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Using Differentiation As Tool For Behaviour Management

A reflective article I wrote purely based on my teaching including various research

Date : 19/01/2015

Author Information

Zirab

Uploaded by : Zirab
Uploaded on : 19/01/2015
Subject : Science

My second school placement involved attending a larger than average, secondary school located in Rochdale called Falinge Park High School. The school has a very high proportion of pupils eligible for pupil premium in comparison to schools nationally. This was also the case for the number of EAL learners as three quarters of the school is made up of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds. The school had recently moved to new building and therefore were adopting new systematic rules for timings, pupil movement from class to class, and selecting accessible areas for pupils during break times. The school was also carefully developing strategies in regards to the managing of teaching space which consisted of 'teaching hubs'- located in the hallways, 'super labs' for the teaching of science and the 'heart space'- also used as a canteen and an assembly area, as well as containing regular-sized classrooms for teaching. During this placement I was timetabled to teach in the 'super labs' which boasted the capacity to be able to accommodate up to sixty pupils. These rooms were a new feature for the school and were being trialled by the teachers of science as they employed team-teaching strategies. The team-teaching involved the rotation of teachers of the combined classes on a weekly basis where one teacher played the role of the 'lead teacher' and the others as 'support teachers'. This rotation also involved one session every two weeks where the classes were split and only taken by their assigned teacher separately, in regular-sized classrooms. The assigned teacher would then also be responsible for that certain class in regards to target setting, tracking data, and homework in both settings, however when acting as the lead teacher in a super lab, he/she also had to take into consideration the needs of pupils in the other class.

My first week at Falinge Park High School involved a full-time timetable of observation to support my development in teaching and also to introduce me to the concept of super labs. The vital need of differentiation in these lessons was apparent due to considerable differences in ability, as well as the large number pupils in the class. During this period I observed lessons which demonstrated effective differentiation using various strategies. I also noticed that effective differentiation decreased the low level disruption within the classroom, which also was evident due to the number of pupils placed together in one classroom. The main issues present were: whispering, off task- not carrying out work set, and disengagement from lesson context- talking about social issues.

Differentiation is an important aspect of teaching as a class is likely to contain pupils who are all at different stages of cognitive, social, and physical development. Other factors such as cultural backgrounds, religious, economical and class status are also likely to affect how a pupil responds to accustomed teaching styles. Pupils of different academic stages such as gifted and talented, and pupils with behavioural or learning difficulties should also be taken into consideration (Capel, S. et al. 2013). Tomlinson, C. (2000) states differentiation is not 'a recipe for teaching' but rather a method of putting forward a successful learning environment which takes into account several philosophical ideologies: pupils vary in much they are willing to learn determined by their life experiences and circumstances, and their methods of learning; their differences in regards to their pace of learning and the level of support they require during this process; how well they make the connection between the curriculum and life experiences. Differentiation should take advantage of the capacity of each individual pupil and utilise this correctly to achieve the pupil's maximum potential. Differentiation is a varied approach towards one standard or topic in the national curriculum, of which ranges in levels of difficulty (Tomlinson, C. 2000). Many approaches can be used to achieve this such as: level of scaffolding, amount of time given, pupils working collaboratively or alone, kinaesthetic, auditory or visual activities, practical or identifying information from a text. Differentiation also serves the purpose as a behaviour management technique, as it helps towards eliminating the possibility for pupils to display unacceptable behaviour. Some of the issues present in a classroom where the work is not differentiated include pupils not being able: to understand the work being done in class; to completely understand the language being used; complete the work before others and are therefore not challenged enough (Garner. P. 2013).

Lesson 1 Taking these issues into consideration I decided to carefully plan my first lesson to achieve a successful learning environment. To help with the behaviour management I decided to organise my lesson in to chunks and plan a number of short activities throughout the lesson. My first lesson was on digestion, to make this interesting I decide to use various teaching strategies: . Open questions with possible keywords that can be used to answer the questions . Labelling a diagram of the digestive system . Group work: discussing the functions of the major organs involved in digestion . Explaining the motion of peristalsis from watching a video . Pair-share activity: to suggest what the following words might relate to: ingestion, absorption, egestion. . Fill in the gaps activity to summarise the lessons content. For differentiation I made it explicit to what keywords are to be used when answering questions, I also personally worked with pupils while they were carrying out a task.

My experience as their new class teacher revealed that at times, providing just keywords wasn't sufficient for the lower able and the pupils were asking for further clarification and required extra help to start completing the work set. I also noticed that a few higher able students would finish the work early and then start to distract others. Tomlinson. C. (2001) articulates the process of differentiation; a lesson must be planned 'proactively' using a number of methods for learners to achieve their goal rather than reacting to a situation. Correct differentiation comes from a series of formative assessment techniques by observing and 'getting to know' the pupils over a period of time, as well as using summative assessment data. Therefore I decided to use my observations to help me towards planning the next lesson. I was also advised to use questioning as a tool to assess where differentiation was needed in order to fully prepare for my next lesson. As it is vital to first identify the needs of a pupil before planning certain tasks or activities (Wellington. J. 2000).

However, the organisational of the lesson as in using a number of activities throughout the lesson kept the pupils engaged, and even though it was my very first lesson this was identified as one of my strengths of the lesson as seen in the lesson observation in the appendix. Also the coming together and jointly answering questions as a class at the end of each activity is seen to be highly beneficial as it 'establishes common understandings and a sense of community' for pupils (Tomlinson. C. 2001).

