I wish I worked in Wormeli world

I wish I worked in Wormeli world because it must be a wonderful place to live, I think a lot like Mr. Roger’s Neighbourhood.

He responded to my post dated Monday April 5, 2010 “Is differentiated instruction desirable?” Click on the comment link at the bottom to read them.

“Grouping students flexibly and temporarily is justified, research-based, and common sense. If you are a classical guitarist, I’m not going to make you sit through the first lesson of the E minor chord all over again while I teach those just learning how to hold a guitar properly. You’ll move on to advanced fingering and adagios.”

Common sense, I like that. I must admit I have never taught guitar so maybe differentiated instruction is a great way to teach guitar, however I have taught 30 grade 7 math students at one time. I am going to make an assumption that advanced fingering and adagios is comparable to advanced math like calculus.

So let’s say I have a class of grade 7 math students and one of them wants to sit at the back and work on advanced calculus instead of working on fractions with the rest of the class. WOOO HOOO! No teacher in the world is going to stop the child from doing advanced calculus! I have never had that happen to me in my life and if it has happened to any other teacher out there, please let me know because I want write a story on that child!

However in the real world 25 of the 30 students don’t know fractions at all even though they have learned it in a previous grade. Three of the remaining 5 could really use a review before they have to write the exam at the end of the year. The last two, well it probably won’t hurt them to review the concepts and if they really know it, they will be done the assignment very quickly and can have some extra computer time.

In Wormeli world I suppose those 5 students would be put into a group where they would sit at the back of the class and work nicely on the next chapter of math independently. They would discuss the problems and learn from each other. They would not goof around, disrupt the class or talk about the latest Lady Gaga You Tube video. Wormeli world must be a nice place to work. Common sense!