Student-Led Conferences: Fostering Students’ Ownership of Their Academic Character

By Bill Day, Mary Gornick, Bethany Jenkins, and Treena Wynter

As teachers, we have the peculiar task of making ourselves unnecessary.  When students enter our classrooms, they need our help to meet grade-level goals.  When students ultimately leave our classrooms, they will have achieved independence on these goals and can reliably meet the expectation without teacher assistance.  Some of these goals are content related, such as creating mathematical representations or writing effectively.  These goals may be assessed through written quizzes or problem-based assessments.  Other goals pertain to the academic character of our student, such as working hard or cooperating with others.  These goals are tremendously important to the growth of students into compassionate, responsible adults, yet they are tricky to assess.

To provide our students with the opportunity to prove their academic character, Two Rivers has developed the practice of student-led conferences in the middle school grades.  A student-led conference (SLC) is a meeting of a student, family members, and a teacher.  The student is speaking for the majority of the conference, curating their work in portfolios and reflecting on data from that work and standardized measures.  SLCs occur twice per academic year and take the place of traditional parent-teacher conferences.  

Two Rivers has embraced student-led conferences as a core practice because they enable students to demonstrate independence on three critical goals: student ownership of scholarly habits, self-advocacy, and preparation for future demands of college and career.

How do SLC promote the scholarly habits?

Proving academic character requires students to not only understand and explain their academic progress, but also to be aware of their developing socioemotional skills. To ensure our students’ socioemotional awareness, Two Rivers introduced the Scholarly Habits in 2011.  The four Scholarly Habits that are the core of our instruction are: I  work hard, I am a team player, I am responsible and independent, and I care for my community.  These Habits, first implemented in our middle school, teach students how to articulate character goals that will lead to students becoming responsible and compassionate members of society. These Scholarly Habits serve as a framework for SLCs: the students make claims about how they are living the scholarly habits and their work and data substantiate those claims.. The SLC allow students to realize the connection between habits and goals, allowing them to take ownership of the habits, and discover how the habits will influence life’s future opportunities. 

In a study done by Jack C. Berckemeyer, Director of Member and Affiliate Services of the National Middle School Association, researchers visited a middle school to question teachers about SLCs. This study concluded that teachers saw the value in students rating their own performance throughout the school year; students identified subjects that they enjoyed and ones that they found challenging; and it forced students to look at their personal habits, including whether  they worked hard and completed their work on time and how well they got along with their peers. 

The skills mentioned by the teachers in this study speak directly to Two Rivers’ Scholarly Habits. The benefits that the teachers mention require the students to self-reflect on achievement through effort (I work hard) and persevering when the work becomes challenging. It also makes them accountable (I am responsibly and independent) for how they are within the community (I am a team player and I care for my community) both as they work with their peers, work independently, and care for each other through intentional acts of kindness.

How do SLC promote self advocacy?

Author and educator Elizabeth Herbert in her article “Lessons Learned about Student Portfolios” notes that “the real contents of a portfolio are the child’s thoughts and his or her reasons for selecting a particular entry. […] We need to discover the ever growing metacognitive voices of our children – voices that we [teachers] train to become competent and thoughtful tellers of the stories of their learning” (1998, p. 584).

At Two Rivers, as part of the SLC, students talk about how they are doing and also create a plan for accomplishing goals based on the data they share. As part of the conference, students name steps for improvement and invite their parents to help them reach these goals. As our middle school Principal Elaine Hou described, students may ask their parents to help them set up a place to do their homework or help them manage their time better so they can meet with teachers after school. Students not only identify their areas of weakness, but also advocate for themselves by developing an understanding of what they need to do to accomplish their goals.

How do SLC prepare students for future demands?

Two Rivers’ mission states that students should be “lifelong learners”. To be a lifelong learner it’s necessary to understand what it means to actually learn something and to know how you learned. SLCs give students the opportunity to talk about their work and reflect on it. They understand how they learn and take ownership of that because it is made clear to them through this process. Two Rivers parents and staff member Mike Jordan said, “I think that it opens their eyes to what they are really learning. They can see things on a larger scale and they realize that they have to make a plan for themselves and their learning.”

