January 2007 Copyright © 2007 Mississippi Department of Education 1 Trecina Green, Bureau Director...

January 2007 Copyright © 2007 Mississippi Department of Education 1

Trecina Green, Bureau Director

Office of Curriculum and Instruction

Understanding How to Make the Right Choices for Diverse Learners

This presentation is based upon information presented in Differentiating Instruction with Style

by Gayle Gregory.


How can teachers make the right choices for

diverse learners?

• Develop an understanding of the five natural process of learning systems.

• Recognize that the classroom is full of diverse learners.

• Get to know the learners.• Consider the “how” of teaching and

learning.• Respond with differentiated activities.


Five Natural Learning Process Systems

• Emotional Learning System

• Social Learning System

• Physical Learning System

• Cognitive Learning System

• Reflective Learning System


How can teachers enhance the Emotional Learning System?

• Believe all students will learn.

• Honor student differences.

• Connect the learning to students’ lives.

• Provide multiple ways for students to show what they know.

• Challenge students appropriately at their level.


How can teachers enhance the Emotional Learning System?

• Laugh and celebrate with students.

• Foster intrinsic motivation and pride.

• Cultivate students’ intrinsic motivation through goal setting and reflection.

• Provide a climate that is supportive, inclusive, and predictable.


Meeting the needs and preferences of the Emotional System

• Provide positive climate

• Provide safety

• Provide relevancy and meaning

• Provide a supportive learning community


Meeting the needs and preferences of the Emotional System

Classroom Strategies

• Build trust

• Provide appropriate challenge and

feedback

• Adjust assignments


What is the teacher’s role in the Emotional Learning System?

Cheerleader

Mentor


How can teachers enhance the Social Learning System?

• Provide opportunities for students to work in cooperative groups.

• Allow students to develop social interactions as they learn.

• Create a classroom climate that provides respect for all learners.


How can teachers enhance the Social Learning System?

• Provide recognition for students’ aspirations and hopes.

• Provide real-world learning opportunities.


Meeting the needs and preferences of the Social Learning System

• Provide respect

• Provide interaction

• Allow authentic situations

• Provide inclusion

• Allow interpersonal sharing


Meeting the needs and preferences of the Social Learning System


• Develop norms

• Use teambuilding activities

• Outlaw “put downs”

• Use cooperative group learning

• Use simulations


What is the teacher’s role in the Social Learning System?

Consultant

Coach


How can teachers enhance the Cognitive Learning System?

• Focus on language development, attention, and memory

• The emotional, social, and physical learning systems must be functioning to work at its optimal potential


Meeting the needs and preferences of the Cognitive Learning System

• Promote academic skill

• Connect prior learning and new learning

• Seek patterns, themes, and concepts

• See the parts and the whole


Meeting the needs and preferences of the Cognitive Learning System


• Thinking skills

• Graphic organizers

• Advance organizers

• Note taking and summarizing

• Hypothesizing

• Problem solving


What is the teacher’s role in the Cognitive Learning System?

Facilitator


Importance of enhancing the Physical Learning System

• Lowers stress levels

• Supplies more oxygen to the brain

• Supplies more glucose to the brain

• Provides hands-on movement

• Provides active learning


Meeting the needs and preferences of the physical learning system

• Require active involvement

• Provide challenging tasks that encourage practice


Meeting the needs and preferences of the physical learning system


• Mime

• Pantomine

• Role play

• Model building

• Hands-on activities

• Simulations


What is the teacher’s role in the Physical Learning System?

Coach


How can teachers enhance the Reflective Learning System?

• Allow students to reflect on successes and failures

• Promote self-directed learning

• Allow students to reflect on their own learning style


Meeting the needs and preferences of the Reflective Learning System


• Logs

• Journals

• Goal setting


What is the teacher’s role in the Reflective Learning System?

Gold Miner


Learning System Roles

Learning System

• Emotional

• Social

• Cognitive

• Physical

• Reflective

Role

• Cheerleader / Mentor

• Consultant / Coach

• Facilitator

• Coach

• Gold Miner


Three Modes of Learning

• Visual

• Auditory

• Tactile/Kinesthetic


Visual Learners

• Use visual language when

communicating

• Appreciate order

• Make lists and writes things down

• Prefer reading and diagrams

• Create pictures in their mind


Auditory Learners

• Prefer verbal instructions

• Like to be read to

• Like to talk

• Learn by talking to themselves

• Like lectures and audiotapes

• Like the telephone and radio

• Use auditory language


Kinesthetic Learners

• Prefer sports and dancing

• Solve problems while moving

• Touch while communicating

• Use language of action and feelings

• Stay in motion (e.g. tap or drum on desk)


Analogies for Learning Style Synthesis

• Beach ball learner

• Clipboard learner

• Microscope learner

• Puppy learner


Characteristics ofBeach Ball Learners

• Inventive

• Competitive

• Value creativity

• Use feelings to construct new ideas


Characteristics of Clipboard Learners

• Focus on tasks

• Value relevant information

• Work best in structured environments

• Absorb information concretely


Characteristics of Microscope Learners

• Like to analyze

• Read avidly to learn

• Appreciate lecture

• Prefer to explore ideas


Characteristics of Puppy Learners

• Like to work with imaginative ideas

• Value positive environments

• Work best in interactive environments

• Reflect on experiences

• Appreciate concrete ideas and social

interaction


Making the right choices for the classroom

• Look at how each theory correlates with research-based instructional practices, learning styles, and the natural learning system.

• Use a variety of tools such as surveys and checklists to assess multiple intelligences of learners.



• Use brainstorming tools for instructional planning.

• Use choice boards for differentiated instruction.

• Consider thinking skills.



• Teachers do not have to know every detail of each theory to differentiate instruction.

• Teachers do not have to individualize instruction for every student.

• Teachers should become more aware of the collective needs of students to know how students learn and how to differentiate instruction appropriately.


Interested in Knowing More About this Book?

• Differentiating Instruction with Style by Gayle Gregory may be found in Box One of the Toolkit for Success. The toolkit has been provided to each district by the Office of Academic Education.

January 2007 Copyright © 2007 Mississippi Department of Education 1 Trecina Green, Bureau Director...

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