Activity 1: Differentiating Lesson Plans to Meet Student Needs
Create a To-Do list for your upcoming tasks
1. Student 1
1.1. Interests
1.2. Pleasing the teacher and doing well in each subject
1.3. Ping Pong
1.4. Readiness Level
1.4.1. Excellent when dealing with straightforward math problems. Student 1 struggles with conceptualizing word problems and anything that involves creativity.
1.5. Strategies
1.5.1. Take an example word problem and break it down sentence by sentence. Highlight, in each sentence, the relevant information. Then below the example, give her a very similar word problem to work out on her own. By searching for the relevant information (key words) she will start to see patterns in word problems i.e. "how many in all" means you will have to add.
1.5.2. Multiplication Review: Her and a partner will play a game of "Ping Pong Times Tables." This is where one student, before they start the volley, will call out a multiplication problem (i.e 4 X2) then volley the ball, the other student must answer that problem before the ball gets back to the server. They will repeat this ten times and keep track of the number of correct answers. This strategy also works very well outside with a soccer ball.
2. Student 3
2.1. Interests
2.2. Competition and a lot of movement throughout a lesson
2.3. Sports/Winning
2.4. Readiness Level
2.4.1. On grade level with is math concepts, thrives and expands his knowledge when challenged. Needs work on solving the problem he knows, in a quicker time span.
2.5. Strategies
2.5.1. "Math Challenge" Student 3 and another male student in the class who needs a lot of activity will compete against each other. There will be 4 worksheets set up on 4 chairs that are back to back to each other. So the 4 chairs are set up in a square. The students will race to complete all 4 worksheets and get back to the chair where they started. The first to do this, wins.
2.5.2. Math Jeopardy: Students in the class will be broken into 3 teams, 2 students on each team. Each team member will be given a mini white board and a dry erase marker. Each team will be given 1 buzzer, to signal you are ready to answer the question. I will create a Jeopardy template on the website Gynzy, dealing with multiplying decimals. This game will work exactly like jeopardy, the first team to buzz and answer correctly gets the points. However it is a little different in that groups that answer in the given time frame can receive half the points if the answer is correct.
3. Objective:Mutiplying Decimlas
4. Student 2
4.1. Interests
4.2. Being able to work independently and use her creativity
4.3. Comic Books/Art
4.4. Readiness Level
4.4.1. Excellent with both straightforward and word problems. Struggles with demonstrating mastery in ways outside of solving problems.
4.5. Strategies
4.5.1. For the first part of this strategy I will assign Student 2 as the group leader for this assignment. Students will be given a worksheet on multiplying decimals, most of which are word problems. This will force Student 2 to have to engage her group in order to brainstorm the best way to solve each question.
4.5.2. For the second part of this strategy, Student 2 will be working alone. She will be asked to create a comic/cartoon demonstrating how to multiply decimals. She will create the story of me (or any teacher) teaching their students how to multiply decimals.