Picture this: it's 8 AM, you're in a
Language Arts classroom, and there are around 7-10 students (the only ones who
consistently show up) sitting in desks. Can you imagine the mood, the energy in
the room?
If a word similar to "dead"
popped into your head, you would be correct. This class is one that my
mentor teacher has struggled with since the beginning of the year. Although the
students are not a classroom management problem, they pose another teaching hurdle
in that they often become disengaged throughout the lessons. When discussing
the classes I would focus on, my mentor teacher encouraged me to bring my fresh
ideas to the students in order to give them a new face with interactive and
innovative activities. With a class of less than 15 students, this seemed like
an amazing opportunity to get creative with my instruction and become more
intentional in designing lessons that truly engaged and motivated each student.
One of the easiest and most effective ways
to accomplish this is to allow students the opportunity to make choices about
their own learning. In The Highly Engaged
Classroom, Marzano and Pickering establish four different ways to offer
students choices: choice of tasks, choice of reporting formats, choice of
learning goals, and choice of behaviors (14). Alternative Book Reports offer
students both choice in task as well as the reporting format.
As I was talking with colleagues about my
different ideas, one teacher suggested a method called Layered Curriculum. According
to H. Donovan Colding in an article titled “Integrating a Layered Curriculum to Facilitate Differentiated Instruction”, Layered Curriculum was
developed by Kathie Nunley and “. . . is a teaching method that builds on
students’ varied learning styles and multiple intelligences”. The foundation of
this method is allowing students to choose activities that best fit their
learning styles, needs, and skills.
There are three levels in Layered
Curriculum which correspond to the grade students receive: the C level requires
that students show their basic understanding of a topic by choosing from a set
of assignments, B level applies knowledge learned from the C level tasks to
create new knowledge, and the A level requires students to think critically
about the topic and produce tasks in the analysis and synthesis levels of
thinking (Colding). Not only do students get a choice of tasks, they also get a
say in their learning goals and can be held accountable for the grade they want
to receive.
I plan to use this Layered Curriculum
method while reading Keesha’s House with
the students. Each student will be required to complete the C level by choosing
from the tasks offered, but it is up to the individual student to determine their
learning goals and how much work they are willing to put in. Hopefully, by
using a text students can make connections with and giving them options as they
read and learn, the motivation and engagement in the classroom will be
increased.
References
Colding, Donovan H. “Integrating a Layered Curriculum to
Facilitate Differentiated Instruction.” Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Web. 6 April 2016.
Marzano, Robert J. and Pickering, Debra J. The Highly Engaged Classroom. Bloomington: Marzano Research, 2010.
Print.