As students enter high school and prepare themselves for college and life after schooling, self-reflection and self-evaluation are an essential part of life. Sarah Richardson, a parent, founder of Two Rivers, and current staff member, commented that, “You always have to justify your work! The biggest piece of it is justifying it and explaining what you have done.” By asking students to examine their work from the year and justify their success and failures, students are prepared for the real-world demands of accountability. The skills that students develop during the preparation and presentation of their portfolios are skills that are essential to success in high, college, and the workplace.

The thought of handing over control of a conference to students can seem risky, but having students take charge of conferences has been immensely rewarding for all Two Rivers stakeholders: teachers, parents, and students. Two Rivers has seen success in our SLCs and feels strongly that it is helping us to fulfill our mission. SLCs are a critical practice in pushing our students towards the ultimate goal: becoming  empowered, self-advocating, goal-achieving members of society.

Using Data with Students to Foster a Growth Mindset

By: Edline Blot, Kirstyn Fletcher, Rossana Mahvi, and Erica Marcus

“...typically we limit our vision of who can productively use data: school leaders, coaches, and teachers.  Students are left out.  When students are equipped to analyze data for their own learning...the power of data as an engine for growth is centered where it has the greatest potential to improve learning- with students” (Berger, 2014, 95-96).  

Using data with students is crucial for building a growth mindset in students and ultimately enhancing their growth as learners. Growth mindset is the belief that intelligence can be developed through effort, practice, and hard work.  It puts the emphasis on working hard and teaches students to value effort and embrace challenges.  This stands in stark contrast to a “fixed mindset,” in which students believe their traits are set in stone and they have no control over their performance. In this framework, it’s born intelligence and out of their hands (Dweck, 2009). Developing a growth mindset isn’t just about feel-good fluffy stuff. Ultimately, the kind of mindset students have directly translates into classroom and academic success.  Carol Dweck, a professor of Psychology at Stanford University (2013) found that seventh grade students with a fixed mindset saw their math scores fall over two years, while those with a growth mindset rose during that same period. It is critical that students are supported in developing this belief system, both for their personal and academic growth.

At Two Rivers, teachers intentionally use data with students to foster a growth mindset, thus living our mission of nurturing “life-long learners.” To live our mission, we must make sure our students understand themselves as in control of their own education. One crucial way we make this happen is to have students analyze their own data in order to set goals for improvement. This is true across grade levels in a variety of formats from sharing reading levels with first graders and having them set individual reading goals to full-fledged student-led conferences in the upper grades where students take ownership over a battery of data to paint a picture of themselves as learners. Students across the school can be found examining and discussing their individual behavior trackers, reading development, work samples and rubrics, standardized assessment data, or performance towards goals outlined in their individual education program. They use this information to set goals, cementing the belief that there are next steps that can be taken to continue improving and learning.   

Reading Levels: 1st grade

When a first-grader begins the year, teachers take the time to assess every student in the class in order to understand where the students are in their skills as a reader. Students are assessed on their ability to decode, their oral reading fluency, and their ability to comprehend texts that they are decoding. Teachers use this information to construct plans for daily literacy instruction and to differentiate reading instruction based on student needs. This is essential information for teachers but it is also important data for students as well, as they use this information to set individual goals for themselves. Readers in first grade propel their development as readers while developing a growth mindset towards their skills in reading through this process of goal setting.  

Throughout the school year, teachers will individually conference with students to review strengths and weaknesses in their reading performance. Students have expressed that knowing their guided reading level motivates them to continue practicing to progress to higher reading levels. Teachers have found that conferring with students about their reading level and assisting in the development of smaller reading goals helps students maintain a positive disposition towards reading that ultimately assists in achieving their goals and, at times, surpassing them.

When students engage in these conversations they become active participants in their journey as readers. It allows them to see that being a good reader does not happen overnight. Discussions that are centered on their individual reading data provides students with clear understanding of where they are and the expectations for them. Regular monitoring with students not only allows them to track their individual progress but also provides them with opportunities to self-reflect on their growth by considering their individual effort, as opposed to gauging their success in relation to the performance of their peers. Teacher emphasis on the work and effort leads to students making the connection that, “the more work I put into reaching the goals I set, the more progress I make in reaching my goals”.  Student mindset shifts from thinking that to be a reader you are naturally good at it to being a good reader means I work hard.

