I really loved the tiered “Singing a Song” lesson that was taught in our differentiation class on Thursday. When we got back into the class after working with our individual groups and I saw how it all came together, I was amazed. I had thought that each group was given a CD and a player just like our group, so I was completely surprised to learn we were the only group with those things. During our class discussion, I realized what Professor Peterson had done and I was completely impressed! She was so cleaver to think of such an engaging tiered lesson to demonstrate what she had been trying to get us to understand. I was truly amazed that the lesson seemed so perfect for the occasion. Now, the question is, “What do I, individually, need to know and understand in order to tier a lesson of my own." The answer is, from the class lesson I understand what I need to do, but what I need to understand is how do I differentiate in a kindergarten classroom.
I have observed a lot of kindergarten classrooms and it seems as though the teacher prepares centers for the students to move through each day. I imagine in order to differentiate in kindergarten, I would need to prepare different tasks at the different centers to meet the needs of the students. Maybe, I would differentiate one center and remain at that center to provide the differentiated lesson at that center. I’m not really sure how it would all come together. With such little students I wonder if a teacher, aide, or parent helper needs to direct their tasks? I’m not at all sure about this, maybe, I am taking too big of chunk here to think about, but I always try to think it out in my mind of how it works in my dream classroom. I need more information on how and what a kindergarten teacher should or could differentiate. In the mean time, I do know from participating in our class “Singing a Song” lesson, I could take a specific lesson and differentiate the content based on my students' readiness.
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You are wise to try and picture doing differentiation in kindergarten. It IS a little different... mostly in that you don't need to do it as often as you should in upper grades. And, when you DO it, you don't have quite the range of readiness levels... sometimes on two general levels... and even those aren't always important enough to tier. My personal approach would be to start early in the year, but start slowly... such as differentiating ONE of my learning centers, for 2 or 3 tiers of needs, and then re-evalaute my approach and students' needs. Yes, just start slowly. But start! 4 points
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