The first article, Defining Differentiated Instruction, goes in depth about what differentiation looks like in the classroom. It recognizes that students are being mainstreamed now, when 15 years ago they would have been in a special education class. The article helps teachers unravel this difficult task. This article gets down to the main point and recognizes that even experienced teachers have a hard time mastering this for every student. Because students all learn differently, there are endless possibilities and answers to how it will look in each individual classroom. The article focuses on DEFINING differentiation in order to accomplish it. The definition the article proposes is as follows:
"Equal education is not all students getting the same, but all students getting what they need. Approaching all learners the same academically doesn't work. We have to start where each child is in his learning process in order to authentically meet his academic needs and help him grow."
The second article I read, What Works for Differentiating Instruction in Elementary Schools, seemed perfect for me because it really addresses my problem. Differentiating in elementary school is much different that middle or high school, because you have to do it for several different subjects. At my school, we are required to have "intervention" time in our daily schedule. This is the time when we work with students who need additional help. I don't agree with structuring my differentiated instruction this way. I prefer to differentiate as needed in each subject lesson. Because of this problem, I sought out this article. This article gives wonderful tips and tricks about differentiating instruction for your classroom, and takes you through the steps starting with what to do in 5 minutes to 5 weeks to 5 years of differentiating! It breaks down the process and makes a giant task seem more accomplishable by starting with baby steps. Some examples of differentiating from the article are:
"In 5 minutes you can:
- Read students' files. In an ideal world, someone would tell you any important details from a child's school record before she arrives in your class. But in reality, you may need to do the research yourself.
- Use a KWL chart. This is a simple chart on which each student writes what she already knows ("K") about a given topic, what she wants to know ("W"), and then -- to be filled out at the end of the lesson -- what she actually learned ("L"). You can use these charts like cheat sheets to spot strengths or gaps in students' base knowledge.
- Survey students' interests. Ask them how they like to learn and present their knowledge, and what their favorite activities are. With young children, you can have them draw a smiley or sad face in response to questions like, "Do you like drawing pictures?" Then you'll be better armed to play to their passions and strengths.
In 5 days you can:
- Arrange desks into collaborative clusters or stations. The key is to give your classroom flexibility and enable varied work to go on at once. Include options for sitting on the floor, which is better for kids who don't learn as well while sitting still in a chair.
- Plan assignments with choices. Sticking with written essays and short-answer tests doesn't give every student a chance to shine. Try offering options such as writing a poem or play, producing a video, giving an oral presentation, designing a brochure, or creating a comic strip. You might be surprised what you get. (Scullion's tip: For young students, try a tic-tac-toe grid. Give various choices on how to show learning, like writing a poem or a song or making a brochure. Arrange them on the grid so that when kids pick three options in a straight line, they get variety.)
In 5 weeks you can:
- Make a scaffolding toolkit. Alber suggests, "Create file folders filled with various graphic organizers, visual aides, and sentence starters for different types of thinking (cause and effect, chronological, compare and contrast, to name a few). You can quickly pull out one of these in a pinch."
- Practice procedures for independent and collaborative work. Forest Lake's rule of thumb is that each procedure needs to be practiced 28 times to stick. When you introduce a new activity, such as independently listening to an audio book, give students enough practice to become adept at it. Then add another. Eventually, you'll be able to work with a small group while the other children learn without your constant supervision.
- Share planning duties with a fellow teacher. Find someone at your school who shares your passion for differentiated instruction and join forces. Divide up the work; each of you can devise different versions of a lesson for different learning styles and abilities. Plus, once you get a few people excited about this effort, it can be contagious."
I shared these few examples because it shows what a wonderful tool this website is for ideas on how to differentiate and the time table each will require. There are many more than I have included here. Check out the website to see!!
Through this research I have learned that I am not alone in this problem, and that there are plenty of resources to help me tackle it. In terms of this course project and incorporating Moodle-- One of the websites suggests that using different avenues to present information is a form of differentiating. If I can use Moodle to post lesson power-points, administer quizzes, or post online interactive games for students it could help my visual and hands-on students, or motivate my students who are more likely to participate online than in class.