Behavior Self-Assessment: 5th grade

However, we don’t only collect and share data about academic performance.  Students also must develop habits and behaviors that have a direct correlation with future success.  With this in mind, self-assessment is used to help students monitor and evaluate their behavior throughout the day. To help all students set reasonable goals around behavior, we use four scholarly habits: “I work hard,” “I’m responsible and independent,” “I’m a team player,” and “I care for my community.”  Using these four habits, we describe a full range of performance and character traits from being responsible by keeping up with homework to caring for our community by actively seeking service opportunities.  Students self evaluate and self-select areas of growth in areas related to these four scholarly habits. They start by setting clear goals and expectations for themselves and implement strategies to reach those expectations. This will help them to identify strategies that will improve their ability to handle different situations in appropriate ways.

For example, a fifth grade student that might have difficulty completing her homework, might set a goal for herself to complete 100% of her homework over the course of a week.  She then can make a plan that includes the time and place that she will complete her homework, and how she will track her homework completion.  Then evaluating how she did at the end of the week, gives her a clear sense of how she has done towards reaching her goal. Similar to the area of academic goals, students develop a growth mindset related to the improvement of their social and personal management skills as they see that by paying close attention to a particular area in need of growth, setting reasonable goals, and monitoring their achievement of those goals over time leads to marked improvement.

Student-Led Conferences: Middle School

       

Shifting from formal but less public opportunities to examine their data and set reasonable goals in earlier grades, starting in sixth grade, students take charge of their conferences and present a holistic picture of themselves to their parents and crew leaders.  In November, they present data on MAP testing, progress reports, behavior, attendance, and scholarly habits self-assessment.  They are encouraged to analyze their strengths and areas for growth, as well as make connections between habits of work and their academic achievement.  Finally, they are asked to set goals for the second quarter, closely linking scholarly habits to academic achievement, so that they can make improvements in the areas where they struggle.

The February and June student-led conferences gives students an opportunity to present portfolios highlighting work from each class.  At this meeting, they present work that illustrates their learning from the semester, allowing them to more specifically speak to what they struggle with and are strong in for each class.  They also use standardized test data, scholarly habits data, and report cards to explain who they are as a student. Again, students set goals for the next semester, or over the summer, so they can see the growth for which they would like to aim.

These conferences give students a voice in a parent-teacher meetings that more traditionally happens only between teacher and parent, at times even without the child present.  That voice is key to developing a sense of agency in the student.  Furthermore, in using a holistic model that emphasizes the connection between scholarly habits and academic achievement, students can see how their behavior impacts their learning.  As Ron Berger (2014) put it, “It’s hard to imagine a more high-leverage practice for improving learning than this...it puts students at the helm of their growth as learners” (p. 180).  Once students are there, and understand that their behavior, whether it is illustrated through behavior incidents, scholarly habit grades, or attendance, does impact their learning, they can do something about it.  As stated in Leaders of Their Own Learning, students begin to see the connection between working hard and achievement, developing the belief that, “if I work hard, I’ll get better” (Berger, 2014, 99).  Student-led conferences develop student agency, which in turn helps develop the growth mindset.

Also, through portfolios and data analysis, students have documentation of success, which encourages a positive concept of one’s ability to improve in students who may traditionally struggle.  When looking at a holistic picture of a student, through portfolios and multiple data points, it becomes clear that while they may have some areas where they struggle, they also have strengths and areas where they have grown.   At November conferences this year, one eighth grader noticed that while he was still not proficient in reading according to MAP, he made great strides since the last test, demonstrating over two grade levels of growth.  Furthermore, his grades demonstrated proficiency in some areas, because he used after school help and classroom time to improve his understanding.  Having evidence of that success can support students in further believing in their ability to improve their current academic state. Additionally, having a running portfolio allows students to see growth overtime, and notice if they’ve met their goals or shown growth, not just if they met expected levels of proficiency.

