WHERETO

After a few drama activities to get you warmed up – Zip, Zap, Bop, Bang! and the Martha Game – we played with WHERETO, an acronym that summarizes the key elements that should be in your learning plan / lesson sequence.   Here’s the WHERETO information package we worked with:

• UBD – WHERETO Handout

The WHERETO task was as follows:

1. Form a group of 4-5
2. Choose a WHERETO letter from my Boston Bruins hat
3. Read the section of the handout relating to your chosen letter
4. Come up with 2 or 3 key ideas related to your section.   Ask yourself, what do my classmates really need to know about this section?
5. Design and rehearse a tableau (some movement was allowed, if needed) that visually represented the key ideas from the section
6. Present and explain your tableau.

In doing this task, I was trying to model one way to use drama as a means of working with content.

Unit Plan Sharing

After asking for suggestions on how to approach the unit plan sharing piece, we decided to do the following:

• Identify the subject and topic of each unit plan
• Meet in subject and / or topic groups
• Share any interesting ideas, activities, or assessments in the unit itself

I asked you to consider what you were considering through the WHERETO lens.  In the post-sharing debrief, many of you mentioned that you had picked up some great ideas that you could weave into your own planning.  Success!

Differentiated Instruction

The T in WHERETO stands for tailored; how will we tailor learning to varied needs, interests, [and] styles?

Pre-and During-Reading:

Things got pretty meta here as I differentiated my instruction on differentiated instruction.  I provided you with a selection of articles (DI – content) and suggested that, as you read, you could make sense of the text in a way that worked for you (DI – process).  Some noted that they would take notes in the margins, others were going to mind map the text, others were going to summarize each paragraph, and, well, the list went on.

Here are the articles we were working with:

• What’s the Next Big Thing with Literature Circles?
• A New Assignment: Pick Books You Like – New York Times article on The Future of Reading featuring Nancie Atwell
• Formative Assessment: The Driving Force Behind Differentiation
• Differentiating Instruction: Why Bother? – Carol Ann Tomlinson
• Restructuring the Inclusion Classroom to Facilitate Differentiated Instruction
• Differentiate Teaching and Learning With Web 2.0 Tools
• Tools for Schools: What’s New with Web 2.0
• Using Wikis to Differentiate Instruction in Literature Circles
• Make Learning Matter for the Multitasking Generation (with Web 2.0 tools)
• Formative assessment jump-starts a middle grades differentiation initiative
• Building and activating students’ background knowledge
• Actively engaging middle level students with photo journals

Post-Reading:

When the articles were read, I urged you to engage in an activity that would allow you to consolidate your understanding of the reading (DI – process).  Some chatted with a peer while others took notes on how they could use the ideas from the texts in their own practice.  To end, I aimed high, as I asked for any epiphanies you had while reading.

That’s all for today.

– Lawrence