Multiple Pathways to Success

 My next resource comes from Alice Keller’s blog - Paperless is not a Pedagogy. She has tons of useful and specific blog topics, and I enjoyed reading through the different resources she has. I love her philosophy that technology should not be used to save paper, but to improve learning and engagement. I chose to explore her topic on Tech Tools to Support Differentiation. 

Big Idea: Teachers are often told to differentiate in their classrooms, but are not often given the resources and tips to do so. I loved finding Alice Keller’s blog on differentiation in the classroom. What stood out to me is that she focuses on how differentiation can be meaningful. Specifically, she provides websites that can help teachers streamline and organize groups of students for varying subjects, classes, or groups. She provides three tools including Grouper, Google Classroom for tiered assignments, and ClassKick. These tools got me thinking and planning about how I can differentiate groups of students in a meaningful way to support my instruction. 

What I Learned: Grouper - Grouper is a free tool that forms flexible groups based on student characteristics, and saves this for the educator for future use. You can import a class roster you already have or sync Grouper with Google Classroom. One aspect I love about this website is that you can import data such as IXL, MAP, i-Ready, etc to ensure your students are being grouped appropriately. 

Google classroom for tiered assignments - Tiered assignments allow educators to ensure all students work toward the same learning goal, but may have different paths to get there. Alice recommends using tiered assignments in Google Classroom by first creating multiple versions of an assignment. Then, when assigning the task in Google Classroom, use the “assign to” option to select individual students or groups to send that specific assignment to. 
ClassKick - Classkick is a free tool in which educators can upload an assignment and assign it to individual students or groups. The teacher can choose to include additional resources with specific groups such as sentence starters or graphic organizers. Classkick is unique because teachers are able to view their students’ work and progress in real time - allowing them to immediately provide feedback and support. Classkick also allows anonymous help and collaboration from peers. 

Key Takeaway: One key takeaway was Keeler’s reminder that “differentiation is not about making multiple lessons—it’s about giving multiple pathways to success.” That mindset shift really resonated with me. It highlights that the goal of these tech tools is to empower students to take ownership of their learning, not overwhelm teachers with extra preparation. 

Connection: There are so many ways I could use these tools in my elementary classroom, and I know it could be used in K-12 as well. As a teacher of reading, Grouper would allow me to group my students based on previous data, reading level, behavior, and even individual characteristics. In the past, I have spent quite a bit of time figuring out how I will group my students in these categories, plus making the group sizes reasonable and not too overwhelming for me to work with. This tool would allow my groups to remain flexible and not static throughout the year, which is what my students need as they progress through reading levels. 

References:

Alice Keller's Blog - Tech Tools to Support Differentiation