 

The preparatory work leading up to student-led conferences is vital in building that growth mindset in students.  They need to have time to digest and make sense of areas of struggle and areas of strength.  At Two Rivers, the experience of looking at data is intentionally framed through the growth mindset, through readings, power points, and discussions, so students are primed to think about the work through that lens.  During this time, students are encouraged to make notices about their data, and set goals towards improvement.  During this time, it is vital that students are supported in setting goals that are specific, measureable, attainable, realistic, and timely (S.M.A.R.T), so they can experience success with them. Simply providing a student with a report card with grades suggests that the student’s abilities are set, but analyzing data and setting goals with the student demonstrates the flexibility for growth.

 

References

Berger, R. (2014) Leaders of Their Own Learning: Transforming Schools Through Student-Engaged Assessment. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Dweck, C. (2009) Carol Dweck, Growth Mindsets and Motivations.  The NCEA. Retreived from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPNeu07I52w#t=34

Dweck, C. (2014) Professor Carol Dweck 'Teaching a growth mindset' at Young Minds 2013. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXhbtCcmsyQ

Embracing the Challenge: Cultivating a Growth Mindset at Home and at School

By: Jesse Martindale, Maggie Bello,  Lesley Riddick, and Erika Delgado

In 167 AD the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius drafted a now notorious text on what could easily be described as a promotional piece for the growth mindset. Among this piece entitled, The Meditations, he wrote, “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” Aurelius believed that when one accepts an obstacle instead of avoiding it then they position themselves to benefit in a far more meaningful way. This seemingly simple concept is increasingly relevant in modern times. It’s known as the growth mindset and many are adopting it in schools and educational communities across the world, and with good reason. The psychological research supporting the growth mindset is advancing, but even more exciting are the results in classrooms when it is put into action. At Two Rivers Public Charter school we act intentionally in order to cultivate a growth mindset in our students.

Our community strongly believes that all students can master anything with enough perseverance. We want students to know that a strong connection exists between their actions and abilities. To be successful they must know that their capabilities will increase with perseverance at learning a certain skill. This is a growth mindset. The opposite of this is referred to as a fixed mindset. This means one believes that abilities are fixed and do not change. This mindset believes that skill, creativity, and solutions must come naturally and if they do not, then there is no point in trying. We have all gone through this thought process. How many musical instrument lessons quit, classes dropped, or projects that have gone unfinished? Many experiences can be taken from us by using an oppressive mindset, but if one truly believes practice will develop skill then he or she will not lose out on challenging experiences, but gain from them.

CULTIVATING A GROWTH MINDSET AT SCHOOL

At Two Rivers we strive to be intentional and deliberate with our comments and actions. What we choose to say and how we decide to say it will determine what type of mindset we promote to our community of learners. Research has shown that praise matters to student performance and mindsets.  This means that the type of praise we are giving to children can help form the development of a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. Often the two are differentiated by praising children for ability or effort. Highlighting someones abilities can promote a fixed mindset while pointing out their effort helps promote a growth mindset. In the book, Mindset, by Carol Dweck, two examples are given for how praise was given in her research study and the outcomes. For the group of students where they were praised for their ability the researchers said statements like, “Wow, you got eight right. That’s a really good score. You must be smart at this.” The other group of students were praised for their effort through statements like, “Wow, you got eight right.  That’s a really good score.  You must have worked really hard.”  The students who were praised for their ability did not accept the next challenge and did not want to make any mistakes because they were already perceived as good at the task. The group that was praised for their effort, took on the next challenge with relish and had fun with the task, learning from their mistakes.  

We have all called our kids smart. It is natural to be proud of them and to want to praise them. The risk of calling our kids smart, or brilliant, or gifted are relevant. These positive labels don’t truly support our aim as educators and parents. When using these types of ability-based positive labels, children begin to identify intelligence with innate abilities instead of effort, which means that you either have it or you don’t and when you struggle it means you don’t have it. Using phrases like, “You worked hard to put detail on that art piece,” or, “You really persevered when solving that conflict with your sister,” focus the child on effort and hard work, which they are in control of and can use to build intelligence and skills.

