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Content

When teaching in my classroom, I am always conscious of all the students and the way to

reach my students in the manner that would allow them to best understand the lesson and content

being presented. I often look for ways to allow the students to use background and familiar

information from the lesson to make the instruction relevant. Tomlinson and McTighe (2006)

state that, “Educators from preschool to graduate school typically face a common challenge: too

much content to teach given the available time. In addition to the amount of content identified,

standards may be stated in ways that make them difficult to address.”

I recently presented a lesson about how living in different places causes us to make

changes to adapt to living conditions. The curriculum is culturally sensitive and vibrant. The

story was about a young girl and her family who moved from Puerto Rico to Connecticut. The

story was discussing how the young student had to make changes in not only her clothing but

also her mindset, when moving to the new environment. Students need to opportunity to embrace

the instruction as it is presented. We must look at the end result or the outcome of the lesson

even before we begin, using “Backward Design.” Yet, as the old adage reminds us, in the best

designs form follows function. In other words, all the methods and materials we use are shaped

by a clear conception of the vision of desired results. That means that we must be able to state

with clarity what the student should understand and be able to do as a result of any plan and

irrespective of any constraints we face (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005).

The students that I teach are moving from the elementary school environment to middle

school. The transition that takes place often takes students months to adapt to the rigor and

newness of this new phase of their lives. The students were able to relate to the lesson because

there were some who have come from other locations and moved from warmer climates to the
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robust environment that is here in Alaska. The student in the story also had many things to

overcome. One of the challenges was the language barrier. Hammond (2015) says, “Just as

students need to have rich background for comprehension and problem solving, teachers need

adequate background knowledge and usable information in order to know how to apply

culturally responsive tools and strategies.” Some of the students in my classroom could relate to

the uniqueness of having English as a second language and being bilingual or multilingual in the

school system. They also had the relevance of moving to a colder climate and speaking a new

language to help them to relate to the lesson.

Daniels and Steineke (2004) have stated it well, ”If we put aside our teacher skepticism

for a moment, we will realize that our eleven – or fourteen – or eighteen -year old students

actually do possess many of these social skills. Every day, we see them taking turns, making

excellent eye contact, raising rich topics, and asking cogent follow up questions – when they talk

among themselves about movies, clothes, video games, or this week’s unfavorite teacher. So, a

big part of our job is tapping into skills that students have already mastered in nonclassroom

contexts and importing them into the curriculum.”

The lesson allowed the students to break into small groups to read and comprehend the

text as written. The students were placed strategically using the Kagan Method to provide

differentiation and scaffolding where the students were helping other students. Some students

were even able to translate the Spanish in the text and explain what it meant in context. The

students were able to articulate and have discussions about how they can relate to the story

regarding the changes they have had to make when moving from a tropical climate to Alaska

where they currently live with their families.

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References

Daniels, H., & Steineke, N. (2004). Mini-lessons for literature circles. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann,

Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic

engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Tomlinson, C. A., & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating differentiated instruction + understanding

by design: Connecting content and kids. ASCD, Alexandria, Virginia

Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). ASCD, Alexandria,

Virginia