Differentiation and the Brain

[Sarah Hanawald]

I've just started reading Differentiation and the Brain How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom by David A. Sousa and Carole Ann Tomlinson after it was recommended on Twitter by Elizabeth Helfant.  So far, I can tell this is a book I'm going to want to discuss, so I thought I'd see if others were reading it this summer.

Cheers!

Sarah

 

[Laurie Bartels]

HI Sarah,

This book looks interesting based upon a quick look. I have Sousa's How the Brain Learns, though confess I have yet to read it cover to cover, and Tomlinson is the guru of differentiation, so the combination of the two would bode well for a useful, informative and readable book.

Am focusing on human anatomy this summer, but now you've got me thinking of adding this book! 

Cheers, Laurie

[Sarah Hanawald]

Thanks Laurie--what kinds of things about human anatomy are you working on this summer?  I have way too many books I haven't read cover to cover.  Sigh.  I have big plans this summer, here's hoping I can live up to them.

[Laurie Bartels]

Hi Sarah, I am attending a Functional Anatomy for Movement & Injury 4-day intensive workshop at Mt Sinai Hospital in July. The workshop is taught by doctors and we will have a lab! I wish there was a similar workshop somewhere about the brain – I would register for it in a heartbeat! Last summer I began watching Marion Diamond's UC Berkeley lectures on human anatomy (Integrative Biology) and this summer am  hoping to finish the series.

Undertand completely your hoping to live up to your summer plans. Time…time…time…

Here's to both of us making our plans come to fruition :-)

Cheers, Laurie

[Michelle E. Donah, Ph.D.]

Just started reading this today.  Already I can see why some people report to me "oh this differentiation crap."  We already differentiate. We don't need any more of this."  and then express wishes for tracking classes.  They're talking about differentiated material, not differentiating the levels and means of assessment.    I think this has been our major miscommunication and frustration all year regarding differentiation...

 

[Michelle E. Donah, Ph.D.]

Reading the description of the differentiated classroom made me chuckle.  It reminded me of the French film, Etre and avoir, witnessing the development of teacher and children in a one-room country schoolhouse.  More and more, the nature of independent school is changing, we are becoming more and more like those one-room school houses because we do not have the resources to provide a diverse multiplicity of sections and electives. I am not in public education, but budget cuts, are most likely forcing the same trend.  The solution is in the problem: create that diversity, that multiplicity, but all at once, equally for all.   Most educations feel asked to do the impossible, but impossibility would not exist without the edges of possibility.  We need to stop seeing the impossible and start seeing what is possible.  The problem is, most of us were ot educated this way, so the concept does not exist in our field of experienced reality. I hate to get all new agey, but we need to visualize something we have not yet seen and trust its possibility into existence.

[Michelle E. Donah, Ph.D.]

Hahahahaha.  Sarah,  p. 14, #4.  EQ and learning style.  Our summer readings converge.

[Michelle E. Donah, Ph.D.]

Okay, the questions on pp. 36-37, priceless!  Going to start the year off with these in my department...

[Michelle E. Donah, Ph.D.]

Most educators buy in to the fact that that students learn differently.  They get nervous, however, when the topic of assessment arises.  They don't want to assess (grade) Johnny differently than Tommy, even though they have such varied skill sets.  Some educators confuse teaching and assessment, yet fail to realize they are doing so.  The test have far too much power, far too much weight in the grade book.  No wonder students get all flustered and cannot think.  For the differed learner, any test is a threat, and any ability they have goes out the window.  A test is not an accurate assessment of what this student has learned.  What educators need to recognize is the need to incorporate differentiation within their assessments, not necessarily differed assessments.  Besides, assessment and teaching are not the same thing.  Assessment is merely the messenger.  It is communicative.  It tells us how well the message got across.  We need to read assessments better, and create more accurate reflections of what our students have actually learned, and disempower the weight of "the test."

[Sarah Hanawald]

Amen.  We also need to stop confusing assessment with grades.  Students can learn from assessment, but not if we only use them as summative grades.

[Michelle E. Donah, Ph.D.]

As an educator, I disappointedly watch the impact of grades destroy all the confidence I have built up.  B used to be a good grade.  What's happening? An A means nothing if everyone gets an A, but B has become the new C, C the new F.

[Michelle E. Donah, Ph.D.]

More rubrics, fewer tests.  More self- assessment tools (besides rote homework) for students.  

 

[Steven Zaretsky]

Haven't started reading the book yet, but after reading this discussion, I will order it.

We grade because we're expected to. Our society expects it. Our parents expect it. Colleges expect it. For the more than 25 years I've taught, I haven't been able to accept the idea that a student's work for an assignment, a quarter or a year can be solely summed up by a single letter or number. Having taught a class this year where the majority of students were 'expected' to earn an A, it's discouraging to think that their entire experience in the class can be summed up by that one letter.

I think that differentiation (as practiced in the public school I hope to be leaving soon) has included altering assessments and teaching methods, but never changing grades. Accomodations like allowing for extra time may be worthwhile short term, but isn't the idea to try to wean the student off of those things so that they can learn to learn without them? When our students enter the job market, how are they going to compete if they tell their boss that they need extra time to type up a report because they have a learning difference. We should be helping them find ways to improve their skills, right?

Maybe I'm jaded from working in a public school for so long. I'm grateful for this board because this type of conversation rarely takes place in public schools. The majority of the discussion lately has been about what the state legislature is doing to change teacher benefits, not on how we can actually improve education.