Is differentiated instruction reasonable

As a mom, I like the idea of my child being special and having her unique personality nurtured however I wonder if it is reasonable to expect everyone else in the world to cater to her needs.

Let me make a comparison, my daughter likes spinach better than green beans. Is it really a big deal for me as a mom to accommodate her when we are having green beans by putting some frozen spinach in the microwave and heating it up for her? It is not a lot of extra effort and she gets a green vegetable so I am willing to accommodate her individual tastes.

If I had three kids, each with their own individual tastes and I had to accommodate each of them for three meals per day, well that might be a bit more difficult. What if I have 6 kids or 8 kids? What if I have 100 kids and 4 to 6 meals per day to prepare? The selection required to accommodate each persons individual tastes is overwhelming. Now what there was only 40 minutes per day to do all the planning organizing and preparation work???

In this situation, is it not more reasonable to prepare one or two healthy meals, making sure that over the course of the week a variety of foods are prepared. By the end of the week probably everyone would be pretty health overall and the cook would not be completely burnt out trying to accommodate every ones individual tastes.

Similarly in education, is it really necessary that teachers attempt to accommodate the individual learning styles of each student as would be the case in differentiated instruction.

In this online video by Rick Wormeli, he states in the beginning that "differentiated instruction is not individualized instruction." However a little later in the same clip he said "for example in a well run differentiated class, rarely would everybody have the exact same homework assignment ... so if I saw a teacher giving day after day the exact same assignment to everybody, then I would think that they might have differentiated their lesson but they undermine it because they didn't give different forms of practice."

http://www.schooltube.com/video/cb83856191f9470e8937/Rick-Wormeli-on-Differentiation

So if a teacher has 4 different classes in a day with around 100 students. The teacher should not be expected to compose and grade 100 different assignments, maybe only ... 4 or 5 per different assignments per class which would be about 20 different homework assignments to write in their 40 minute prep time. That is still an overwhelming workload.

Wouldn't it be more reasonable to ask the teacher to prepare one good well organized lesson per class with one homework assignment? I think fewer teachers would get burnt out with unreasonable expectations.

Sure I would like my child to be treated like an individual and have her teachers design special lessons for her personally and if I win a lottery, I might be able to hire a private tutor to do just that. However, I don't expect a public school teacher to work themselves into stress leave with unrealistic expectations.

Cartoon depicting the state of education in the United States

American is best

Why we Canadians seem to respect American ideas so very much is beyond me. One of the things that offends me about the Rick Wormeli presentation is that the money must have come out of the education budget somewhere. When education is in a financial crisis in this province, perhaps we should be looking at saving money and possibly promoting Canadian educators rather then American.

The American education system is quite honestly one of the worst in the world. They should be looking to Canada for advice on how to improve. They are considering mass school closures in which all staff would be fired. I am thinking that if Rick Wormeli really has the solution to education then perhaps he should clean up his own back yard first.

http://www.calitics.com/diary/11249/mass-school-closures-loom-especially-in-communities-of-color

We have plenty of educators right here in St. Paul with 20+ years of teaching experience who might have some really great ideas on how to improve exam grades. I am thinking that their ideas may be more relevant to our students then some American educator. I am sure one of those suggestions might be to give them more time to work on exam preparation.

Just an idea but perhaps it would be better to ask teachers who already have 4 to 6 years of University Education on a variety of teaching theories what they think would help them achieve better exam grades.

Rick Wormeli - the current trend in education

American presenter Rick Wormeli was in St. Paul on Monday to deliver his message about education. For those who could not attend his presentation here is a similar presentation done recently in Saskatchewan.

http://blogs.wsd1.org/etr/?tag=rick-wormeli

His key message is that differentiated instruction which basically means teaching each student at his or her own level. Nice idea but like so many trends in education it is not practical, nor in my opinion even really desirable. Does each child in a classroom need a separate lesson plan? Do we really need to stress teachers out with unrealistic expectations.

Clearly our school division and school board herald this teaching method as the best since they have declared this extra PD day and insisted that all teachers attend to learn about it.

I have a number of issues with this method that I will address in posts over the next while.

However if you are interested in hearing his message first hand, please check out the link above.

Underachieving kids

This article is right on the nose! I was an underachieving child for many years and can completely identify with the definition of coasters:

"Coasters make up 40 per cent of all underachievers, equal among both girls and boys. They come from all kinds of families. Coasters procrastinate at home and at school. They give up easily, get low marks, and lose interest without concern for the consequences. They have selective memories, forgetting things they deem unimportant, and while they may have good intentions, they rarely follow through. These kids seem unfazed by their lack of academic achievement."

Personally as long as I was able to maintain a passing grade I coasted. It was not until high school that I experienced failure and decided that it was in "my best interest" to try. Eventually I became an advocate of education.

"The resource teacher told me that you sometimes have to let your kid become "ready to learn" at his own pace, and although I believed her, I found it really hard to let go. You feel like you'd be a terrible parent if you don't prevent your kid from failing. But I can see that she's right, and that sometimes kids have to fall on their faces so they can find out for themselves that they actually want to succeed and find it worthwhile to do the work."

Programs like "second chances" maintain coasting and prevent the all important experience of failure which is necessary for success.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/03/10/f-barwick-underachievers.html#ixzz0i4ne8Wqi

education awards

Education awards are often difficult because they single out the efforts of a few individuals when so many teachers put in so much hard work. However personally I feel that they are good in that they shine a positive light on teachers in general.

Both Julie Dubeau from Ecole Mallaig and Corinne Pashko from Racette will receive the Excellence in Catholic Education awards. Tanya Herbert has been nominated by the board for the Edwin Parr award.

FSLW

The Family School Liaison Worker program is the only school based counseling program in our division. It receives government funds and funds from local municipalities.

There were some hints of concern about the long term viability of the program in the last school board meeting.

This is an important program offered to students. Having emotionally healthy children is a benefit to everybody, just as an educated population is a benefit to everybody. This program must be supported.

Contact your school board members and your government representatives and let them know that this program is important.

Outrageous

Apparently the students who filmed their teachers lap dancing as part of a performance at a school pep rally could face discipline charges because the school has a "zero tolerance policy" (another eduphrase I hate) with regard to cell phones and recording devices. I would think that the school would be so ashamed of this stupid behavior on the part of their staff members that they would choose not to bring anymore attention to the issue. I wonder if the school has a "zero tolerance policy" about teachers behaving like immature idiots.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Winnipeg+students+filmed+dancing+teachers+could+face+punishment/2633050/story.html

but thats just my opinion! :)