Thing #5 - Differentiated Instruction and Diverse Learning

PART 1 - Differentiated Learning Assignment

The website National Center on Accessible Instructional Material provides a listing of the Elements of Differentiated Instruction. Several of these I have listed below and noted behind them how I currently use or have used them in my teaching. For a complete listing of these elements, visit http://aim.cast.org/learn/historyarchive/backgroundpapers/differentiated_instruction_udl

Content

• "Several elements and materials are used to support instructional content." I provide information to my students in a variety of ways including but not limited to the use of PowerPoint's, DVDs, transparencies, and web-based tools.
• "Instruction is concept-focused and principle-driven." I often focus on the wider picture, although I still have a tendency to also require students to recall factual information that is pertinent to understanding the main ideas or concepts.

Process

• "Flexible grouping is consistently used." I frequently group my students for projects and classwork. Sometimes I group randomly, but frequently I group selectively.
• "Classroom management benefits students and teachers." The management of my classroom is important to me and I do my best to conduct each class in a way that is most beneficial for the learning needs of each of my students.

Products

• "Initial and on-going assessment of student readiness and growth are essential." I generally pre-assess my students during math instruction, but would be helped by doing more of this for my other classes as well.
• "Students are active and responsible explorers." It is my goal to keep all of my instruction and activities meaningful and engaging for each of my students.

Additional Guidelines

• "Clarify key concepts and generalizations." I define and explain words and concepts that any of my students may have difficulty understanding.
• "Engaging all learners is essential." I frequently seek to mix up and include a few different activities within each class session.

PART 2 - Diverse Learning Assignment

After visiting Using Technology for Diverse Learning and browsing through the list of Tech Tips, I decided to respond briefly to VISUAL. The visual tech tip emphasizes the importance of showing in addition to just telling. All of my students will benefit from this, but especially those individuals who struggle with comprehending verbal or written instruction. The visual tech tip includes using pictures, graphic organizers, drawings, mental pictures, and physical models to help students visualize a specific concept or idea. For example, rather than only reading about and describe for my 6th grade Bible class the Old Testament Tabernacle, I showed them pictures, diagrams, a DVD, and even had them build scale models to help them grasp what it was like. After reviewing the visual tech tip, I realize that I should include more visual teaching in other areas of my teaching. Students learn in a variety of ways and is important for me to realize that I must differentiate my teaching to reach the diversity of learning styles within each of my students.


PART 3 - Universal Design for Learning Assignment

I visited the Universal Design for Learning: Strategies, Tools, and Resources (wiki) and selected a resource for my science class. I teach about rocks and therefore reviewed one of the UDL lesson plans to get ideas on how to go about teaching from a UDL method. The link to the lesson plan is: http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/explore.php?op=static&pid=rocks_1

After reviewing this lesson, I better understand how UDL instruction is done. In the first place, the method of presentation was varied to include highlighting, discussion, demonstration, and a brief Q & A session. This could be completed in a variety of formats including the use of multimedia. From my own experience, I find that hands-on activities are essential to making science instruction both engaging and meaningful. Furthermore, the UDL lesson plan demonstrated how to provide multiple ways of engagement and assessment. The students were given a choice among several options on how to demonstrate their understanding of the differences between the three rock types. This allowed for several different levels of challenge and allowed students to engage in the activity that they found to be the most interesting. In summary, this lesson plan demonstrated to me the importance of providing multiple ways of presenting content and the importance of providing choices to students for how to demonstrate their understanding of the main idea of the lesson.

PART 4 - Text to Speech

The vozMe website allows teachers to quickly change any written text to mp3 format audio. The audio files can be listened to directly at the website or download for future use. I have a friend who is completely blind who has changed entire books into mp3 audio so that he can listen to them rather than read them using braille. Changing text to speech would help the students in my class who have difficult with reading fluency, word recognition, or comprehension. Since the students could listen to the audio while following along with the written text, their brains will be receiving the information in two different ways and consequently they will be more likely to understand and retain the information.

Content Standards:

Aligned to NETS-T: 1.b, 2.a, 2.b, 2.c, 3.a, 3.c, 3.d, 4.b

Connections to Marzano Strategies: All of the strategies are supported by providing access to learning for diverse learners.