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Jillian Patti

Are Teachers Successfully Targeting the Needs of Every Child?

Introduction

            "The biggest mistake of past centuries in teaching has been to treat all children as if they were variants of the same individual, and thus to feel justified in teaching them the same subjects in the same ways," (Gardner, 1994).  Children are all very different in a variety of ways.  Not all children look the same, behave the same, or think the same.  Even though children may be of the same age, they each have an array of needs.  These needs follow over to education in the classroom.  Not all children learn the same.  It is up to the teachers to provide these various methods of teaching to target the individual needs of the children.   Teachers can use different methods to differentiate teaching in order to engage all of the students in learning.  Also, teachers can modify the entire process in which they teach to target the needs of every student.  However, teachers being human, tend to lose sight of that. 

            Even though these methods are in mind when preparing to teach, teachers can lean towards one method and forget about the other ones.  I have interviewed a teacher of the elementary school level to gather a better understanding of how teachers apply these methods to their teaching.  By using a variety of my own methods, I have analyzed the interview transcript to study how this teacher talks about teaching.  The teacher's tone of voice, the way she laughs, and how long she discusses certain points reveals how she truly feels about teaching.  In comparison to my findings, I have reviewed The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, written by Carol Ann Tomlinson, which gives an excellent evaluation of how teachers can effectively target the needs of all children.  Furthermore, this study provides exceptional proof that many teachers subconsciously teach using their favorite methods, rather than incorporating every method into their teaching.

Literature Review

            The text that I reviewed is called The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, written by Carol Ann Tomlinson.  In the text Tomlinson provides a variety of ways that teachers can effectively make their class a differentiated classroom.  What is a differentiated classroom?  “A classroom where the teachers strive to do whatever it takes to ensure that struggling and advanced learners, students with varied cultural heritages, and children with different background experiences all grow as much as they possibly can each day, each week, and throughout the year,” (Tomlinson, p. 2).  Children need different ways to learn in order to stay focused on what is being taught.  “They also accept and act on the premise that teachers must be ready to engage students in instruction through different learning modalities, by appealing to different interests, and by using varied rates of instruction along with varied degrees of complexity,” (Tomlinson, p. 2).  Tomlinson explains that teachers can use a variety of materials to differentiate teaching, as well as modifying the process in which they teach.

            In Chapter 2, Tomlinson states how the process describes activities designed to ensure that students use key skills to make sense out of essential ideas and information.  When a teacher is teaching they may need to consider modifying the lesson spur of the moment in order to increase the likelihood that the learner will understand the key ideas and information.  For example, Tomlinson explains that while teaching, a teacher may need to modify the process for an advanced student who has already mastered the skills being taught that day.  The teacher may assign an activity that is more complex or allow a struggling student to complete an activity at a slower pace.

Methods

            To further my study on differentiated classrooms I interviewed LK, a second grade teacher to learn how she uses a variety of methods to teach her students.  I chose to interview an elementary school teacher because when I graduate, I hope to work in an elementary school.  Before I began the interview process, I produced a series of questions that target my research question.  I carefully picked out which questions to ask to ensure that I would not breach anything personal with the interviewee.  To begin the interview, I asked easy questions to make sure that LK was comfortable being recorded and to lead her up to my main points.  After a thorough interview that gave me a better understanding of how to differentiate a classroom, I transcribed it and analyzed the data.

Data

            The data that I collected from the interview provides proof that humans subconsciously discuss what they prefer most when presenting any sort of information to other people.  I will be analyzing the different topics that I presented to LK; how she teaches, different methods she uses, and how she modifies her process when she teaches.  I have divided these topics into separate sections to make the data easier to interpret.

How LK Teaches

            In relation to differentiated classrooms, I asked LK how she teaches.  Without asking her to discuss a specific subject, she automatically began speaking about how she teaches LAL. 

            “We usually start out by reading to them and then they’ll break up into small groups and             they’ll read on their own…. that’s supposed to be at an instructional level but obviously             for some of the kids it’s too hard, it’s not instructional, which is why we do a lot of that             stuff together.”

            When LK was speaking about her LAL lessons, her voice inflected when she said the word, “supposed.”  The tone of her voice made it seem as if she knew that the lesson was not fit for all learners.  Then, I asked LK if she has different levels for stronger students versus struggling students.

            “Yes so they are all doing the same thing but they’re not doing the same thing. They’re             all reading biographies, they all have to look for information under the certain headings,             they all have to talk about the same talking points but in texts that are more at their read             ability.”

