*While this topic has nothing to do with the life of my children at first glance... it really does... I want my children to be successful, I want them to learn everything they can, and I want them to get the best education they can! These are my thoughts... my analogies... and my assumptions.
Somewhere, sometime a group of people decided that children should enter school based on age.
Depending on where the child is living and what school he is entering, some children enter into “school” at three years old.
My issue with this concept is that just because a child was born
on a certain day does not mean that he is ready for learning at three,
or four, or even five.
God made each of us unique, and the first place we try to make all children the same is school.
The entire idea of all children learning the same thing at the
same time really isn’t logical because everyone’s brain is different.
Choosing common curricula for students is helpful to use as a
guide to make sure that the concepts are covered, but the order they are
presented, how they are presented, and how we decide if they are
mastered are the million dollar questions. Everyone can't learn the same thing at the same speed.... It would be a miracle....
I’d like to start with the doctor’s office visit for the newborn.
We have all been there ourselves or with our own children, but
the majority of the people we know receive certain vaccines throughout
life.
A vaccine improves immunity to a disease. I like to compare the vaccine to the Common Core today.
While we may not agree on the information to guide us in the Common Core, it is what we expect the students to know.
That’s what we are offering as the shot. And just like the medical world... we have common requirements. We give them all the knowledge we can about the content that is required during that age of their lives.
This well-visit is sometimes helpful and gives us protection from
something that we may not be able to fight off when we “catch it”.
With education, the well-visit is what children see every day in their classrooms.
They see knowledge poured into them that the powers to be feel are necessary.
Just like the newborn shots… it can be painful, cause reactions, and even be harmful.
The majority of the time it is helpful, and this practice is still continued today because the benefits outweigh the negatives.
If we aren’t going to the doctor for well-visits, we are there for sick visits.
Both my children seem to “catch” sinus infections, and they both have seasonal allergies.
I, personally, don’t like to medicate my children for every
sniffle, but I’m also the first one at the doctor’s office if I think
they have an infection and need an antibiotic.
Usually, when I enter the waiting room, there are many other patients waiting their turn.
How sad would it be for the doctor to decide that day that each person would get a pain pill to solve whatever is wrong.
How sad would that be for my child who has a sinus infection and needs an antibiotic ?
He might be getting a pain pill and that could harm him more than not taking anything all.
I like to think of teachers as doctors. Each child in the room needs something different.
Some know lots of things and some are far behind. As a teacher, I think I did a very poor job of subscribing medication to my students.
I liked to give them the same pill to see if it would work.
It was easy for me… and I thought they needed it because the book said they did.
When
I began working with special education students, my first realization
was that the special education child is so close to the general
education child that they can both be taught the
same way. I might have to add in additional strategies to reach them, but some general education students need that too. Now here is where it gets sticky… how do I prescribe the right medication for each one of them.
Well… I’ll try to explain that now.
I like to compare the person who comes in with a pain in his back to the child who hasn’t learned to divide yet.
The doctor talks to the patient, builds a relationship, and determines the method of treatment.
For some, it will be an x-ray, some medication, and some time.
When we look at an x-ray we can see what is broken… if only teaching was that easy.
When we give medication, we have a prescription of something that
we think will make them better…and usually the medicines help with what
is wrong.
The final option is time… a pulled muscle in a back usually can be aided by medication, but usually… time heals.
So looking at the child and division, I ask myself does this child need an x-ray, medicine, or time.
I’ll start with the latter… who has time for time?
We can hope that time will help the child, but with assessments and
accountability being pushed down our throats by the legislation… we
can’t use that as our first option.
Let’s go to the x-ray and medicine. For some teachers, pre-assessments are like the x-ray.
We don't always get an x-ray, so we don't know what's inside... could
their home life have something to do with the problem? Could there be
something there that we miss? We are able to see what the child knows and doesn’t know academically, but are there other issues that cause the limited ability to perform like their peers?
Using these assessment results to determine the medicine we give is crucial.
Again, just because we give a pre-assessment and some don’t know
the content… that doesn’t mean we all need to complete this unit.