At Two Rivers we hold students accountable for using their growth mindset through our school culture. For example, the past few years, we have developed a culture for loving math. We helped all teachers understand that no one is “bad at math” or “not a math person.” In the past, these were common phrases among staff when describing their feelings about their math skills. These comments and the mindset behind them can hinder or stop our growth. Our math curriculum exposes students to problem-based tasks, which assist students in developing their conceptual understanding, problem solving, and procedural skills. Teachers often work out problems themselves to foresee challenges and misconceptions that students might face. This helps us learn how to best push students without giving them the answer because we’ve already struggled through it. We want teachers and students to view mistakes as opportunities for growth and not as a failure or stopping point.

We also promote a Growth Mindset through the phrasing of our Two Rivers Scholarly Habits. These include:

“I work hard.”

“I care for my community.”

“I am a team player.”

“I am responsible and independent.”

Students hear and speak these phrases regularly. This repeated exposure helps them practice the habits. We ask students to work hard which includes taking risks and persevering even when things are challenging. Appreciating our learning community is an important aspect to the habits and students regularly take notice of their role within it. The last two habits help students realize that they are part of a team and contribute to the success of their team by being responsible and independent.

CULTIVATING A GROWTH MINDSET AT HOME

While there are many structures at Two Rivers to promote growth mindset in our students, how can we also develop and nurture growth mindset at home?  Parents are the first teachers of their children and thinking about how we as family members instill a growth mindset, or unintentionally, a fixed mindset, is important to building well-rounded children who are lifelong learners. Modeling growth mindset at home can be powerful for our children. Hearing stories from their family members about how a mistake turned into a learning opportunity or how hard work over time helped mom or dad develop a new skill is compelling for all children, no matter their age. All children love to hear details about their parents’ day. At the dinner table ask each other questions like, “What did you learn today?” or, “What mistake did you make that taught you something?” or, “What did you try hard at today?”  Go around the table and ask each family member to share, making sure to excitedly include your own stories about effort, failure, and learning. Another fun way to model a growth mindset is to tell bedtime stories where children are the main character and have a problem to solve (maybe getting a cat out of a tree or saving a sibling from a monster) but as the main character your child makes mistakes, learns from those mistakes, and then uses that new knowledge to solve the problem. Kids love to be the central character in stories that parents tell! In addition to helping children imagine themselves using a growth mindset it is powerful to identify their family’s mindset. Saying phrases like, “The Bellos make mistakes and learn from them,” or, “The Smiths work hard,” and then modeling those family traits. This can help kids build pride and skills to promote a growth mindset.

As adults our first impulse is to protect children from failure and struggle.  Of course, we don’t want students to face traumatic struggles and failures, so what kind of struggle is acceptable, even great, for our kids to experience?  When our kids are babies and are learning to walk, they start out clumsy. They often fall down only to get back up to try again. The falling part is necessary. As parents, we know that this is the process they must to go through to learn to walk and we are there to support them by making sure they don’t fall on hard surfaces or sharp objects. Children must learn that like falling, failure is necessary in order to grow. As children grow older both educators and parents can support them by what we choose to say and the way we say it. Counter to a mindset of ease and instant gratification is a mindset of challenges and growth. Its a perspective that echoes Marcus Aurelius’s statements almost two Millenia ago, “Our inward power… reacts to events by accommodating itself to what it faces - to what is possible. It turns obstacles into fuel. What’s thrown on top of the conflagration is absorbed, consumed by it - and makes it burn still higher.” At Two Rivers Public Charter School we empower students by teaching them how to confront an obstacle, acknowledge it for what it is, and then use it to fuel the flame of their own education.

Ouch! Did I just learn something? Play-Based Learning: A Guide for Grown-Ups

By: Rebecca Wenstrom, Taryn Peacock, Julian Wilson, and Tonia Vines

What joyful childhood memory can you recall most clearly? When asked this question, one grown-up recalled long summer afternoons rigging a rope swing on which he and his neighbors swung into a creek. Another adult recalled long evenings playing capture-the-flag in the neighbors’ front yards up and down her block. Another describes playing dress-up imagination games with her siblings. When asked this question, adults reliably recall moments of freedom and discovery during extended periods of play. These experiences are exhilarating, creative, child-directed, unsupervised, and enormously fun. They are also, research tells us, hugely beneficial for brain development.

