Small Strokes Big Oaks

I have been absolutely inspired by the push to include Differentiated Instruction into every classroom, and what better way to celebrate diversity of all kinds in the classroom while helping each student learn in the way that is best for them than to include Differentiated Instruction and choice in the curriculum.

This is relatively easy to do with English classes because you can give a student a choice as to what topics to write about, what projects or papers to complete at the end of a unit, even sometimes what books to read within a specific genre or time period.  I, however, never felt like this was enough choice within my curriculum.  I do think that students need the experience of reading the required books and doing some required assignments in order to get a well-rounded educational experience, but I also believe that this should be supplemented with some choice.  So, with the help of this website, I created the ultimate project of choice: an independent reading assignment with a Differentiated Instruction-based, tiered list of project options.

For this project, students may choose any book they want.  I have very few restrictions on this, although I will warn them that if they choose a slim book or a graphic novel, they may need to supplement this with another book in order to receive their full points.  I also will not hold them to finishing the book they start with.  They may start a book, complete a few projects for that book, decide they hate the book, and move on to another book.  The only real requirements are that they cannot choose a book they’ve read for school before, and they must finish at least one book.

After that, the entire experience is up to them.  They will receive a reading log and a handout with several different project options on two different tiers of difficulty.  They need a total of 100 possible points, with 60 or 70 of these points from the C Level projects and 30 or 40 of these points from the B/A Level projects.  The nice thing about this is that the kids not only get to choose their books and their projects, but they really get to choose their grades as well.  They’re OK with an 80%?  Then earn 80 total points.  They’ve done projects worth 100 possible points but only earned 90 points?  Then do another 10-point project.  They can also work at their own pace.  I imagine I’ll have a few avid readers finish this entire project by the end of March, and some students who need to budget their time differently or work a bit slower that work all the way up to the May 7 deadline.

How will I keep track of all of my students’ grades?  Easy!  I’ll also give them a student grade sheet to be filled out and returned to me when they choose their books.  Then, I’ll keep five folders – one for each class period – with the students’ grade sheets alphabetized.  Every time a student turns in a project, I’ll grade it and record it o his or her individual grade sheet and then put the total points earned in my grade book at the end of the project.

I’m open to any and all suggestions on this project, and would love to hear your experiences with independent reading, either as a teacher or as a student!