One day, while coaching at a middle school in North Carolina, I entered a small classroom, found that the teachers had divided the class in half, and were doing alternative teaching. They had arranged the desks in a conference table style. The two teachers were at either end so as not to drown each other out. Because it was like a conference table with the students so close together and the teacher right there, they had complete behavioral control. It was one of the most effective uses of small space I’ve ever seen.

The Flexible Grouping Strategy Unveiled

Decide on a physical classroom desk and table arrangement for differentiating learning among groups:

• Will a one-room arrangement work or will you need to have options for multiple arrangements depending on the group activity required?
• How will the class be rearranged when necessary? What will be required to accomplish rearranging the classroom?
• What routines and skills are necessary for students to learn to have the class run smoothly when we deviate from the traditional row arrangement? Have students practice moving from one room arrangement to another.
• Use a signal, either a hand gesture or a sound, to notify students of time remaining until a transition, then use the signal again when the transition needs to occur. Before any transition, remind students of behavioral expectations.

The goal in designing the classroom to be conducive to small group work is to design a structure that allows the teacher or teachers to interact quickly and easily with all students.

I challenge you to try this approach and see if it works for you. Email me or comment here with your results.

Happy Flexible Grouping!

Explore even more tips, tools, and resources for collaboration at TheHowofCo-teaching.com!

Bring Susan to your campus!

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Effective Strategies, Dynamic Presentation
Engage Educators in Quality PD

Disability, Difference, and Diversity

Program Description:
There’s a world of difference between those words, particularly when they are applied to students and how they learn.  It’s all too easy (and common) for people who merely learn differently to be branded as “learning disabled,” “hyperactive,” “ADHD,” or “unteachable,” and shunted into the educational backwaters of Special Education. If ever there was a time when society needed their rich diversity of intelligence and fresh ways of thinking, this is that time. We can’t afford to let the ideas and abilities of our different thinkers go undeveloped simply because they don’t fit into one narrow educational model.

Too many classrooms still rely solely on verbal linguistic teaching methods — lectures and verbal instructions delivered by one person standing in front of a roomful of more or less attentive children. Many kids can and will learn  in this type of classroom, but too many others will lose their joy of learning and start to dread going to school.

Differentiated instruction involves a flexible, dynamic, and interactive teaching model that doesn’t expect all children to learn the same way, at the same pace, with cookie-cutter results. Students learn the same content and standards based curricula, but the path to learning is much more varied and responsive to the different learning styles and levels of the students in the classroom. Students who learn best through words or who think in more logical-mathematical ways, or those who respond to visual cues as well as the more physically and mechanically gifted students can all be engaged effectively in learning when we differentiate instruction. We reach the listeners, the talkers, and the introspective thinkers.

Once the basic concepts are understood, though, there are many simple and effective techniques for implementing differentiated instruction in the classroom. Introducing pictures and images, movement-based exercises, cooperative projects, and color-coded instruction aids are four teaching strategies that target the special needs of diverse learning styles, while still benefiting all the students in the classroom.

In the weeks to come, I hope to talk some more about the background issues and practical methods I have explored in depth in the second edition of my book, “Special Needs in the General Classroom: Strategies that Make it Work  2nd Edition (2010).”*

Though it may be challenging at first for teachers to learn these new strategies, differentiated instruction has the potential to bring much greater satisfaction, and fun, back into the classroom for the teacher who embraces it as well as the children who will benefit from it.

For Thousands Of Tips To Teach… So Your Students Are Top Performers Get this Book Now! Gain more knowledge on differentiation strategies to reach ALL learners Get Susan Fitzell's book Now. Don't waste any time Special Needs in the General Classroom, Strategies That Make It Work. Available in both print and electronic versions! Want quality professional development you can afford? Save time with this popular PD option: A Professional Development Kit, for all teachers, with a Graduate Credit Option! Bring Susan to your campus! Featured seminar – Differentiation Strategies to Reach ALL Learners in the Inclusive Classroom

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Paraprofessional Seminars, Workshops, and Conference Sessions – Take Learning Up a Level

How can paraprofessionals increase the effectiveness of working together with classroom teachers?

Paraprofessionals assigned to support students with disabilities in the general education classroom have one of the most important jobs in schools today. Discover the ways that paraprofessionals can successfully collaborate when working with teachers in the classroom with my book, Paraprofessionals and Teachers Working Together.

The ways a paraprofessional might assist in the classroom are as individual as the students they are responsible for, the classrooms they work in, and the grade levels in which they teach. My book, Paraprofessionals And Teachers Working Together contains checklists filled with options for the general education teacher, the special education teacher, and the paraprofessional to consider when defining paraprofessional roles in the classroom. Use these checklists as a tool to negotiate the working relationship in the classroom before the paraprofessional starts “on the job”.

For a more energizing environment, join me and hundreds of other teachers and paraprofessionals in an interactive workshop, Paraprofessionals And Teachers Working Together in the General Classroom. Gain practical strategies, tools, forms, and tips for defining paraprofessional roles and improving classroom environment.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

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