Psychologists like Boston College’s Peter Gray note that play, particularly child-directed play, helps children develop confidence and boundaries, learn to set expectations and follow rules, and practice negotiating outcomes with peers.

“When there is no movement, the brain literally goes to sleep.” This is the conclusion of Mary J Kawar, an Occupational Therapy specialist from El Cerrito, CA, who specializes in therapeutic programs for children with motor development challenges. Kawar notes that movement is essential in order to calibrate the human vestibular system, the special set of receptors in our inner ear responsible for balance, movement detection, and “modulating all of the various types of sensory input, including vision and hearing.” In other words, providing children opportunities to move in fact enhances their ability to learn and store new information in their memory.

Research also tells us, however, that child-directed, outdoor play is becoming scarce. Psychologists are concerned that insufficient opportunities for children to move may be contributing to a rise in mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist, also sees connections between lack of play and executive functioning disorders like ADHD. She explains, “With sensory systems not quite working right, [students] are asked to sit and pay attention. Children naturally start fidgeting, in order … to ‘turn their brain on.’”

When we square the research with the reality in many of our children’s lives, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that some of our children may be struggling through their schooling with their brains turned off. As parents and educators, it is essential that we actively plan for play to be a core component of every child’s day. We must understand how to create time and space for reasonable risk-taking and child-directed play, and be adept at building structured play-based learning opportunities into each child’s school day.

One deterrent to child-directed play is the pervasiveness of screens in children’s lives (Gray 2011), yet television and the internet are not the only culprits. Gray states, "Since about 1955 ... children's free play has been continually declining, at least partly because adults have exerted ever-increasing control over children's activities.” Safety concerns lead adults to direct their children’s play, or even restrict play time (Gray 2011). Additionally, as schools responded to No Child Left Behind and increasing academic demands, “many children are given less free time and fewer physical outlets at schools,” (Ginsburg 2007). Compared to students in 1981, students in 1997 spent 18 percent more time at school and 145 percent more time doing school work (Entin 2011). The emphasis on reading and math have taken away from free play time.

Have modern students lost the joy of climbing trees and risking that highest leap off the swings in exchange for text messaging and Angry Birds? Or does our culture pressure parents and teachers to structure kids’ lives with adult-directed activities? Both things are likely true. As The Atlantic’s Esther Entin writes, “It is not that anyone set out to do away with free play time. But it’s value has not been recognized. As a result, kids’ free play time has not been protected,” (Entin 2011). Whatever the cause, at Two Rivers we believe that adults can take an active role in supporting and structuring opportunities for the healthy play our children need.

In order for students to benefit from both structured and unstructured play, teachers and parents must be aware of their role in providing opportunities for and organizing play.  Play goes beyond the playground, recess, and P.E, and should be an essential component of a child’s everyday learning, both in and outside of the classroom.  Teachers at Two Rivers have found success in facilitating healthy opportunities for play using some of the following strategies and methods:

Create learning environments that invite and encourage play. Setting up imagination and investigation stations will spark a child’s imagination and support them in exploring their own interests. These environments might include:

• Imagination & Dramatic play areas
• Manipulative/Games areas
• Science/Discovery areas
• Art/Craft Areas
• Physical Play Areas

Providing varied and novel materials in these areas can help children learn and grow through play both individually and in groups. Materials should include loose parts inviting open-ended objectives that students design themselves, and empower creativity by providing children opportunities to think, plan, and do.

Ask questions

While it is essential that children have time to explore and design play activities independently, adults can support children’s learning by engaging in the play as curious observers. Ask exploratory questions that help extend the child’s play.  For example, if a child is playing with a truck, ask, “Where is that truck going? Why is it going there?”

Put play in learning

Teachers can be imaginative about how to link play activities to their curriculum.  A unit on cultivating relationships can be linked to a ball game where children shout another child’s name before throwing the ball to them. Bring manipulatives into the classroom to get your children playing with math, building their conceptual understanding while being physically active.

Talk to your kids about play

“Teachers can determine specific goals and outcomes they want students to achieve during play and share these with families and the students themselves” (Marlyn Rice, M.Ed). Build in time to reflect and debrief with your children about play. Ask kids what they learned from playing and how their play activities are helping them grow. Ask students to share examples of how play helps them build positive peer relationships and practice resilience and risk-taking.