But for the division… I clearly see the child doesn’t know how to divide… but I have to do some further investigation.
Long division involves addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
It’s my job to find out what the child can/can’t do.
I’m not a rocket scientist for figuring out the child can’t do division
because he can’t subtract correctly… I become the rocket scientist when I
prescribe the right medication for the child to learn how to subtract.
Yes, it will take a little remediation, but instead of remaining
frustrated at the end of each class period, I think it would be a good
idea to work on that concept with that child.
In education, medication comes in the form of “interventions”.
What am I going to do to make sure the child learns how to subtract?
Will I use manipulatives, one-on-one with a teacher, a computer,
group work with a stronger peer, or a different method of presentation.
The beauty of the internet today is that we can always find a different kind of the medicine to give the child.
Collaboration with colleagues and stealing others’ ideas are my favorite. There are so many books and articles on the subject that it can be quite overwhelming....
Many ask what is differentiation… to me… it’s prescribing the right prescription for the child to get better.
The beauty of a classroom is that there are usually one-third of
the group who get it… who don’t need medicine… they come in… get a shot
of B-12 (a small lesson on new material), and they are ready to move on…
another third of the group… they just need
one of those five day antibiotics… after a few review lessons using
different methods from the first given they get it… and then the third
group… they get the antibiotics…and they get the vitamins… they need it
all.
Just like with illness, there are many who stay “sick” the entire
year… but there are also those who get better and need to go get a shot
of B-12…. It just takes them a little longer for the medicine to work…
but I should never stop trying medicines….
I should try to get them well as quickly as possible. They get a positive boost of energy and move to another group!
I once heard a teacher say she divides her students by the “got
it, trying to get it, need help”…. In a symmetrical world it would be
wonderful if the groups were even, but they usually never are…. So when I
say “third”… I mean three groups… four if
needed… As teachers we place our students in groups to help figure out
the prescription they need.
In the doctor’s office… can you imagine me sitting with all the patients who need medication?
I would beg, borrow, deal, and steal for
the right thing… that’s my personality… I like to feel good… but what
about the sweet, kind, shy child who is really sicker than me but didn’t
speak up… She probably isn’t going to get what
she needs… and go home in worse shape than when she came.
Isn’t it great that doctor’s see us individually? I
would love for teachers to have that ability… but we don’t…. so
prescribing the same medication for the entire class may work on some
“illnesses”, but it won’t work on all of them.
Everyone
isn’t blessed with perfect children… I’m not real sure how special
education teachers reach students without differentiation, but I sure
would like to observe a teacher who was able
to do it. My children’s favorite teachers are the ones who have differentiated for them.
When I sit at my kitchen table at night and hear of activities in the class... I know they are learning.... I know they are being challenged... and also remediated in some cases... I’m sick to my stomach for thinking that I knew it all as a
teacher twenty years ago… I gave every kid the same medicine… the same
dosage… and I never went back to check an x-ray or ask them if their
muscle pain was any better… I’m actually embarrassed
that I didn’t do a better job. If I ever get the
opportunity to teach again, I can’t wait to be a good “doctor” and find
out what my students really need to be successful.
Yes, it takes time, it takes effort, and it takes giving the right medication when needed.
It’s amazing the wonderful resources available to support
differentiation… I look at the topic of differentiation as that nasty
medicine I had to take when I was a child… it tasted awful… but I took
it… and got it over with… I eventually realized that
holding my nose, hiding from taking the medicine, and fussing about it
wasn’t going to do any good… so now… I just take the medicine… I’ll
admit this one has been a hard pill to swallow because it meant I had to
change… I had to become more student centered
than teacher centered… and everyone knows I want to be the center of
attention.
At the end of the day… the students should be tired from working
and showing what they know… the medicine should be a nice sleeping pill
that helps them go to bed anxiously waiting to come get some more
medicine the next day at school. And the teacher... she should see busy bees working in her room while she focuses on a few at a time reassuring them that they can get it...they can do it... and they will be given the right prescription from her!
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