100th Day, Valentine's Day, Used Book Sale, Differentiated Instruction
Dear Lower School families,
I hope everyone is preparing for the beautiful weekend ahead–sunny skies and warm temperatures! Student Council has planned for two upcoming events for the Lower School:
Friday, February 7: 100th Day of School Celebration
Flyer coming home today and posted on the Resource Board.
Wednesday, February 12: Valentine’s Day
Flyer coming home on Friday, February 7 and will be posted on the Resource Board. Information has been sent from the Parent Association as well.
Valentine’s Day Celebration
Wear pink, white, red, or purple!
Wear anything with hearts: tops, headbands, scarves, socks, etc.
Valentine jewelry: earrings, necklaces, bracelets, pins, rings
Valentine's Day Card Exchange Information:
If a student would like to participate in the Valentine's Day card exchange, they may bring a card for everyone in the classroom. If a student would like to include classmates in the other classrooms within the grade level, they must make a card for everyone in those classrooms. Valentine card exchange will take place on Wednesday, February 12.
Each classroom will celebrate Valentine’s Day with the card exchange and other classroom activities throughout the day.
Reminder: USED BOOK SALE–February 3-8
Thank you for the amazing donations this week! WOW! Students may bring $5-$10 to spend at the sale next week. Each class will have a scheduled time to visit the sale. If your child would like to shop, please send your child’s money in a labeled envelope on Monday, February 3.
Differentiated Instruction
Differentiated Instruction (DI) is a way of thinking about the classroom with goals of honoring each student’s learning needs and maximizing each student’s learning capacity, while developing a solid community of learners. A differentiated classroom provides different pathways to acquire content, process or make sense of ideas, and to develop products so that each student can learn effectively.
As a child, many of us experienced a “traditional” approach to learning and often find the new approaches uncomfortable or “out there.” For my upcoming Friday letters, I will delve into the different features of differentiated instruction and how it impacts students and learning. The following information is paraphrased from the article “Teach Me, Teach My Brain” in a recent edition of Educational Leadership.
Brain research suggests three broad and interrelated principles that point clearly to the need for differentiated classrooms, that is, classrooms responsive to students’ varying readiness levels, interests, and learning profile. They include: learning environments that feel safe for learning to take place; to learn, students must experience appropriate levels of challenge; and each brain needs to make its own meaning of ideas and skills.
When thinking about how DI plays out in a classroom setting, it is best to categorize what is and is not a feature of DI.
- DI is student-centered, implements best practices, is a blend of approaches and grouping, (whole-class, group—large and small, pairs, and individual instruction), and a proactive model for teaching.
- DI is not one thing or one lesson, a packaged curriculum, homogeneous ability grouping, or hard questions for some and easy questions for the rest.
When I review these features, it is obvious to me that the Lower School is employing the strategies of creating a DI format for learning in their classrooms. Many times the strategies are not obvious to the students but allow teachers to address the strengths and weaknesses for each student in the class. In thinking about learning, it is integral to think about what the teacher and the students do to differentiate learning inside the classroom. Next week, I will expand on what roles the teacher and students play within a DI classroom.
Thank you,
Angie Crabtree
LS Principal
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