IB geography differentiation strategy

I don't blog often so I'm going to keep this short.

When I was working at the International School of Bangkok years ago, I took a two week course on differentiation taught by Bill and Ochan Powell.  They offered many great strategies for how to differentiate instruction in the classroom from simple "think, pair, share stuff" to more complex "cognitive coaching."  It really was a bulldozer of information.

But there was this one strategy I couldn't think of how to implement, until now, that really struck me as the most powerful.  Over the last couple of days, as I struggle for more and more ways to reach all of my juniors before the end of the semester and all of my seniors before their final exams in May, I think I may have managed a way to put this theory to practice.

If you teach IB geography, you know about command terms and assessment objectives (AO).  Command terms are basically just words either in the syllabus or within the questions on the exam that determine the depth of the answer.  For example, the answer to a question that asks the student to Describe is going to be considerably less in depth than Analyze.  Command terms (or sometimes referred to as "command words") are found within every IB subject, I think, and are more or less modeled after Bloom's Taxonomy.  This is partially evidenced by the fact that each IB geography command term is given a different assessment objective.  To use the above example, a question that asks a student to Describe is only needing an answer that shows the student's knowledge and understanding of the subject/content/topic.  Likewise, a question that asks a student to Analyze needs more information: not only does the student need to have knowledge and understanding but also must be able to take that information and synthesize the information or "create" something in a way so that all of the separate knowledge makes a completely new whole.  Again, if you teach IB geography, then you know this.  The following is what I'm proposing (adapted from some math teacher Bill and Ochan Powell talked about):

So just like on a ski hill you have different difficulties of runs (see below).  You've got green circles which indicate easy/beginner runs, you've got blue squares which indicate intermediate/challenging runs and you've got the ever famous black diamond which indicates the most advanced/difficult runs.  Beginner skiers can start off with the most basic of runs and as they improve, become more comfortable and gain confidence they have the ability to choose progressively more advanced runs.  The beauty is that everyone can ski and progress together regardless of ability level because they've been given the opportunity to choose.

My plan is to apply this concept to IB geography.  Now that at least 10 exams have been given and I know what command terms the students are likely to see, I'm just going to create my own tests that mirror these ski hill difficulty ratings and command terms/assessment objectives.

Green circle - AO1 command terms

Blue square - AO1/AO2 command terms

Black diamond - AO1/AO2/AO3 command terms

----------OPTIONAL TWO BELOW----------------

Double black diamond - Globalization

Freestyle - Mock IB exam

The idea is to have the three levels prepared at the beginning of a test day and have the students choose which test they feel is right for them.  For the seniors, its a little late considering they all need to be riding the black diamond runs by next month but for my juniors, there's no doubt time to progress.  I would say that most of them could rage a black diamond but there are definitely some who are more than likely still only ready for a blue square and even some yet who are still riding a green circle.  The beauty is that students choose for themselves with guidance from the teacher.  The teacher should obviously want them to push their limit and progress to more difficult levels but if they try a level that is still too difficult for them, then it would be expected they be allowed to find their most comfortable level with trial and error.

I'm hoping this will allow my class to be more fully integrated in differentiation.  I'm planning on setting up these tests for the end of this school year but will more than likely implement this strategy at the start of next school year.  If anyone has any comments about this teaching strategy or would like me to keep them posted, I'd love to hear from you.  I'm open to suggestions.

Environmental change

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE BLOG PROMPT

1. Select one of the seven different syllabus points below.

2. Post the syllabus point to your blog and write a brief response (2-3 paragraphs) to the point.

3. As always, comment on another person's blog post.

Extra

• Search for and watch a youtube video on e-waste.

• Identify any overlaps between these syllabus points and other units/topics you've studied in this class.

Economic interactions and flows

Prompt instructions

1. Read through this Greenfield geography site on information flows.

2. Choose an item from the site that is of particular interest to you.

3. Post what you chose to your blog and write a brief comment about why you found it interesting.

4. End your post with a question about the topic you blogged about that you'd like to have answered.

5. Don't forget to comment on someone else's post from your class.

EXTRA

Watch any of videos from the International Organizations section of the Plaid Avenger website.

Political outcomes

Find a recent online article about one of the following multi-governmental organizations (MGO):

• European Union (EU)
• Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• MERCOSUR (the common market of South America)

• Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

Post an image from the article on your blog along with the link and highlight the main points from the article in no more than 3 sentences.

Then, write a brief paragraph elaborating on your own thoughts with regard to the article.

If you have extra time, refresh your memory about the nationalization of oil.

Finally, watch *The Yes Men if you can find a copy.

*Warning: Rated R

Socio-cultural exchange

Choose either the concept of cultural diffusion (voluntary/consented change in culture) or cultural imperialism (enforced/pressured change in culture) and using specific examples explain how transnational corporations either intentionally or unintentionally spread consumerism through your chosen concept.

