This week I have come to understand more fully that my classroom needs to be planned around the needs of my students that are a part of it. First, I need to figure out the needs of my students. I can do this through a process of screening which is done through assessments. After I assess a process of diagnosis needs to take place. After that my students can be placed where they need to be. It is my job to always be assessing if the decisions that have been made on their behalf are helping them or not helping them. To evaluate if the decisions are helping them I need to assess how they are doing in their situation. One way of doing this is through curriculum based assessments. These help me to see if they are actually learning what is being presented to them in the situation that they are in.
One way that I can meet the needs of my students is by implementing the include strategy. There are seven steps to the include strategy, one for each letter. They are identify classroom demands, note student learning strengths and needs, check for potential areas of student success, look for potential problem areas, use information to brainstorm ways to differentiate instruction, differentiate instruction, and evaluate student progress. By following these steps I am analyzing my classroom as a whole and by doing this I am making sure that every student in my classroom has their needs met.
Another thing that is important in a classroom that meets need is inclusion. There are a few categories that I as a teacher need to address for my classroom to foster inclusion. These include physical organization, routines for classroom business, classroom climate, behavior management, and use of time. These categories decide how my class will run and how it will effect my students. I need to make sure that I as a teacher am taking the time to actually make good decisions on these categories so that I can meet the needs of my students. There are also so many ways to instruct. I think that it is important to take each situation and make the instruction relevant to that. Differentiating instruction allows more needs to be met because students all learn differently.
As a teacher I have a lot of decisions to make. It is important that I analyze my classroom and decide what's best for my students instead of what's best for me. They need their needs to be met.
There are seriously so many choices to make as a teacher! It is important to be well-informed so that you can make the best possible choices for your class.
ReplyDeleteI think with the include strategy, a lot of these things can be decided (sort of) before teaching. In school right now, we are learning all about behavior management, use of time, organization, routines, and a lot of other things. I want to have a plan for my classroom organization and for behavior management. And obviously, I will have to adjust as I start to actually teach and as my teaching philosophy changes. I will also adjust each year as I get different students in my classroom. But, I love that in our classes here we are focusing on all of these strategies. This way, I can have a plan going in to the school year, and know a lot of ways to adjust my teaching and my style to fit the needs of my students.
(I hope that all made sense!)