Differentiated Practices in the Classroom

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 The class that I teach at my practicum school is English 10. The specific class that I teach is 5th period, which only has 9 students in it. These 9 students are all relatively quiet too. With that being said, a lot of the class work that students do is independent work. 

Having recently reentering the field, my mentor teacher, practicum classmate, and I have all been trying to decide what and how we're going to teach. As we all began to discuss our different options, we decided it would be best to conduct the same unit, with the same summative assessment, but the classes and teaching would be done differently. For example, the English 10 students at my practicum location are all learning about argumentation and debate. The layout for both the English 10 students and the Engslish 10 Honors students is the exact same, but one is more fast paced than the other. As my mentor teacher and I are still in cohorts, collaborating on this unit, we often discuss whether or not we think that the English 10 students are ready for what's next(A.K.A are these students going to perform well on the same assignment that the English 10 Honors students are going to do, OR should we tweak the instructions, etc.). An example of this differentiated instance, would be the activity that was done in both classes on Friday. English 10 students were assigned a vocabulary worksheet to complete. The instructions were very accessible and approachable. English 10 Honors students were assigned this same worksheet, but they had to come up with their own definitions for the words. These differentiated assignements and applications allow for students to ALL learn the same content, but just in a way that suits their readiness level best. 

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