Middle School Math Moments (now Cognitive Cardio Math)

Chapter 1: The Nonnegotiables of Effective Differentiation I'm very excited to get started with this book; it's a great topic! So far, it's interesting and a pretty quick read. This is summary of the important ideas in the chapter....sometimes I get a little detailed, because I don't want to miss anything! In Chapter 1, the authors reinforce the idea that differentiated instruction is not new. (This was discussed in the intro ). Though students are in classrooms with others of the same age, students are not "the same." In spite of this, and because of all the material there is to cover, many teachers teach their students as if they are the same. According to research, students will engage more with learning and will learn more robustly when the learning is designed with students' differences (and similarities) in mind. A learner-centered model views the teacher's role as one that is responsible for covering material, but also one that is ...

It's summer-time and time to get some reading done! Myself and my Tools for Teaching Teens collaborators are going to read and review Differentiation and the Brain, How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom , by David A. Sousa and Carol Ann Tomlinson.We will each be reviewing different chapters, and those blog posts will be linked together as we go. If you're interested in learning more about this book, check back and follow the links to the different chapters:) I'm going to give a quick review of the book introduction here, and then later today I'll be reviewing Chapter 1. According to the authors, differentiation is brain-friendly and brain-compatible! They describe the rise, fall, and rise of differentiation, starting with the one-room schoolhouses, where teachers taught all subjects to all students, of all ages, and HAD to differentiate - there was no other way! As the country's population grew, public schools grew, and students were separat...