Using Station Binders to Differentiate and Make Teaching Easier!

In the morning I have all of the same students for both Language Arts and Math classes, so I run the class as a block. This way I can run stations and individual work with math and language arts skills (along with independent life skills) scattered throughout our morning.

One way I make differentiating easier for each student is by incorporating binders.

Station Binders: Each student has a "work binder" that they use during their journal, math, and language stations (they also have a morning binder which I will discuss in a later post).

I separate the work for each station with labeled tabs. What's great about this system is I usually put work in their binders for several weeks at a time, so it is ready to go and I don't even have to think about it until we start to run out. Also, if several students are working together at the same station at different levels, no students are singled out and given the wrong work. 

Math Binder Work: For our math station, I have students work on the topic of the day in a hands-on way first. Each shelf next to where we store the binders contains the math activities for a certain topic that corresponds with these math life skill worksheets. 

For example, the worksheet below works on more/less, so the students would work with groups of manipulatives counting and choosing which one has more or which one has less or will complete some of these task cards. Then they would each finish the worksheet in their binder that is at their level.

Other math topics include money, time, directions, and sizes.

Each day of the week is a new topic. So we review money on Monday, directions on Tuesday, more/less on Wednesday, sizes on Thursday, and time on Friday. If a student masters a certain level for a topic, I move them up to the next level for that topic.

Journal Binder Work: I use these differentiated journals which I love because literally every single student in my class is able to complete these and they are all journaling about the same topic.

I can even have a student at each of the three levels working at the same time: one will be cutting and pasting pictures to complete their sentences, another will be tracing and copying words (as pictured below), and yet another will be looking at the classroom sample to write out their own journal.

When completing their journals, all students need to first either color or draw the picture. This is a great time to work on skills such as color matching, copying, and problem solving ("We don't have markers here, where can you get them?" or "Your classmate is using the color you need, what do you do?" Then they read the title, and my device users find it on their device or type it out. All students then use the sentence starters to complete the sentences. My higher level writers might also add a sentence of their own at the bottom. Any students who finish quickly can also type out their journals.

Source: Using Station Binders to Differentiate and Make Teaching Easier!