These chapters were full of great ideas, but I think I still need more time to shift through them and really think about what would work with first graders. It was awesome to read a 'case study' of how stations should work in a 4th grade classroom, but at this point I can't quite figure out how I'd be able to manage them while keeping order with my first graders. That aspect is still a bit of a question for me, so I'm looking forward to hearing how other teachers would approach a 'stations' work time instead of centers. I did really like how Tomlinson added in the "Differentiate Why" aspect-- something I don't always even consider myself. Like I spoke about in last week's blog and last week's meeting, I fall into the trap of pulling my kids out by High-Middle-Low, giving them variants on the same task and then calling that differentiate. Considering the 'Why Differentiate' aspect has really made me change my own understanding of flexible groupings (which I feel like I only do in terms of Guided Reading at this point).

On the other hand, there were elements of the reading that I think could be immediately applicable to my teaching. Agendas are something that I have found to work great with my kids already-- although they have been given the same tasks to complete. I also have only given then daily agendas (or occasionally one runs for 2-3 days). I think that agendas would be hugely effective in writing for me. My students are already accustomed to an editors checklist, and I've been seeking more effective ways to differentiate writing for my lower students especially, as well as my students who are even still struggling with the handwriting element. The article stated that "Generally, students determine the order in which they will complete agenda items. A particular time in the day is set aside as agenda time. In
elementary classrooms and block scheduled secondary classrooms, teachers often select the first part of the day or block. In other classes, agendas are
used once a week or as anchor activities when students complete other assigned work." While creating the actual agendas could be more time consuming for me, in the long run I think they could be hugely effective, especially since I have been transitioning my writing process into a 5-day web, pre-write, drafting, publishing etc process as Peggy has suggested. There is just so much to do in writing that I'd love to have agendas for both their benefit and mine.

In Tomlinson's Chapter 8, the concept of "Entry Points" was especially fascinating to me-- basically the idea that different students may need different jump-off points to access content, and that making content accessible is a crucial element of differentiating. I often find that I wish I was more aware of my students place on the topic of multiple intelligences-- I wish I knew early on how to determine who was spatial, who was linguistic, etc. I will be interested to discuss more of this in our seminar and how other teachers make content immediately accessible for kids who are not the 'typical' learner or who do not do as well with the Rocketship style.

I have been feeling (in general) really overwhelmed with teaching in general at the moment. Not necessarily with instruction or being in my classroom with my students, but moreso in terms of being pushed beyond what I'm capable of juggling at the moment. Throwing more differentiation into the mix is only adding to that stress, so I'm trying to really think through what my best routes would be to differentiation-- how to do it effectively for both the benefit of myself and my students. I'm looking forward to hearing about different ways to differentiate during the next meeting.