Lesson 2 In the following lesson I decided to arrange the seating plan to differentiate between higher able learners and pupils who required more support. The classroom contained two side projectors and one projector in the middle with six tables arranged vertically from the middle of the classroom. I placed the higher able learners in the middle of the classroom so that their main concentration was on the middle board and I placed pupils who required more support at either end of the classroom so they would concentrate on the side boards. When preparing this seating plan I also decided to place pupils with behavioural issues in the middle in between the higher able learners so that they were encouraged to do well and not disrupt the class. Once I had arranged the seating plan, I moved on to making different PowerPoint slides for the different boards. For the side boards, in comparison to the middle board, I prepared slides with more structure for pupils to use when completing activities. These were also done to accommodate EAL and SEN learners, although there were no severe SEN or EAL learners present. Being in that situation I would initially send the notes to their support staff in advance to the lesson and have personalised hard copies of the notes for them with the required adjustments for example larger fonts. This included: keywords they had to use, higher scaffolding, sentence starters, and example answers, very clear step by step instructions, and various colours for the writing, clearly distinguishing questions and answers, and also making it overt the different skills required to answer such as literacy or mathematical skills. While also keeping the various number of activities shown in lesson one. An example of differentiation that I used in an activity for the topic carbon cycle was: for the higher able pupils I prepared a paragraph of writing which contained all the information on the carbon cycle, working in pairs the pupils had to turn back-to-back and one pupil read the information to the other, while they would then transfer this information into the cycle format. For the pupils that required extra support, I prepared a similar activity, however rather than reading a paragraph they had a complete picture of the cycle and then had to tell their partner what the different labels were and where they went. Once the activity was done they would self-assess this and give themselves a mark.

Reflection: I found it difficult to give out two sets of instructions especially when carrying out new activities which the pupils have not done before. I realised this was more of an issue than anticipated ,when a number of pupils kept asking for further clarification on instructions given when completing worksheets and therefore, besides instructions being present on the boards weren't sufficient. However, the differentiated activities worked well and allowed all pupils to be challenged appropriately. This design ensured the majority of pupils were on task and completed the work set on time, which in return enabled all pupils to report back and answer questions at the end of the activity. Behaviour issues also decreased significantly as all pupils had the opportunity to access the curriculum, this also helped to improve the pace of the lesson.

Lesson 3 Using all the various techniques I had used before to carry out differentiation, I now incorporated all this into worksheets including clear step-by-step instructions for each consequential activity. Doing this saved a considerable amount of time resulting in not constantly repeating instructions to individual pupils. As part of my professional development I also exploited further use of visual demonstrations to further explain scientific concepts so this would aid particular pupils with accessing the curriculum, alongside with consolidating new knowledge taught within the lesson. In order to make scientific concepts accessible for the low ability pupils, clear instructions with key words, and examples were provided on a scaffolding sheet. This was also accompanied by the lesson PowerPoint to ensure that each pupil was clear with the instructions provided; along with clear examples of what was expected off them. To further scaffold pupil learning I provided them with sentence starters to ensure that pupils had a starting point. This strategy was now being used regularly in all of the lessons that I delivered. In order to meet all the different abilities, I provided extensions tasks that were attached to each task that was set. This enabled all pupils to remain engaged throughout the lesson. Further differentiation was put in place through the different worksheets that I designed for the various abilities in my class, I achieved this by tailoring questions on the worksheets to individual pupils' needs and in regards to the pupils' ability. These question also differed in the level of skills required to answer the questions (see appendix).

Using my previous knowledge obtained from assignments carried out, I employed various questioning techniques in tandem with Blooms' Taxonomy to ensure that pupil knowledge was consolidated. To carry this out I was advised by my mentor to use a random name generator; this helped to select a variety of pupils and also engaged all the pupils because they were actively involved in the lesson. Another technique that was put in place was target questioning, which enabled me to check pupil learning during the lesson, and aiding me towards determining pupil understanding of the new knowledge. I also used a technique called 'bouncing questions', a strategy that includes all pupils to work together to develop a high-grade scientific answer. I began by targeting lower ability pupils with simple questions, and bounced them to the middle and higher ability pupils to elaborate on, combined with asking for volunteers to improve on the answer given so far. At the end of the bounced questioning, pupils were able to come up with a good quality answer as a whole class. Bouncing questioning also ensured that all pupils were included and did not lose confidence even if their knowledge was weak, and also ensured new concepts were explained using 'pupil language'. These questioning techniques helped me to effectively differentiate within a mixed ability class.

Overall, these strategies and techniques allowed me to effectively differentiate within my lessons. These helped me to develop my differentiation skills, alongside with using pupils' data effectively. I was applying their previous knowledge within the lessons and building on the knowledge they had. This also aided me to eliminate minor disruptions in my lesson. As I progressed through the placement, I was able to provide pupils' with differentiated homework to keep the high ability pupils' stimulated and still provide scaffolding for the low ability pupils. These strategies also stretched each pupil to their individual needs and catered for their personal ability during lessons. By incorporating these various strategies enabled pupils' to gain knowledge and demonstrate what they had learnt through answering and completing the tasks set in lesson time. The research in relation to effective differentiation aided me to effectively plan and deliver my lessons. In the future, I am able to expand on this by providing pupils with a choice in regards to attempting higher-level tasks, in order to provide them with the opportunity to develop their knowledge to their full potential.

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