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It is teaching towards each student's strengths, and allowing their weaknesses to develop into future strong points.

Quite frankly, the course of action begins with the very basics of how you run your classroom. Begin the year by getting a grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of your students through the use of the available data, like benchmark testing results, standardized test scores, pre-tests, student inventories, portfolios, guidance folders, and/or classroom grades from the previous year; although those important items are just the beginning of your learning process. They give results and information, but they do not tell you how the student got there.

a responsive classroom that differentiates is one where the teacher prides him or herself on getting to know the students as individuals. From my own experience, once you tap into that resource, you can more easily find ways to connect with everyone in the classroom.

Using Short Stories to Teach Literary Elements and Reading ComprehensionTheme, symbolism, foreshadowing … there are so many literary elements for readers to understand in order to comprehend and appreciate what they read! Novels are great for reinforcing this knowledge, but may be too lengthy to introduce and teach specific elements properly. Students need multiple examples of literary elements being used in writing in order to understand them and identify them on their own, so the short story is perfect for this! Below are some resources to help you use short stories to teach literary elements. Additionally, you will find ideas for using short stories to develop students' reading comprehension, including active reading and vocabulary skills. The brevity of short stories can keep struggling readers from feel overwhelmed with the comprehension process, and teachers will find them easy to modify and organize for different audiences. For these reasons, teachers using stories to raise reading comprehension may also find these links helpful. Teaching About Theme Teaching About Foreshadowing Teaching About Symbolism Teaching Multiple Literary Elements Teaching Vocabulary with "The Lottery" Teaching Vocabulary with Stories of Your Choice Graphic Organizers to Help Understanding Listening Activities for ESL Students

Reading and writing texts online are basic skills that students need to be literate citizens in the 21st century. Teaching with blogs provides the opportunity to engage students in both of these literacy activities, and the strategy has the additional benefit of enabling students to publish their writing easily and to share their writing with an authentic audience.

When students write entries and comment on the entries of their peers, blogs become an integral part of a lively literacy community.

After students have posted entries, talk about the purpose of blog comments. Look at the comments on a popular blog or posted on a local newspaper in response to articles. Emphasize the importance of providing useful suggestinos and supportive feedback.