Differentiation and Morning Meetings

Differentiation is just approaching the way we teach differently with each child. Every child is different from another in some way. I totally can relate to the parenting example because in my family, I am the most odd one. Growing up I was very independent and did my homework all on my own. My mom didn't need to tell me to do my homework or need to help me a lot. My Sister, on the other hand was very different. My mom always had to remind her to do her homework and was always constantly working with her helping her through it. When I was young, I got jealous that my younger sister got so much attention. I now see that my mom was just differentiating her parenting. It didn't seem equal but we need to strive for equity rather than equality. Not every student is going to need the same thing.

Responsive teaching is WHO we teach, WHAT we teach, WHERE we teach and HOW we teach. I need to take into consideration all of these elements and try to balance our students need and the requirements of a teacher.

There are so many factor that make children different from one another. They are gender, culture, personal interests, ability, experience, and intelligence preference. With all of these factors, no two children in my class will be the exact same. They will all have similarities with other children in the class, but not the same in every aspect.

The curriculum is more of a blueprint to plan units and lessons, but in some cases, backtracking in reading, writing, math, and science may be necessary to be sure the students pick up key pieces. I like the idea of finding space in the curriculum to extend lessons that have the students interest.

I love all the ways that the teacher puts her students into groups. I usually see a leveled grouping, which can be important at times, but there are other ways to group students like similar interest or mixed interest and students learning profiles.


I love the idea of Morning Meetings! After reading about them, it makes so much sense how they would benefit a classroom. The students will feel safe in their learning environment with the classroom community that morning meetings create. Students productivity and engagement are effected by a classroom environment. It definitely improves emotional intelligence and I believe that emotional intelligence is so important. Students with a high emotional intelligence are more likely to excel in life. We haven't gotten to talk much about morning meetings in class, but after reading about them, I know it is something I will do in my classroom and it is something I am very excited about.