Thing 6 - Differentiated Instruction

1. Differentiated Learning Assignment: To differentiate instruction is to recognize students' varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning and interests; and to react responsively.
I think this is one of the biggest challenges educators face whether you're a new teacher or a veteran teacher, it is always a challenge to keep students engaged, on task, and learning based on their individual learning preferences.

I use Moodle in my classroom. Before every class, I have the students take a short learning preference quiz online (http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire) then they need to do a short reflection on what they learned about their unique learning style and explain to me what will make them successful in my classroom. Here are the questions they need to answer for me:

1. After completing the questions on the Learning Preferences Questionnaire, tell me what are your learning preferences?
2. Then tell me in a few sentences what that means.
3. What can I do in this class to help you feel comfortable and succeed?

This has been an excellent tool in my classroom to get immediate feedback from the students. Students will tell me they need handouts, other will tell me to make sure I spend extra time with them in reading directions, some say they need a detailed rubric. This has been very successful in my classrooms and the students feel comfortable in knowing that I will try to my best to teach to their learning style.

I have always provided multiple media and formats. I will show YouTube videos, I will allow them to watch "Common Craft" videos before I introduce a new unit. I will give detailed rubrics and also demonstrate using a digital projector. In varying the method in which I introduce material, each student will find some format they become comfortable with and be able to identify which aids in their learning.

I provide opportunities to practice with support. I will circulate around the classroom as the students are practicing and give them applicable tips to support and enhance what they are working on.

Offering adjustable levels of challenges is something I do in my middle school and high school classes. For example, my Careers class is at the middle school level. They need to do a career presentation. They are allowed to use PowerPoint, Movie Maker or Weebly. I allow them to choose which program they are comfortable with, but I also challenge them to use a new program so I can help them learn the program, plus demonstrate their understanding of their chosen career as well. This has proven to be a successful approach in keeping the students excited about learning at a level in which they are most comfortable.

2. Diverse Learning Assignment. Using Technology to Support Diverse Learners - Visual.  A visual approach to learning helps the struggling learner visualize and imagine what they are trying to learn. Make graphic organizers to organize data in a sequential pattern will be very beneficial for a struggling learner. Also, making use of videos and incorporating phones, notebooks, Smart Boards, and other technology can help bridge the gap for some students who may struggling with reading text. If they can see it, it may help them store it in their long-term memory and retrieve it by visualizing what they saw. Students, even those that struggle, seem to be more comfortable with "gadgets" than most teachers. If they were able to utilize such methods of learning, it may greatly benefit those students that struggle.


3. Universal Design for Learning Assignment - NetTrekker. NetTrekker is an amazing and powerful teaching tool. I attended the NetTrekker workshop at the ISD on February 1st and was very impressed at how intuitive and powerful this search tool was. I was easily able to find three different readability levels for career information. The levels are for middle school levels and lower. This will be helpful because this is a middle school class, yet some students read at a much lower level. Some of the icons on these results indicate to me that there is audio, video, and interactive media integrated into these search results. This would be ideal for the struggling learner because there is a variety of learning styles presented.

4. Text-to-Audio Conversion Assignment. 

This was awesome! I have never used anything like this before. This was very easy and would be so helpful for a struggling learner. The teacher would need to record the voice before class, save as and MP3 and allow the student to listen as they learned. They would be able to use headphones so they could be listening discreetly and they can rewind and fastforward as they need. This would be very helpful when explaining things step-by-step because some students need a longer processing time to understand each step before moving on to the next one. This would allow the struggling learner the flexibility to learn at their own pace. Excellent learning and teaching tool!