It's the first day of school and Ms. Moretti is eager to start teaching her Grade 4's all of the lessons she has planned. What subjects will they favour? Will they like her lessons?

I cannot wait to teach... especially Social Studies!!!

As the Grade 4's entered the classroom, they noticed their desks were set up in a horse shoe shape, with another smaller row in the middle. This was to ensure that students who had difficulties paying attention or needed more support had a better look at the board. It also allowed for all the students to easily see her when she taught. Ms. Moretti was already thinking of putting a small table in the front for when she wanted to lay out Social Studies resources for the class to use.

As the day progressed, Ms. Moretti found that it was time to teach her Social Studies lesson. She looked around the classroom at the world map, book shelf full of ancient civilizations and pictures from around the world. She could not wait to start to add their work to the walls to show the goals of the classroom come to life.

Two Big Ideas we want to explore are understanding that not all early societies were the same AND that by studying the past, we can better understand the present! I want you to be informed active citizens when you leave my classroom.

Ms. Moretti wanted to create goals with the class for how their Social Studies class would progress. Some goals were for everyone to excel, to incorporate a student-led inquiry and to have different methods of learning. Other goals consisted of learning about at least 3 ancient civilizations. Little did they know, Ms. Moretti would accomplish this all through a Differentiated Approach.

We are going to accomplish all those goals, Timmy. Prepare to be amazed!

For everyone to succeed, Ms. Moretti knew she had to know her students and their learning styles. Not only did her instruction need to be differentiated, but she also had to have a variety of assessments. She knew she would need to incorporate group work, partners and individual work, to reach both introverted and extraverted students.