So many lessons, just one class

Danette Goulet

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a campus within the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District and writes about her experience.

They were just like little adults.

Smiling students in Jaymi Ropp’s fifth-grade class at the Davis

Education Center returned from recess quietly and took their seats.

Before she began her next lesson, Ropp said she “owed them a treat”

and offered the students a math brainteaser.

“The number of doughnuts in four dozen, divided by six, doubled,

subtract two, divide by two, plus three, times four, divided by eight,

add one more than a dozen, and you should be at the number of eggs in one

and a half dozen,” she said.

The class cheered enthusiastically when she offered them one more.

Then, amid a nearly silent room, she explained what everyone would be

doing -- about four totally different activities -- and sent them about

their tasks.

Five students headed off to a bank of three computers, where they

began to put together a power point presentation proving or disproving

the generalization that people adapt to their environment.

That’s pretty impressive, I thought. While I could handle the

scientific and social ends of that one, I would have needed their help

with the power point part.

Another group of about six students gave themselves hands-on typing

tests on electronic keyboards. The fifth-graders had learned where their

fingers should be placed on a keyboard, and tested for speed and

accuracy.

“This is hard,” 10-year-old Luis Munoz Jr. warned as he explained the

testing process.

“I think it’s pretty easy,” boasted Elliott Sneen, 10.

Each delighted in demonstrating their knowledge on how the machines

worked.

On the other side of the room, two other groups worked on division.

One worked with Ropp on long division problems while the other group

used number tiles to fill in the blanks on math problems.

Four completely different activities and the room wasn’t even chaotic.

It did not simply demonstrate Ropp’s control or the students’ good

behavior -- it was a lesson in differentiated instruction.

Although Ropp said it can become hectic at times, she teaches kids at

about eight different math levels simultaneously. Students’ homework is

not identical each night, but tailored to their individual learning

curves.

All that, and somehow Ropp keeps her classroom smelling especially

pleasant.

FYI

WHO: Fifth-graders in Jaymi Ropp’s class

WHERE: Davis Education Center

WHAT: A smorgasbord of learning activity

LESSON: Differentiated instruction