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Differentiation in a Kindergarten General Education Classroom: Small Group

Meeting with all students throughout the week can be difficult. While in a perfect world, we’d be able to see

Differentiation in a Kindergarten General Education Classroom: Small Group

Meeting with all students throughout the week can be difficult. While in a perfect world, we’d be able to see

Meeting with all students throughout the week can be difficult. While in a perfect world, we’d be able to see all students in a small group or one on one setting, sometimes that isn’t always possible. Depending on the class size, being flexible on how often you meet with a group is necessary. In this post, I will share some of my favorite recourses to use during small group and 1:1 instruction. I will also share how I’ve learned to be flexible and change plans when they arise.
 

small group

Collaboration

 
Research shows the importance of differentiated instruction. Meeting as a team and collaborating in order to group students for instruction, use data to plan and pair groups, and instructing in a small-group setting will help make it successful. I have found that co-treating options help make meeting minutes and giving our best services possible. If you are a related service member and push into many classrooms, creating a schedule with all team members and teachers will ensure the child gets what they need and will help the teachers know what students they may need to focus on throughout the week. Having a plan helps, and I have created back-up plans in case changes happen quickly. Differentiated instruction applies to all grade levels and content areas.

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Differentiated instruction has been proven to be difficult for teachers who haven’t had much experience with it. Once there is a schedule and once data-driven decisions are being made and monitored, Research states that differentiated instruction increases the quality and quantity of instruction to increase the success of our learners. When we monitor and plan for upcoming lessons and groupings, or team identifies the prerequisite skills necessary for student learning of the upcoming content and objectives. Teachers must clearly understand their instructional purposes for a lesson by considering why they are teaching what they are teaching to a specific student or group of students.
 
 

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