Planning for Differentiated Instruction

In the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards, one of the knowledge indicators to be a competent teacher states the following:

Understands how to co-plan with other classroom teachers, parents or guardians, paraprofessionals, school specialists, and community representatives to design learning experiences.

I meet every Monday and Friday with other classroom teachers within the 4th grade team to discuss lesson planning for the following week. Most importantly, I do discuss with all school personnel how to best help certain students. If it is not within the meeting, it often occurs during planned periods or VIA email. Below you can see an image of a planbook that all teachers within the 4th grade department add to.

In the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards, one of the performance indicators to be a competent teacher states the following:

3L) Creates approaches to learning that are interdisciplinary and that integrate multiple content areas. 

During the Solar Eclipse, the lessons integrated science, art, and reading. There were readings with comprehension questions that allowed for non-fiction reading practice. During science, we watched videos about the solar eclipse to learn more about it. For art, we created a craft that helped students better understand the solar eclipse.