Curriculum differentiation - Schools Plus - The Department of Education
Ideas on adjusting the curriculum to meet the needs of all students Schools Plus would like to acknowledge that the information listed below is a body of knowledge that has been collected from a variety of sources - teachers, workshops, classrooms and schools. Set achievable tasks providing regular feedback throughout the activity Teach the student to organize themselves by listing tasks to be done and when they are due. A visual system for younger students, a diary for older students. Sequence activities Have the student’s full attention before giving instructions Instructions, routines and rules should be kept short, concise, clear and positive.
Are Teachers of Tomorrow Prepared to Use Innovative Tech?
Getty Images With a new generation of teachers coming into the work force, there’s a discrepancy between what principals expect of teachers-in-training and what they’re actually learning in school. A new Project Tomorrow report surveying principals concluded that they want to hire new teachers with creative ideas about how technology can be leveraged to create authentic and differentiated learning experiences. But student-teachers report that their tech training focuses only on simple management tools. Only half of current working teachers believe they can use technology to motivate students to learn, compared to 75 percent of incoming teachers. Teachers-in-training say coursework focuses on technologies that help a teacher stay organized, rather than ways to engage students. Incoming teachers use tech fluidly in their own lives, but they’re learning to teach within a system that lags behind the times. These incoming teachers appear to be caught between generations. Related
Differentiated Instruction with UDL
By Tracey Hall, Nicole Strangman, and Anne Meyer Note: Updated on 11/2/09; 1/14/11; Please visit the AIM Center home page. Introduction Not all students are alike. Based on this knowledge, differentiated instruction applies an approach to teaching and learning that gives students multiple options for taking in information and making sense of ideas. Differentiated instruction is a teaching theory based on the premise that instructional approaches should vary and be adapted in relation to individual and diverse students in classrooms (Tomlinson, 2001). This report on differentiated instruction and UDL begins with an introduction to differentiated instruction in which we provide the definition, a sampling of considerations and curriculum applications, and research evidence for effectiveness. The literature review in this paper is also available as a stand alone document, with annotated references. Top Definition Figure 1. Identifying Components/Features Content Process Products Figure 2.
The How To's of Planning Lessons Differentiated by Learning Profile
Figure 10.1. Focus on Learning Profile Learning-Style Preferences Learning style refers to environmental or personal factors. Intelligence Preferences Intelligence preference refers to the sorts of brain-based predispositions we all have for learning. Culture-Influenced Preferences Culture affects how we learn, as well. The goal of the teacher is, therefore, not to suggest that individuals from a particular culture ought to learn in a particular way, but rather to come to understand the great range of learning preferences that will exist in any group of people and to create a classroom flexible enough to invite individuals to work in ways they find most productive. Gender-Based Preferences Gender also influences how we learn. Combined Preferences Combinations of culture and gender will create unique constellations of learning preferences in individuals. Some Guidelines for Learning-Profile Differentiation Remember that some, but not all, of your students share your learning preferences. Ms.
Helping Diverse Learners Succeed
My career got off to a bad start when I was hired to teach in a Minneapolis Ojibwe Survival School. That was the year that Prince's Sign O the Times dropped -- the year most of my lesson plans failed. More terrifying was the fact that I had no backup plan. I'm embarrassed now to admit that I sent over 15 kids to in-school suspension in a single morning. A chair was thrown at my head and later a waterfowl-sized stone. The attempted assaults weren't fun, but I classified them as aberrations and moved on. It took a decade for me to figure out what I did wrong -- a lot of little things, but one big thing. Today we know more strategies for helping all kinds of students succeed. Research-Based Strategies for Working with Diverse Learners A review of the research (PDF, 119KB) on teaching diverse learners sorts the "best practices" into four categories, summarized below: 1. Teachers address beliefs that lead to lower expectations of diverse students and persistently teach challenging curriculum.
Homepage - Differentiation Central
20 Questions To Guide Inquiry-Based Learning
20 Questions To Guide Inquiry-Based Learning Recently we took at look at the phases of inquiry-based learning through a framework, and even apps that were conducive to inquiry-based learning on the iPad. During our research for the phases framework, we stumbled across the following breakdown of the inquiry process for learning on 21stcenturyhsie.weebly.com (who offer the references that appear below the graphic). Most helpfully, it offers 20 questions that can guide student research at any stage, including: What do I want to know about this topic? These stages have some overlap with self-directed learning. References Cross, M. (1996). Kuhlthau, C., Maniotes, L., & Caspari, A. (2007).
50+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media
Imagine a world where resources were limited to what was found in the classroom or the school closet known as the "Curriculum Materials Room." Picture a world where students wrote letters with pen and paper to communicate with other students and adults outside of the building. Due to postage costs, the teacher either sent the letters in bulk or paid for stamps out of his or her own pocket. Can you recall a time when student interests like skateboarding or video were never used as part of learning curriculum because the tools needed were either too expensive or not yet conceptualized? If you experienced none of these scenarios, then you live in a world of possibility because you grew up with the many social media tools available to support all learners. Selecting the Right Tool For educators differentiating instruction, social media tools embrace collaboration and global access to people and other resources. The list of social media tools to differentiate for learning is increasing.