Global interactions month

Welcome to the globalization unit!

Monday and Tuesday

• Review what was covered the week before
• Discuss comments
• Introduce new syllabus points for the week

Wednesday and Thursday

• This is when I will post a new concept in the form of a question or a prompt to my blog.  You will then read the post, perform research on the concept and respond to the question or prompt on your own blog.  Next, you will respond to the post of one of your peers by adding a comment to their post.  You will be graded on the following:

0 - No post, no comment
1 - Post late (after the weekend), no comment
2 - Post late (after the weekend), with comment
3 - Post on time, no comment OR post late (before end of the weekend) with comment
4 - Post on time, with comment

You are expected to post to your blog by Friday.  Comments are due by Monday morning the following week.

*Initial posts should follow the guidelines set in the rubric below.

Fridays

• Practice questions
• Blog posts and comments due

15 mark question globalization rubric

Chapel Presentation

Ideas for #chapelpres

• State of the Philippine economy
• The global economy and the influence of oil
• The origins of the universe
• The Detroit Pistons
• Detroit Piston-Chicago Bulls rivalry
• Geography of music
• Cultural geography
• The digital age

Introduction
- Have you ever calculated the number of hours you spend every day looking at a screen of any kind?  What about so far today?

- Have you ever Googled yourself?

- Have you ever Navered yourself?

- What is the point?  The point is two fold: 1.You should be aware of and in control of your digital footprint; 2.You should reflect on how technology affects your life.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we should take a look at how we got here in the first place.  The Internet was designed in 1969 by the US government as a way to keep many computers connected even if one went offline.  The idea was to have continuous connectivity regardless of whether or not all computers were connected simultaneously.

With the advent of the world wide web in 1980's and modern computing technology beginning to reach the masses, the stage was set for average people to use the Internet to communicate with one another online (see the film You've Got mail).

From there the web has evolved into a forum where sites now allow and encourage user modifications, offer e-commerce, provide for file transfer and upload, allow giant corporations to make billions off of your social networking, and much more.  People refer to this as "web 2.0" or a sort of updated version of the original world wide web.  All sorts of statistics abound but if amazon.com was a country and you used its revenue to match it up with the GDP of all the nations in the world, it would rank as the 86th biggest economy on the planet right next to Kenya at $34.2 billion.

If I was to use one word to describe the social network, it would be "pervasive."  Think about for a second everything you have ever done online.  That's how big your digital footprint is.  Thats because we willingly give these billion dollar companies like facebook, Twitter, and Google our personal information in the form of updates, photos, and videos and in return they provide us with services that are addictive, fun, and extremely useful in some cases.  Just a fun fact: did you know that anywhere between 30 and 90% of employers admit to checking the facebook pages of their potential employees?  Regardless of their original and stated goal of these social networking companies however, at the end of the day these companies want to make as much money as possible.  They're going to do whatever they can to keep you hooked on their product.

Add to that the advent of the cellular telephone allowing mobility and access to information on the internet in the palm of your hand.  What do end up with is...screen time.  Do you know what your generation is being called in the United States?  Generation Z.  You are the digital natives.  That means you have never lived without the Internet and some form of technology to connect you to the Internet like a phone, a computer, a TV, a console, a tablet,

glasses, 

a watch,

or wearable technology.

The point is that it's easy to get caught up in it all and never questioning its value or how it changes who you are as a person.  Ask yourself...  Is facebook emotionally rewarding or does it make you envious of others?  Is an uploaded selfie to Instagram a harmless fun way to take a photo or is it narcissistic?  Is YouTube an digital learning platform or just another form of television?  Does a retweet show genuine interest or is it a sign of unoriginality?  Do Skype and Google Docs decrease time and space by connecting people from different continents or do they increase time and space by allowing friends to chat with one another even though they're in the same room together?  The point is, by all means go online, use these tools, create content, learn something.  I use them too!  I just ask you to consider first what you put online and second to think about how all of it affects you.  One of the best ways you can do this is what I mentioned at the beginning about screen time.  Put away your cell phone, laptop, television, tablet, console, PC, mp3 player for just one day.  Have a nice deep reflection about what it was like.  Then you might really be aware of the psychological affects these things have on you.

Digital natives have never lived without convenient, reliable access to the Internet and barring any dramatic unforeseen change, they probably never will.  In fact, if current trends are any indication, things will most likely grow faster and more convenient with regards to the Internet and technology before they start to slow down and cease to push the physical limits.  The power at the tips of your fingers, and maybe next time at the tip of your nose, will prove to be your greatest resource, your biggest distraction or more than likely a combination of the two.  The beauty of it all is that depends on you.  Is this how you want to live because its not how I want to live and I've made the decision: no phones, tablets, or laptops at the dinner table.