            Here, LK is speaking confidently and seems to be aware that students have different learning needs.  However, throughout the rest of the interview, she unconsciously shies away from this method.

Methods of Teaching

            When asking LK about her different teaching methods, I specifically asked her to discuss how she incorporates visual, auditory, and kinesthetic methods into her teaching.  Instead of discussing how she uses these methods in everyday life, she talked about specific lessons she has taught.  “Today we did a math lesson and we used Plato to do fractions.”  Then, LK goes on to say,

            “Ya know the book tells you, they give you these little cards and the cards have sections                         and you’re supposed to put the two cards next to each other to tell what’s greater than,             less than and equal to a half… these kinds of things… but I think the cards are too             vague...”

            LK consciously admits that she is supposed to teach the fractions by the book, but she thinks it’s too vague.  Also, when LK says “supposed,” her tone of voice proves that she is unsure of the activity and its purpose.  Then, LK goes on to discuss her method of teaching fractions.

            “So I found this idea online, I gave them a little container of Plato and they played with it             for about ten minutes and then I told them to cut it in half, I gave them plastic knives, cut             it in half, and they had to make two circles using the lid of the Plato container as like a             cookie cutter…”

            LK continues with describing the rest of the Plato, fractions activity.  Here, LK spends a longer time discussing this activity and goes into details about what she has the students do.  Originally, I had asked LK to tell me how she incorporates visual, auditory, and kinesthetic methods into her teaching.  Unconsciously, LK strictly discussed her kinesthetic methods and did not mention anything about how she incorporates visual and auditory methods.  The length of her discussion about teaching fractions kinesthetically proves that she teaches her lessons according to how she feels most comfortable teaching.

Modifying Instruction

            I asked LK how she modifies the process in which she teaches.  Once again, instead of giving me a broad answer of how she modifies her lessons, she gave me specific examples.  First she talks about math lessons.

            “For math, I do a lot of, we call it, pencil I can do myself, blue I do with someone else,             red is what the teacher said, now I know it in my head, so lets say for instance here’s this             complete the assignment in pencil and then I’ll know and anyone else who looks at their             journal will know that this is something that they did by themselves.  If they can do             number one, five and seven by themselves but they need help with numbers two, three,             four and six, then they can pick up a blue pen and they can work with a partner but then                         they have to write their answer in a blue pen.  If I help them with it and they still can’t get             it and I have to help them with it they have to write their answer in a red pen so it             shows… its like evidence.”

            By the length of LK’s answer regarding math lessons, she seems very confident about how she modifies her math lessons.  The length of her answer also provides proof that she is comfortable discussing math.  Now, when it comes to LAL, LK seems to struggle.

            “As far as writing goes I probably am not the best person to ask (laughs)… we use a lot             of graphic organizers , a lot of graphic organizers and spend a lot of time teaching them             how to use it but the kids that really have trouble, they can’t use it on their own.”

            LK does not seem confident when talking about how she modifies her lessons in LAL.  LK seems to be unsure of how to modify her lessons.  When LK laughed after saying, “I probably am not the best person to ask,” she proved that she does not always modify her lessons.  Also, when discussing the use of graphic organizers, she makes it seem as if she only uses them because she is told to or because it is forced upon through the curriculum.

            Through the analysis of my data that I collected from interviewing LK, I learned that teachers subconsciously teach to how they are most comfortable doing so.  In reflection to Carol Ann Tomlinson and using different learning modalities, LK proved to teach mostly by the use of kinesthetic methods.  LK doing so subconsciously shows that in reality, she is not using different learning modalities.  Also, in relation to Tomlinson stating that effective teachers instruct using varied rates, LK proved that she does not do that when she discussed modifying LAL lessons.

Conclusion

            In today’s world, the way teacher’s teach, the methods they use, and how they modify their lessons, are limitless.  According to Carol Ann Tomlinson, effective teachers do whatever it takes in their power to strive to ensure that struggling and advanced learners grow.  However, teachers being human, tend to lose sight of that goal.  Some teachers teach not to target each individual child’s needs, but they teach in a way that they are most comfortable with.  Most of these teachers do not consciously do this, however, they are not aware that they are.  During the thinking and writing process of lesson plans, some teachers plan according to their needs, not their students.  In order to meet the needs of all children in a classroom, teachers need to be more aware of how they are teaching and the purpose behind why they are teaching.  When this is realized and accomplished, then the abilities of all children will be evident.