Every Student Counts

"Every student counts" is said and heard all the time in so many different contexts.  We have our ENL population  of students who have various needs in order to succeed in the rigorous academics in our school while also learning our language.  We have students with learning disabilities, whose brains work differently than others and so they too have various needs to succeed.  We have students who have attention issues or other behavioral issues that get in their way in the classroom, therefore, they too have various needs to succeed.  We also have those students who are gifted in some ways and learning comes much easier to them. Their readiness level in various subjects is grade levels higher than their peers, therefore they too have various needs in order to continue to progress in school.  Every student counts! So I pose the question: If all of these students are in a classroom together, how do we ensure that the myriad of needs are met?  Then I take it one step further: How do we instill in these students the knowledge of what their needs are so that they could ensure that they are given the help that they need?

Many people would answer the first question simply by saying two words..."differentiated instruction."  What does that mean and how do we transfer it to the student as well? I watched a webinar with Robyn Jackson from ASCD. She talked about the resources used for differentiating as opposed to planning multiple lessons within the lesson. She looked at the students as falling into four quadrants; high process/high content, high process/low content, low process/high content, and low process/low content. Various resources would be made that would assist each student with the lesson so that they can reach their individual potential. Students will begin to learn their own needs and eventually seek out the resources themselves. Of course it is important to note that if a student feels as though they would benefit from a resource they were not originally provided they should be afforded that opportunity if needed. A student who is low content, may need help with some vocabulary, this can be done with visuals or a glossary. Students who are English Language Learners can benefit from these resources as well. Students who are low process, may need a resource demonstrating the steps to take in order to complete the task, like a check list or graphic organizer.

Let's look at the high process/high content student. We all have them but unfortunately many times the focus is on the students who are struggling that we forget to meet the needs of those who do not struggle. Since EVERY student counts, we need to make sure they too reach their full potential. How about offering some "nice to know" information about the topic. This takes those students to the next level in the content but does not confuse the students who need to grasp the basics of the content. I remember when I was younger I was an avid reader. I always had a flashlight and book under my pillow. I remember my teacher in elementary school offering me a list of books that she thought I would like to read. They were books that were clearly a higher grade level than we were reading in class. She then would take the time to meet with me to discuss the books that I chose to read and we would have a little book talk. It wasn't a lot of time spent but it stuck with me and I got a lot out of our book discussions that I wouldn't have been able to have with the books we were reading in class. I think that is when I began to learn how to question what I was reading, I do not believe I was annotating in my margins yet but I probably could have if I was shown how.

Recently, a teacher I know, told me about a discovery he made about his student that could potentially change his life in education and he is only in second grade. This student has been a discipline issue since Kindergarten. Each year the current teacher would hear from the principal as well as the past teacher that he was problematic and a huge distraction to the rest of the students in class. Many times he would not do his work and would cause disruptions. This second grade teacher came to the realization, by taking the time to gather some extra data, that this student was extremely bored in school because his academic levels across the board were a few grade levels above what was being taught in class. His second grade teacher began giving him different work at his level including a separate reading group using above grade level materials and changing the questioning. The student is now behaving beautifully and is not a disruption anymore. He is happy with the challenging work.

Many times when differentiating for students to meet the needs of all students, choice is needed.  There are many ways to learn information as well as show that you have learned the content.  Sometimes it is not about changing the level of the material you are using but offering choice on the assignment and how the learning is demonstrated.  Tapping into students’ strengths can often help them with their weaknesses. 

There are many ways to differentiate content or process for all our students and their various needs.  What’s important to remember is that EVERY STUDENT counts and we need help them all reach their full potential.  As Carol Ann Tomlinson astutely stated, “In the end, all learners need your energy, your heart and your mind. They have that in common because they are young humans. How they need you however, differs. Unless we understand and respond to those differences, we fail many learners."