By providing these and other experiences for students to play, we empower them to become lifelong learners exploring and engaged in their world.

Nurturing All Students: Structures that Support Differentiation

By: Jennifer McCormick, Mike Jordan, Kai Blackwood, and Elizabeth Leboo

In a 4th grade classroom, the teachers have planned a close reading task on anthropology, in preparation for the fall expedition. Knowing that their students have a variety of reading levels, they have anticipated some challenges that students may have with understanding the original text. They write a synthesis text, including much of the content specific vocabulary the students need, but simplifying the language so that the text is not overwhelmingly technical. Taking learning styles into account, and knowing that their students benefit from using text features to comprehend, they include some carefully evaluated visuals to enhance comprehension. Since the students will be asked to make a claim about what an anthropologist does based on in-depth understanding of the text, they create a chart for kids to notice and record unfamiliar words. The chart steered kids to the text and context, and provided an activity in making meaning based on using these clues. When students still struggled in understanding, teachers used careful, probing questions to redirect kids to the parts of the text where the word meanings were more explicit. Later on, students listened to each other during share and debrief, and were able to get clarity on any unfamiliar words that they were still unsure about.

Are the many steps to this activity really necessary?  Why not just pass out the text and have students read it?

You may remember your own schooling, when every student read from the same textbook. Thinking back to high school, you might recall an entire class dedicated to deciphering Lord of the Flies.  

At Two Rivers, we know that ‘one-size’ does not ‘fit all’ when it comes to teaching and learning. Differentiated instruction is a classroom model through which all students’ academic skills and abilities, learning styles and personal interests are embraced.

The practice of differentiation ensures that each student gets what he or she needs in class. In math, this may mean that some students explore a concept with counters while others explore the same concept by drawing a graph or writing an equation.  In a reading class, this may look like students breaking up into small reading groups to read different pieces of text that are at their instructional reading levels.  Meeting students where they are allows us to push them towards growth.  

To realize differentiation for every student, specific structures are built into our school that guarantee that every student has access to what he or she needs to succeed.  These structures include instructional strategies like flexible groups and centers; scheduling structures like labs, tutoring classes, and differentiated math classes; and staffing structures.  All of these work together in realizing the potential of differentiated classrooms where every student gets what he or she needs.

Instructional Structures that Support Differentiation: Flex Groups and Centers

The primary instructional structure for providing differentiated instruction at Two Rivers is flexible groups.  The purpose of flex groups is to allow  students the opportunity to express their potential by accessing multiple venues for a particular course of study, within groups that can change as students’ needs change.  For example in reading, students work with teachers in groups based on students ability to decode the text or comprehend the text. Several of these different groups may work with or without teacher support.   When it comes to teaching reading and understanding concepts, this multifaceted approach allows students the opportunity to access the material based on the specific skills that each student needs.  

The concept of centers figures strongly into the idea of flex groups, as the two concepts can mutually support the goal of breaking down the class based on lesson goals.  Centers are stations in the classroom where students work independently on targeted, differentiated assignments.  Particularly during our English language arts classes, they are a way that we promote literacy learning targets by allowing the students to move about the room to different areas, for the purposes of completing different parts of the lesson.  In many cases the parts appear unrelated, but essentially they are working toward a greater understanding of reading and language use.  These centers are composed of:  word sort, partner quizzes, word hunts, independent reading, partner reading, writing and listening.  Each center allows students to access a different piece through different goals.  Through the use of flexible groups and centers teachers can target experiences for each student to meet their needs.

Scheduling Structures that Support Differentiation: Writing Intensive, Lab, and Differentiated Math Classes

Differentiated instruction is something we do all the time, both in our classrooms organically, as well as through structures that are built into our day.  Three of the structures built into our Middle School schedule that support differentiation are our writing intensive classes, lab, and differentiated math classes.

All of our students write in their English language arts classes, and are pushed to develop their critical thinking and writing skills throughout all the content classes.  We know, however, that there are students who need extra support with writing, and that while pushing their conceptual knowledge is invaluable, they also need time carved out during the day where they can receive assistance with writing mechanics.   These students are placed in a writing intensive class at the beginning of the year.  In writing intensive, students can practice basic writing skills and receive extra support in writing structure, skills which transfer comprehensive writing pieces in the subject area courses.

