Thing 6

Differentiated instruction is providing students with a variety of ways to take in information and make sense of their learning. 

Some things that I do daily:  provide opportunities for students to discover their learning and not just tell them what should happen or why something happens, hands on experience, variety of interests used to search deeper into the big ideas, question for deeper understanding, preteach lessons, extend lessons, reteach lessons, choice in learning material, and choice in demonstrating understanding or mastery of material.  Students own their learning and develop a purpose for learning.  Often times their purpose is not the same as mine but what a beautiful conversation can be had in discussing and providing reasoning for each of our thinking!  

SparkNotes are a great tool for struggling learners.  They can read the chapter notes prior to reading the next or post text depending on which skills they are working on improving.  For example, if you were working on predicting actions or feelings, reading these notes after the chapter would be a good review to see if your predictions were correct.  If you are working on  making connections or character development reading the notes prior to the chapters may be more beneficial.  Reading the notes before and after the task might allow students a deeper understanding of events, character relationships and promote higher level thinking and deeper conversation.  SparkNotes can help even the playing field for students and allow them to feel successful and resourceful.  

What a great reliable way to support student initiated learning to tie into your curriculum.  This would be valuable to all learners but specially to those who may not have the prior knowledge that many of their classmates do about the subject area.  

Nettrekker is a valuable tool teachers and students can use to access a wealthy of knowledge.  As I completed this assignment, I found myself spending a large amount of time on the lesson plans with all of the links to the common core instead of what the site had to offer the students.  

I loved the beautiful graphics in these easy reader nonfiction texts.  Students will love the photographs as well as the high interest information, perfect for my first graders!

This middle school activity was fun, interactive, and provided feedback like Marzano suggests in his Classroom Instruction That Works.

The high school activities were more plentiful and I felt were targeted for the average learner with the adaptability of having the text read to help the struggling learner and providing the advanced learner with opportunity to question and look further.  

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This site could be used to help all learners access information they are interested in that is above their reading level.  What opportunities it will create for the struggling learner as well as the curious learner!

 

Total Time:  6 hours