IMAGINE a classroom where students are doing a lesson on a topic previously taught to the entire class by the teacher and are now reinforcing that knowledge by working in groups on activities related to the topic, with each group working on a different activity tailored to their learning needs.

One group is doing an independent practice worksheet while another is at a technology station doing student-led lesson videos. Another group is doing an activity led by the teacher and the fourth is creating an artefact based on the topic. Students in each group are focused on their task as the activity is engaging and geared toward their learning style and ability.

This is a teaching strategy of small group, differentiated activities that Danielle Wynter — a Jamaican teacher originally from Claremont, St Ann — applies in her classroom at Ferguson Easley Elementary in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she has been recognised as the school’s 2021-2022 Teacher of the Year.

She recommends that data-driven, small group instruction can be effectively applied in Jamaican classrooms.

Data-driven instruction is using information gathered from learning results to determine what comes next in instruction. Effective teachers collect data and analyse the information to look for patterns of success and needs. Instruction is data-driven as students are looked at as individual learners in order to provide the best instruction to meet their individual needs.

“Data-informed, small group instruction provides personalised and targeted instruction to students, with opportunities for feedback,” Wynter explains. “This strategy reinforces skills, builds confidence in students, activates previous learning and/or prerequisite skills, as well as provides opportunities for student exploration and investigation.

“Although Jamaican classrooms may have a large student to teacher ratio and have limited space, teachers can still have groups of students do differentiated tasks to adhere to their academic needs. Differentiated instruction doesn’t primarily mean you divide the class in groups for physical rotation. We can mould to fit our situation,” Wynter explains.

“Oftentimes what our gut tells us as teachers isn’t what the numbers show. If you have a room of 40 students, you can group them based on any selected exam scores: 0-50 (intensive), 51-69 (strategic) and 70-100 (proficient). Each set of students will get modified tasks or instructions personalised for their needs based on their scores. The teacher will be the one to move around, not the students,” she revealed.

She provided the example of teaching a science lesson on parts of a plant to fourth-grade students. “Using differentiation, I would reteach parts of a plant to my intensive group, my strategic group would answer some basic questions about parts of a plants, while my proficient/enrichment group will draw, label and explain the importance of the plant to the environment. The rotation will happen when the teacher decides which group she wants to facilitate on which day while the others work independently. This will only happen after the whole group lesson. If you have a one-hour block for a subject, you can do 30 minutes for whole group, and 30 minutes for small group.”

Wynter has been teaching in the United States for three years as part of the Participate Learning programme. Before joining the programme she had been in the classroom for three years teaching third- and fourth-grade students at St Patrick’s Primary in Kingston.

Participate Learning implements global education in K-12 schools in the USA to fulfil its mission of uniting the world through global learning. The programme empowers educators from around the world to strengthen student outcomes and promote cultural understanding in order to realise its vision of developing global citizenship among students in American schools.

Wynter says she joined Participate Learning to broaden her pedagogical knowledge and experience. She returns to Jamaica at the end of her contract in 2024.

While teaching in the US, Wynter has been using the opportunity to share her Jamaican culture with her students. “I have used my culture to educate, thus generating culturally aware global citizens of the future. I have partnered with other Jamaican teachers on the programme to share my Jamaican culture through our annual cultural exchange activities like food, dances, history, language and lifestyle. I also have a cultural corner in my classroom,” she revealed.

Participate Learning is an opportunity open to certified teachers with more than two years of full-time teaching experience. Travel authorisation and employment at a school are all arranged for teachers selected for the programme. Arrangements can also be made for the teacher’s family if they decide to have their family accompany them overseas.

The Participate Learning programme is accepting applications from teachers interested in this professional development opportunity to teach in the United States. Educators who have two years’ experience as full- time, certified teachers and who are interested in elementary education positions to teach social studies, math or science, can get more information at bit.ly/31pBKBj.