Projects

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Meeting the Different Needs of Learners

Trying to meet the different needs of each student can be quite a challenge in the classroom.  After learning about Sternberg's three intelligences, I decided to try differentiating the final writing project of the unit. Usually I would have given the class the same prompt, but under the guidance of Azul Torrez I jumped into a differentiated writing lesson.

Differentiated Lesson

A Walk on the Wild Side

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Artist Statement:
Animals have always been an interesting subject to me.  Their characteristics, habitat, and beauty have fascinated me since I was a young child.  Going to the zoo was one of my favorite trips.  When I lived near a rain forest and saw these incredible animals in their natural habitat, my interest increased.  Many of those that I saw were becoming endangered due to the loss of rain forest land.  By informing children at a young age of the importance of the animals in the balance of nature, I hope to instill a love for animals and the understanding to protect them.
Project Description

Going on Safari


As we approached our unit on animals, I decided to take my class on Safari.  I had recently been to Africa, and had lots of experiences and pictures to share.  On the first day, I shared a movie I had made with the class about Kenya and its animals.  The excitement started to build.  We then made our journals and decided on a list of items we would need during our journey.  From there we visited the San DIego Zoo, each choosing an animal from Africa to study, and continued learning about the different classifications of animals.  We studied together one African animal from each classification (mammal, fish, reptile, bird, amphibian).  We followed this up by sharing our research and safari with the parents and students of our school.

Reflections


This is a reflection of our class with Azul Torrez.  We were able to find out about different kinds of learners and how our own learning styles affect how we teach in the classroom.  Following these lessons we were to design a lesson with differentiation in mind.  I chose to focus on the three different type of thinking; analytical, practical, and creative.  Both the students and I had a great time with this lesson on writing about the neighborhood.

Differentiated Lesson