Our labs in the middle school also support differentiation by providing students with targeted instruction where they need it most.  At the beginning of the year, we review our students’ assessment data - state test proficiency, performance on periodic assessments throughout the year, performance and growth on MAP (Measures of Academic Progress), performance in their academic classes and teacher recommendations.  Using these data sources, we look to see where students need the most support, or if they are proficient and need an extra push.  Our labs fall into three bands: intervention labs, that are focused on helping to fill gaps in basic skills and knowledge; push labs, for students who are on the cusp of grade level and need some extra time and practice with the grade level work; and advanced labs, which provide extension for students who have mastered grade level work in a specific content area and are ready for the next challenge.  

Our intervention labs focus on providing practice with basic skills and knowledge in either the English language arts or math classroom; students are placed depending on their academic need.  Intervention labs are incredibly important and necessary, because this is the time built into the day where students can work in a small group (average intervention lab class is 7 students) with a teacher to receive targeted instruction and practice with foundational skills that are not being covered in their math or English language arts class.  Filling in these skill gaps makes students better able to access the current content.

Our push labs help students practice with grade-level English language arts skills.  Here, students look at their performance data on interim assessments and set goals for what skills they need to work on to master grade level content.  Students then work with complex texts that challenge them to hone their skills as readers and writers, and receive extra support from their grade-level English language arts teacher in doing this work.  

Our advanced labs provide students with the opportunity to extend and challenge their thinking in a specific content area.  We have advanced labs in science, math, Spanish and social studies.  Students in our advanced science labs develop their own science identities, and then form groups around a science experiment they want to take on.   Students in our advanced math lab are challenged with complex math problems in preparation for the American Mathematical Competition 8 (AMC 8).  Students work on exam problems from the previous years, draft solutions, and engage in critique of their peers’ work.  In our advanced Spanish lab, students who are proficient in Spanish push their skills by having conversations, writing a Two Rivers Spanish newsletter called, “Que Pasa, TR?” and preparing to take the National Spanish Exam at the end of the year.  In our advanced social studies lab, students gain a deeper understanding of historical contextualization by exploring contemporary issues and historical thinking.

Lab provides an opportunity for all students to receive targeted instructions exactly where they need it, in the content where they need it most.  It’s a living example of differentiation every day.

In addition to writing intensive and lab, we offer explicit differentiation in math classes in the middle school.  All of our math instruction allows for all students to develop proficiency in mathematical concepts, application and communication. Taking learning styles and differences into account, math teachers guide students through multiple ways to approach real-life mathematical problems, and support them in various ways to demonstrate understanding. Realizing that all math students do not enter middle school with the same set of basic skills, Math classes are not only divided by grade level, but extensive assessment data is used to place students according to their level. For example, some middle school students  who have demonstrated preparedness to work on more advanced mathematics are able to take a credit-bearing Algebra class. Students who have not reached proficiency with grade level math are supported in the appropriate grade level work in addition to attending a Math Lab that supports their ongoing development of basic numeracy skills.

Staffing Structures that Support Differentiation: Special Educator Support

In addition to instructional structures and scheduling classes that support differentiation, Two Rivers’ commitment to making high quality education accessible to all learners is reflected in our faculty composition. A special educator is a member of every grade level team in Grades 2-5, participating in the planning, instruction and assessment of all students. Preschool through Grade 1 are supported by an early childhood special educator, and, at the Middle School level, special educators co-teach in both math and English language arts classes, as well as teach individual intervention classes in reading, writing and math.  Students with identified learning differences are supported to meet their individual learning goals in whole class activities, small groups and through individual instruction in the classroom setting. Including a qualified special educator on teams ensures that accommodations and strategies for students with special educational needs are consistently planned for and incorporated into every aspect of learning.

At Two Rivers, we are able to meet our students where they are in their learning journey because of the structures that support differentiation.  Through flexible groups, centers, intensive writing, labs, differentiated math classes, and supportive staffing structure, we are better able to guide and challenge all students as they become expert thinkers and complex communicators.