I have posted about this before, but the Practice levels have students “choose from the following activities” rather than having them “complete the practice activities.” I find I need to require the students to complete ALL the Practice activities to fully learn the skills but many still just “choose” because that’s what the directions state. (It would be nice if they could not progress to the Assessment without at least all the Practice bubbles being green!) Sometimes there are even new concepts brought up in the practice that were not addressed in the skill-building steps. For example, the “alt description” is only formally addressed in one of the Practice activities but not in one of the skill-building steps. Yes, I address it in my off-screen lesson, but…
Hi @GordonBrune,
I know you are a more experienced user of the curriculum and more familiar with it so I respect your opinion. The change log states the practice units are there for more student choice. For me, I use this additional choice option for differentiation by allowing students to choose what they are most comfortable with. Sometimes I’ll offer a few points extra credit for more challenging activities. But you are correct, in some cases, student who complete more levels or more difficult levels or even different levels, may have knowledge the other students may not have. I suppose when there is choice, that is sometimes the consequence. As you probably know, you can let support know your thoughts as they consider all input when assessing curriculum changes.
~Michelle
I hear what you’re saying. Sometimes I choose specific practice and challenge levels that I want all students to do because I feel like they introduce or further practice a skill I want to highlight. I’ll even update the rubric to reflect the additional skills. It honestly depends on the class for me.
Thanks edavis and melynn for your responses. Yes, I get using the Practice & Challenge for differentiation. My issue is how sometimes what the students are held accountable for is not always outlined in the skill-building sections. It is instead addressed in a Practice that often the students don’t choose to complete. This came up most recently when students did know about the “alt description” because they had not chosen that Practice activity. I addressed it in a lesson, but…Anyway, forging ahead!