Differentiating Instruction
Differentiation is a buzz word in the education community. It has attracted attention and sparked conversations. Not everyone agrees on exactly how differentiation looks, but the common consensus is that differentiation can occur in four different areas: Content, Process, Product, and Environment. The purpose of differentiation is to reach every student and provide them with access to the curriculum that fits their learning style and their interests. The following are ways I provide differentiation in my own classroom:
Content
When introducing a topic, I use both auditory and visual. It is usually a Powerpoint that contains pictures and diagrams. I read through the Powerpoint as a whole group and ask for discussion throughout the presentation. I will also allow one of my students whom I know needs movement to be my “Vanna White” for the day. This student stands at the front of my room and is in charge of moving the slides while I walk around the room presenting the material. This also allows
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An activity, graphic organizer/diagram, and an assessment that includes test-like questions and a written response. I do vary the length of time for students on an individual basis to complete these tasks. A struggling learner might be asked to provide a basic response for the written response while an advanced learner may be asked for a more in-depth response.
Product
I have incorporated the Genius Hour concept into my classroom, but because of the needs of my students, I tweaked some of the ideas. For my classroom, students are responsible for creating at least 1 Genius Hour project for the year, but can complete as many as they would like. This assures that struggling students do not get left behind, while also giving advanced students an opportunity to go wild. The Genius Hour is an idea they have picked. They have 101 choices on how to present their Genius Hour.
Instructional Plan Engage, Connect, and Launch: Engage: Say, “I know everyone here knows what a square and a rectangle are, but do you know the difference? These are two more 2 dimensional shapes that we’re going to talk about today.” Connect: Say, “Today we’re going to look at squares and rectangles and find out what is different between them because they both look like boxes, right? In fact, I’m sure everyone has received gifts that came in a square and a rectangle shaped box.”
The teacher will also give each group an iPad so, they can create their Popplet. The students will be given time to work on their experiment and to collect their
What Qualifies a Person as a Genius? In fourth grade, I chose Florence Nightingale as my “inspirational role model”. We were tasked with researching and giving a four-minute presentation on any person of our choosing. In my eyes, Florence was the perfect candidate for this presentation.
How does differentiation support or hinder pupils’ progress in writing? A study examining a school in Brent. Abstract: “We used to teach subjects and classes – now we teach students (Petty, 2004).” Differentiation is recognised as a key part of effective teaching in writing but there seems to be a little general agreement about what it implies, or what it might look like in the classroom.
Rationale: This artifact, Facilitators Training Presentation, is a PowerPoint on differentiation that I presented to my co-workers. This PowerPoint presentation is evidence of this standard because it demonstrates a commitment to meet the educational needs of the students in their classroom in a fair and equitable manner. The goal of this presentation was to educate my co-workers on the importance of understanding the learning styles and meeting the needs of their individuals in their classrooms. After this presentation, my co-workers had a better understanding of differentiation and how to incorporate differentiation instruction in their classroom. R5
Twenty years old boy named Will Hunting, who works as a janitor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has genius-level intelligence. When Professor Lambeau who works at MIT left a difficult math problem on the chalkboard for his graduate students to solve, Will was able to solve it within the first week of classes. Professor Lambeau never thought someone will be able to solve it that fast. He left another difficult problem on the chalkboard that took him and his colleagues two years to solve. Again, Will was able to solve it quickly again.
Demonstrated use of current and innovative teaching practices that demonstrate high level understanding and application of differentiation for all learners across literacy and numeracy programs. Throughout my educational career I have consistently used current and innovative teaching practices acquired through professional development, enabling me to successfully differentiate for learners across all six KLA’ including literacy and numeracy. Implementing these innovative teaching practices ensures a high standard of student outcomes. I have achieved this by: • Implementing NearPod lessons, in conjunction with BYOD school programs to understand, review learning experiences and provide feedback for all learners.
They would match their answers from their worksheet to their bingo board Lesson 4- Students were shown and explained an example of a poster similar to the one they would create. After they created their own poster, they created a group poster with all properties. They were also provided with an example on the Smart Board while they were working.
Burns’ article, “Identifying Thinking Skills for Instruction in Your Classroom,” serves to be a great resources for all educators, but, specifically to those who teach gifted learners. Educators of gifted learners are always looking for ways to provide challenging lessons and this taxonomy exposes multiple ways to do so. Burns did a phenomenal job of explaining the taxonomy, defining the categories, identifying the steps, and providing examples in order for the implementation to be successful. I enjoyed the article and I plan to use these strategies and skills in my own classroom as I feel that it would be very beneficial to my
The adaptions I made would be effective for Guillermo because they are specific to him. Teachers must try to get to know their students better in order to identify what instructional methods and materials work best for each child. Differentiated instruction is a way to get through to children who have very diverse learning styles and ways of expressing themselves. It is a way to get students to master challenging academic content in different ways. Teachers have to understand that each child is different and learns their own way and at their own time.
Differentiation, with respect to instruction, means tailoring it to meet individual needs of the students. Teachers can differentiate content, process, products, or the learning environment, the use of ongoing assessment and flexible grouping makes this a successful approach to instruction. Teachers differentiate the four classroom elements based on student readiness, interest, or learning profile. (Tomlinson 2000). Differentiated instruction can be known as an organizing framework in teaching and learning which calls for a major restructuring in the classroom and syllabus, if done in the proper way, its benefits will transgress the costs.
The group presentation presentation of explaining a $100 word challenge was an interactive and creative game. The strength of the presentation was the ability to make is challenging but also interactive but also educational. Allowing our classmates to critically think of words to come up with but also counting money made the game interesting. People were being asked to count money and many of our classmate were getting competitive to find a word that will add up to $100. All our classmates seemed to be having fun with the variey of money additional problems that were had for them.
Check for understanding: how will you assess the students comprehension of the story? Quiz? Questions at the end? Art project? Game?
She would also speak about the information on the slides as she went through them. This technique is advantageous to someone who is a visual and/or auditory learner. Similarly, near the end of the class the students pulled out their course readings and talked about the homework the instructor had assigned for that night. Students could look at at assignment and hear what they were expected to do to successfully complete the tasks. In Engl 99R the professor would draw pictures on the chalkboard that accompany his lessons.
It is a very common teaching strategy, relying on strict lesson plans and lectures with little or no room for variation. Direct instruction does not include activities like discussion, recitation, seminars, workshops, case studies, or internships. DI is probably the most popular teaching strategy that is used by teachers to facilitate learning. It is teacher directed and follows a definite structure with specific steps to guide pupils toward achieving clearly defined learning outcomes. The teacher maintains the locus of control over the instructional process and monitors pupils ' learning throughout the process.