There was an advanced group of students developing in one section of Chemistry I that began to act out in boredom in class during the Gas Laws unit. I used pregnant pauses, proximal discipline and even stopped my instruction in an attempt to quell their behavior. Over one weekend I really thought about how best to approach the situation and I came to the conclusion that that particular group of students simply needed to be given work and then set loose to complete their required assignments. What was really needed was an equitable assignment for all students, but in multiple versions. My second attempt at differentiated instruction had begun.
The following two versions of this assignment were generated:
Students were asked to make an independent choice as to whether or not they felt that they had a mastery of the content and would like to begin the assigned problems on their own, or whether they would like some more individualized support from me with scaffolding in solving the problems. The students made the decision of their own accord. Students who desired more help stayed with me so that we could solve the problems together while others who wished to work more independently moved to the back of the room into the lab to solve the problems. Mr. Smith circulated in the rear of the room, checking on students and answering questions.
The main difference between the assignments was that the standard version told the students which equation should be used to solve a set of given problems, while the challenge version had the same problems, but in a random order, without a particular equation specified used to solve any of them. Students didn’t seem to view one assignment as easier, and both assignments were worth 15 points.
InTASC 2 was best utilized when I assembled these activities as I had to take into account the learning of all of my students, including the high ability ones. It took some personal reflection on my part, the heart of HLP 19, to even begin this assignment. HLP 6 provided the small group work while HLP 13 helped me in choosing how I went about generating this task.
This professional choice was so successful that I chose to make similar assignments in other units as well. Students seem to look forward to these days, and I do too, as I know that I am doing a better job offering more students exactly what they need to be successful in my class. Additional modified assignments included: