Summary of Chapter Two Differentiation of instruction is the process of teaching in a way to meet the needs of students with differing abilities in the same class, including those with special learning needs. One way to do this is by providing several different avenues by which all students can learn the same material. In differentiating instruction, teachers plan out and implement a variety of approaches to content, process, product, and environment. Differentiated instruction is used to meet the needs of student differences in readiness, interests, and learning needs. Many people in the education field believe differentiation has the potential to transform teaching and learning in a way that raises expectations for all students.
In the past, I have been somewhat successful with differentiating instruction. I can’t say I have been 100% successful.
When planning the content and the teaching methods to be employed in the delivery of this course, it has to be borne in mind that a great number of teenaged mothers have not completed high school. Therefore, the course has to be presented in a simple manner. According to De Young (2009), if the learner cannot comprehend the written material, the materials are of little value and result in non-compliance. In addition the fact that they are teenagers means to make the course effective the course need to be presented in a dynamic “colorful” way to attract the attention and which will make an impression. Use of audio visual aids, power point presentations, some handouts, use worksheets, quizzes, group discussions, and some practical exercises would be beneficial in teaching the class. I would also include a guest speaker such as expert in midwifery and even any new mother who have gone through the same experience. I will also make use of digital imagery to show teenagers what a fetus looks like at certain stages, etc.
In the article, “Differentiating Instruction in Co-Taught Classrooms for Students with Emotional/Behavior Difficulties,” (2014) it discusses how a teacher or teachers uses co-teaching centers for teaching/learning purposes to help differentiate instruction in a classroom. The number of students are increasing in the classroom who have EBD which is emotional and behavior difficulties. Therefore, the article shows how beneficial have a co-teacher in the classroom to help plan, teach and assess.
Sheltered English: An instructional approach that engages ELL’s above the beginner level to develop grade level academic and language skills. Promoting this strategy in the classroom, the teacher should use clear, direct, and simple English with a variety of scaffolding strategies to communicate meaningful input in the content area to students. (see http://www.brown.edu/academics/education-alliance/teaching-diverse-learners/what-sheltered-instruction)
It is important for parents to be involved because they are the people that the kids are looking up to. This being said, without their support and help through their kids learning process they might now need to see the need to keep working or pushing themselves. An article by Lesley Mandel Marrow and John Young says, “a child’s success in school literacy program often depends on the experience he or she have at home” (Marrow Young 1). They spoke of a program that was designed to for the parents so that they have to capability and resources to help their children in their academics. It brought teachers, students and their parents together to help develop the students learning process. This test had very positive results for the group
Differentiated instruction is different from traditional classroom instruction in several ways. In differentiated instruction, teachers use on-going assessments instead of on assessment at the end of the unit. Differentiated instruction also uses flexible grouping, such as small groups or peer pairs, rather than simply whole-group instructions. Additionally, differentiated instruction uses an array of teaching methods based on the students learning style. Finally, differentiated instruction uses a variety of learning materials.
I like that you answered all the questions in a short and straight forward way. This was easy to understand and enjoyable because it is different from everyone else.
The National Curriculum Council (2000) defines differentiation as "the process by which teaching methods, resources and curriculum objectives, are planned to meet the needs of individual pupils". ‘Differentiation is the process of recognising effective strategies to meet targets, with each student’, adds (Weston 1992). Visser (1993) links differentiation to the methods that teachers choose to match the individual learner’s needs, within a group situation’. These three comments focus on individual needs and also suggest the complexity of attempting to get to grips with the implications of differentiation – let alone trying to define the term. In taking a critical view, the oppositions and tensions surrounding differentiation become even trickier.
The school I am currently at has an IEP incident rate of 74. Knowing that many students in my school have IEP’s as well as many students in my classroom, It will be beneficial to these students to use a variety of instructional strategies. From what I have seen already being implemented in my classroom, these students learn best when they can have more one on one instruction. This would be done through small groups. One way I would be able to implement this is by using small group instruction during reading and vocabulary lessons. At my school, this is called pathways to reading. This would allow me to give students who have IEP’s more one on one learning
Clear strategy teaching is at the ultimate of good comprehension teaching. "Before" strategies inspire students' previous understanding and set a willpower for reading. "During" strategies benefits students in creating connections, monitor their understanding, create questions, and also stay motivated. "After" strategies offer students a chance to review, question, reflect, debate, and reply about text.
Artifact 1: Artifact 1, under Tab E: Instructional Planning and Strategies is the IEP Final completed in the graduate course ELSE 6073 Educational Procedures for Moderate and Profound individuals. For the IEP project, participants were provided information about an individual diagnosed with a severe disability. Based on the information provided, candidates were asked to develop IEP goals and objectives based on the student’s individual needs. Additionally, participates were to complete a final IEP for the selected student, incorporating the seven steps in the IEP completion process.
Traditional standardized classroom instruction provides a simple means of evaluating and categorizing students’ capabilities and progress; but focuses more on following specific procedural steps, rather than on promoting a student’s analysis, evaluation, decision-making and problem-solving skills. With the rapid advances of technology within the aviation industry, “...the learning and development needs of the industry have advanced and in order to produce better trained staff more quickly, airlines must radically rethink the way in which training is delivered (and must ultimately train more efficiently)” (Webanywhere, 2012, p. 6). This is most evident with regards to pilot training, where simply mastering standard operating procedures (SOPs)
In this chapter, what stood out to me the most is “differentiated instruction” as outlined by Woolfolk (2016, p.553). In the Glossary of Educational Psychology by Anita Woolfolk, differentiated instruction is defined as “a flexible approach to teaching that matches content, process, and product based on students’ differences
Approaching instruction with clear instructional goals, or to borrow a phrase popularized by Stephen Covey, beginning with the end in mind, not only makes intuitive sense but is well supported by research. In his 35 years of meta-analysis on research in education, Robert Marzano (2003) identifies a guaranteed and viable curriculum as one of 11 factors with a proven track record of increasing student achievement. Marzano (2003) defines a guaranteed and viable curriculum as one in which
To be the best, is constantly changing. What was the best yesterday is not the best today, therefore one must possess a growth mindset. Tomlinson and Allan (2000) stated whatever does not change does not grow, and whatever does not grow atrophies. Many schools and classroom are atrophying because there is a lack of a growth mindset. There is compelling knowledge developed in recent generations on how students learn, including gender, starting point of readiness, culture, motivation, ability/disability and socio-economic status. These are some of the reasons why a differentiated curriculum is absolutely necessary. Differentiated instruction is a framework or philosophy for effective teaching that involves providing students with different avenues to acquire knowledge. By considering varied learning needs teachers can develop personalized instruction so that all children in the classroom can learn effectively. Another way to describe a differentiated classroom is a classroom that responds to student variety in readiness levels, interest and learning profiles. Such a classroom includes all students and has the greatest chance for success. This is accomplished by the teacher setting different expectations for task completion for students, based upon their individual needs.