A Summary
Click here to view the Mind Map
Reading different research about differentiated instruction, it becomes clear that the learning experience should be social and engaging; although the learning responsibility of what happens in the classroom is guided by the teacher, the learner should is also actively part of this process by means of valuing their strengths.
With this in mind, I created a mind map of my choice of activities and strategies in order to enlighten students in a challenging and productive way; especially with the use of 21st century technology will benefit students with their basic search and ICT skills as well as listening skills. According to Tomlinson (2001) most classrooms are multi-cultured these days and thus most learners have different learning styles. There are three aspects teachers should take into account when planning differentiated lessons:
- Student readiness
- Student interests
- Student learning profiles
Readiness
Together with teaching rules and routines, assessing the students’ skills is one of the first things I do in order to see where their levels are. This is very important, because as McCarthy (2014) states “[i]nstruction should begin where the student's skill level currently exists” otherwise those who are at a lower level will not catch up and those at a higher level might be bored or unmotivated. The key is to have different strategies in order to bridge the gaps and keep the students engaged. In order to learn about my students’ levels of readiness, I will have two types of assessments:
- Pre-assessments
- I always use this at the beginning of the year to test their overall knowledge of their previous grade regarding math, language, writing and reading skills. This will give me an overall idea of their level of readiness for my class.
- I also use pre-assessments sometimes before I start a new unit to have an idea of how much knowledge they already have of a certain topic.
- Formative assessments
- Exit Tickets: this is something I only heard of recently and really like the idea. I will let students answer some questions at the end of the lesson as a recap or reflection on work done in class. This can also be used to anticipate something that you will use for the next day's lesson (like a pre-assessment), to see how much of a topic the students know.
- Tiered assignments: this involves “all children being focussed on the same content or curriculum objective but the process and/or product will vary according to the child’s readiness or ability” (PPDS).
Learning centers are also a great way to observe (and assess) students’ skills. I will talk about this more in the “Interests” part.
Within the context of differentiated instruction, [...] flexible small group instruction yields greater benefits when compared to large group instruction, within the literacy classroom. (Subban & Round, 2015:124)
I agree with this and including group instruction and group work is also a good differentiation strategy in that it helps with pairing lower level students with stronger students (as stated in the mind map).
Interests
If students are interested in what you are teaching, they will be more focused and engaging during lessons. It is very difficult to occupy all students’ interests, but not impossible. According to Tomlinson (2001) there are two ways of approaching student interests:
- Identifying the students already acquired interests.
- Encouraging new interests.
I think getting to know your students in general will already help you a lot to plan your lessons and know what will work and what won’t. During circle time in the morning or in between classes (as a kind of brain break) I would gather the students and just talk a bit about any topic and ask them questions. A positive student-teacher-relationship will also encourage active engagement in the classroom. As stated before, learning centers are a great way of identifying your students’ interests through observing them in action. This will help you gain more knowledge about what type of lessons they will enjoy (visual, artistic, logic and kinesthetic). However, you can add to learning centers more if you already know what the students like. At the beginning of the year, I would make a student interest survey for the students with some questions like:
Before my poetry unit, I will ask questions like:
- What is your favourite poem?
- What do you like to read about?
In my poetry unit, I will also have a poetry book where the students will gather research about poetry and rough drafts in order to complete their big project by writing, illustrating and presenting their own poem. They will do this through:
- Learning center activities
- Graphic Organizers
- Sense-O-Grams
- Brainstorming webs
- Venn Diagrams
- Writing poetry
- Rough Drafts
- Originals
- Illustrating poetry to show the meaning
Learning Profiles
As stated before, observing students in the learning centers will give you a better idea of their interests and also their preferred learning styles. I can usually divide them into 2 categories:
- Visual and artistic
- Logical and Kinesthetic
Something that would apply to both these categories are the use of technology. If possible, students can use IPADS to illustrate a poem or different crafting materials (especially for the visual and artistic students). For the logical and kinesthetic students, they would enjoy moving around more, so when doing rhyming activities, students can use the whiteboard or computer centers to practice their rhyming. The Funny Kids Poems application is a great tool to use in this case.
Conclusion
Focusing your differentiated lesson on these three principles are important to attend to the students’ needs. In my opinion, students should have the opportunity to express themselves in an environment that is open and responsive to their needs. In order to do this, teachers have to change and adapt their lessons in order for the students to learn something. If not, some students won’t benefit from the lessons and would just be left in their confusion.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also see my previous blog post for more information about assessments: Planning Assessments
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References
- McCarthy, John. (August 25, 2014). Learner Interest Matters: Strategies for Empowering Student Choice. Edutopia. Retrieved on December 18, 2016, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-learner-interest-matters-john-mccarthy.
- Primary Professional Development Services (PPDS). (n.d.). Differentiation in Action! Retrieved December 19, 2016, from http://www.pdst.ie/sites/default/files/Session%202%20-%20Differentiation%20Resource%20_0_0.pdf.
- Subban, P.K. (2006). Differentiated instruction: A research basis. In International Education Journal 7(7) Shannon Research Press, 935-947.
- Subban, P. K., & Round, P. N. (2015). Differentiated Instruction at Work. Reinforcing the art of classroom observation through the creation of a checklist for beginning and pre-service teachers. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(5). Retrieved December 19, 2016, from http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2015v40n5.7
- Tomlinson, Carol Ann. (2001). How To Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms 2ND EDITION. Alexandria, Virginia USA.
No comments:
Post a Comment