Differentiate Now

PDS ConferenceFebruary 15, 2013New Orleans, LA

• All students earning licensure through the Elementary, Early, and Special Education Department at ISU participate in an extended clinical experience called TOTAL (Teachers of Tomorrow Advancing Learning) prior to student teaching.

Participants are:

o Elementary Education majors with various minors, or

o Dual majors (Special Education & Elementary Education)

• During the TOTAL semester, interns attend topical seminars designed to provide content to enhance classrooms skills.

• Special Education faculty took responsibility for conducting Differentiated Instruction (DI) seminars.

• It was determined that additional time in DI would be beneficial to all interns.

• Often, our Dual Majors were better able to differentiate instruction than the Elementary Majors.

• Thus, we needed to find a way to present the information to

all interns in a way that met their needs not only as an overview, but in a way that addressed the needs when they were planning their “Focus Weeks” in various content areas.

• We felt that an online module was the best solution to the problem.

• When the opportunity arose to earn an in-house grant to enhance student learning, the Special Education faculty proposed the use of Lectora software to create on-line modules on DI and deliver them via Blackboard.

• The module includes

o An introduction to Differentiated Instruction

o Units in Math, Reading, Social Studies, and Language Arts (Interns plan and teach 1 week’s worth of each of these topics)

o An assessment of the intern’s learning

Lectora allowed us to embed:

o Video clips o URLs o Podcastso Clipart

• The true benefit of using Lectora was in the development of an assessment and the ability to award students a Certificate upon successfully completing the assessment.

• Daisy Blake, a Dual Major in Special Education and Elementary Education, is a current TOTAL Intern and has gone through the Differentiated Instruction Module.

• She can give a student’s point of view and answer any questions.

• Lectora can be accessed at www.lectora.com and there is a free 30 day trial if you want to play!

• Any questions?

• Thank you.

• Robin Burden, Ph.Do Robin.Burden@indstate.edu

• Rebecca Elder Hinshaw, Ph.D.o Rebecca.Hinshaw@indstate.edu