worry is knowing if an activity can work with an specific group or not since a task can work with some groups but not with others. For this reason, having a deep knowledge of the characteristics of each group is extremly necessary. Regarding the specific strategies of my planner, some common concerns that I have in the three of them are: the time which means that each sub-task has the same duration of the others, so we can avoid that some students finish earlier than others; also establishing the good level of difficulty in each sub-task is something that I consider challenging; and the most important, achiving that all my students feel motivated with each activity.