Teacher: Yeah, okay, I'll let you try it.
Allura: It's very easy for a student to feel they are flying under the radar,
that their teacher doesn't understand that they need help,
or that they've already done this.
In this model, I know my students as learners very quickly
in the year and I know them very well.
I have evidence every step of the way to show me what students understand,
so I'm able to better serve them as a teacher.
Liam, move your clip to green.
Teacher: Awesome.
Good job, Liam.
Matthew: Due to the global pandemic, students not being with their teacher
in the classroom, we have seen a learning gap
that requires a lot of differentiation.
So the modern classroom model is a differentiation approach
where students work at their own pace.
Jamie: There was a misconception
that younger learners aren't able to be as self-directed.
However, we have been utilizing the model
across the K-12 spectrum in all content areas.
Allura: All right, friends, so remember, last week a lot
of us were working on making a ten as our addition strategy.
Who wants to help me by showing eight in the one ten frame and four in the other?
The three components of the model are the blended instruction,
self-pacing throughout the unit, and mastery-based grading.
You may get your road maps out, see what you need,
and I need Sebastian with me.
And Johnny, I want you to--
Allura: This model really organically differentiates for you.
Students are only working on content that they are ready for.
It also helps you identify a handful or kids or one kid
that needs a certain kind of reinforcement
while the rest of the class is working on something completely different.
I don't come in with a fifty-minute lesson plan.
I am really just reading the cues of my students.
So what do we have to move over here to make ten?
From beginning to end in the lesson, the students are referring
to their road map to see what they should be working on
as they go through the unit.
They don't need to ask me what they're doing next.
Student: I'm right here.
Allura: At the beginning of a new lesson block
almost always it's an instructional video with guided notes.
Cali: We get like, a packet off the wall, and then we get on the video.
Allura: The instructional videos are videos that I create myself,
and the kids are completing their guided notes
to reinforce what is being taught in the video.
Video: Hello second grade friends, it's Ms. Pfiester.
Today we're going to work together to learn to make a ten to add.
By the end of our lesson--
Allura: After they've participated in the learning of the content
through that video, then they're practicing the skill.
It could be a worksheet.
It could be a learning center.
Student: I think, eight.
Student: Yeah, eight.
Allura: And then finally, when they're ready for a mastery check,
at first they do that without any support.
So you told me nine and two make ten?
Alivia: Today I gave her the mastery check.
It was wrong, so then she helped me.
Allura: And then they try it again on their own, until they can demonstrate
that they've mastered the content.
Alivia: You show it to Ms. Pfiester and you get
to move your face to the next block.
Allura: Students learn very quickly
that there's one of me and twenty of them.
So collaboration just very organically happens.
Student: What would two plus nine equal?
Cali: I get to help my friends.
I get to help people that are behind.
Matthew: Currently, not only in our district, but around the state,
we are short teachers and substitutes.
One of my duties now is to cover classrooms.
I walked into Ms. Pfiester's second grade classroom and the students said,
"Mister Stinson, we got this."
They were gathering materials.
They were pulling out their road maps.
They were working together.
And I was a facilitator.
Allura: It really allows students to have the very best of me,
because they can have my instruction delivered to them on demand
when they need it and as often as they need it.
Video: Pause your video and make sure you--
Allura: I've seen a lot of prolonged absences because of quarantining.
When they come back, I'm not stressing about trying to catch them
up because they've been working along with their class.
Jamie: I absolutely have seen social and emotional benefits,
and I believe that is solely based on the fact that students are self-pacing.
They are gaining confidence because every student is achieving mastery.
Allura: This model allows me to build strong relationships with my students
because they're interacting with me a lot.
Okay, second grade, we need to start cleaning up, please.
They know, like, my teacher understands me.
My teacher does what she needs to help me,
and I think that just makes all the difference in the world.