I spent a lot of time last night thinking about the discussion we had yesterday and how I can use the format of DI in small group learning that Janet presented to us. At my placement we have a very large "tech" section of 11th graders as our last section of the day. I think there are around 30 students and at least half of them scored "below basic" on reading assessments, but there are also a hand full of students who are extremely good readers who lack motivation to do much school work. My co-op and I struggle with lesson planning in that class and we frequently feel like it is really hard to get them engaged in good discussions, lessons or projects because there are so many of them on such different levels.
I think I am going to discuss the idea of DI groups with my co-op on Friday to see if she thinks it might be a good approach for our class. There are three adults in the room at least two days a week (me, co-op, and learning support person), so it might be feasible to break the class up into DI groups and each work with a group on an activity geared towards their readiness. I know this probably won't be possible everyday, but if we could do this two days a week, we may see some improvements.
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