Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity to observe a grade 6/7 class and I learned so much. One of the prompts for the week was about inclusion, differentiation, exceptionality, and self-regulation. This classroom was a great example of a lot of these important aspects of teaching and reaching all your students.
Even though it was a 6/7 split class, the teacher, Mr. H, was able to make it work and engage all students. One thing that I didn’t realize before practicum was the extent of how many students struggle with reading and in every class, there are students that are reading below their current grade level. Due to this realization, I have been looking for ways that teachers accommodate their students and their different learning levels in the classroom.
Throughout the day, there were two different lessons that focused on reading and writing skills. During the first writing exercise, the students were breaking down larger words such as developmental, employment and considered. While breaking down the words, the students were also sounding out vowel combinations. This teacher, Mr. H, came over and explained to me that this is because their reading levels are all so different and these are skills that a lot of the students haven’t practiced since grade 1 and 2. I thought that this was a good way to teach all the students’ skills that will be important to them no matter their current level of learning.
I also talked to Mr. H about how he encourages reading for his students, as it is a common issue that when students don’t find reading easy to just choose not to participate which then limits their learning. He explained to me that reading is always done twice throughout the day, in one he will choose the reading material and the other they get to choose what they wanted to read. Mr. H wanted to make sure that reading could be fun for each student. During the student choice reading, there was lots of options. Students could grab anything from novels, to books with visuals and comic books. Another aspect that I thought was super cool was how Mr. H used audible to set up groups of 5 students to listen and follow along to various novels such as How to Train Your Dragon.
Another amazing experience I had was during math as well. At the beginning of this lesson, the grade 7’s left to go join the other grade 6/7 teacher and this teacher’s grade 6’s came into Mr. H’s class. This showed me how important relationships with your colleagues can be for both you as a teacher and the student’s learning as both teachers didn’t have to tackle two math lessons. After the lesson, Mr. H also explained to me that during math lessons, he always teaches the same concepts, just at different at different levels so all students can participate. He provides multiple worksheets that target these various degrees of difficulty so the students can self-assess themselves and choose. I think these are all great ideas which engage each student in the lessons.
Overall, Mr. H stated that he starts off every September telling his students that he really only has two jobs: to keep his students safe and to help make them smarter. He also explained that he tells the kids that he will act like their uncle. He is not a parent, so he won’t hover or clean up after them, but he will support them and when they do something wrong, they will need to have a conversation. I really appreciated these insights into his teaching style because it aligned a lot with the kind of teacher that I strive to be. Safety and comfortability are always key, and for me that means creating an inclusive learning environment so my students can thrive.
Note: Interested in these practicum experiences? Find these posts under the practicum section in the menu. Thanks for reading!
