One Size Does Not

Fit All

Using Technology to Differentiate Instruction

"Teach me my most difficult concepts in my preferred style.

Let me explore my easiest concepts in a different style.

Just don't teach me all the time in your preferred style and

think I'm not capable of learning.”

A story and a comment from Virleen M. Carlson , Center for Learning and Teaching, Cornell University, USA.

Definitions

• Differentiated instruction: involves structuring a lesson at multiple levels so that each student has an opportunity to work at a moderately challenging, developmentally appropriate level.

• Multiple Intelligence: ways to demonstrate intellectual ability.

• Learning Styles: preferred mode of taking in new information

• Teaching Style: preferred mode of delivery

VARK preferences•Visual: diagrams, pictures, use of color, symbols and spatial arrangements •Aural: listening and discussing •Read/Write: reading written materials, making detailed written notes or lists •Kinesthetic: learning by doing

http://www.ncwiseowl.org/kscope/TeacherHut/Teachley/index.html

What we’ve always known . . .

" No two children are alike. An enriched

environment for one is not necessarily enriched

for another.  " Marian Diamonds: 

Professor of Neuroanatomy at Berkeley 

What we’ve always known . . .

“So our environment, including the classroom environment, is not a neutral place. We educators are either growing

dendrites or letting them wither and die. The trick is to determine what constitutes an

enriched environment.”

Pat Wolfe and Ron Brandt

Universal Design

• Multiple means of representation– to give learners various ways of acquiring information

and knowledge,

• Multiple means of expression– to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating

what they know,

• Multiple means of engagement– to tap into learners' interests, offer appropriate

challenges, and increase motivation.

Four Ways to Differentiate

• 1. Content/Topic– Content can be described as the knowledge, skills and attitudes we want

children to learn.

• 2. Process/Activities – Differentiating the processes means varying learning activities or

strategies to provide appropriate methods for students to explore the concepts.

• 3. Product – Differentiating the product means varying the complexity of the

product that students create to demonstrate mastery of the concepts.

• 4. Individual Learning Styles– Varying teaching strategies and approaches

Adapting Lessons for Every Learner

• Big Ideas

• Conspicuous Strategies

• Mediated Scaffolding

• Strategic Strategies

• Judicious Review

• Primed Background Knowledge

*Excerpted from Toward Successful Inclusion of Students with Disabilities: The Architecture of Instruction by Edward J. Kameenui, and Deborah Simmons(1999).

Differentiation Strategies

• Anchor Activities

• Learning Contracts

• Tiered Lessons

Developing Tiered Lessons

1. Identify the standard that you are targeting. 2. Identify the key concept and generalization. 3. Assess whether students have the background

necessary to be successful in the lesson. 4. Select what you will tier.

– For example, decide whether to tier the content, process, or product.

5. Decide how you will tier– by student readiness, interest, or learning profile.

6. Based on the above decisions, determine how many tiers you will need and develop the lesson.

Visual Learners

• Videos

• Images for writing/discussion prompts

• Maps/Globes

• Graphic Organizers

Auditory Learners

• Songs

• Videos

• Background music• Discussions (in class and online)

Read/Write Learners

• Journaling/blogging

• Lists

• Handouts/notes

• Essays/Research projects

Kinesthetic Learners

• Labs

• Drama/oral reports

• Songs with movement

• Hands on activities/manipulatives

Technology Helps

• Motivating factor of using technology

• Flexibility of the medium

• Preparing students for the real world• Decreases amount of time required

by teachers to create differentiated content

Basic DI Toolkit

Multimedia Resources

Archive.orgArchive.org

Online ToolsOnline Tools

More DI Tools

Heather Blanton, ITRTWise County Public Schools

For more information

check out my wiki:

http://learningdifferently.wikispaces.comhttp://learningdifferently.wikispaces.com

Big Ideas

• Focus on essential learning outcomes

• Capture rich relationships among concepts

• Enable learners to apply what they learn in varied situations

• Involve ideas, concepts, principles, and rules central to higher-order learning

• Form the basis for generalization and expansion

Conspicuous Strategies

• Planned

• Purposeful

• Explicit

• Most important in initial teaching of concept

Mediated Scaffolding

• Varied according to learner needs or experiences

• Based on task (not more than learner needs)

• Provided in the form of tasks, content, and materials

• Removed gradually according to learner proficiency

Strategic Integration

• Combines cognitive components of information • Results in a new and more complex knowledge

structure • Aligns naturally with information (i.e, is not

"forced") • Involves meaningful relationships among

concepts • Links essential big ideas across lessons within a

curriculum

Judicious Review

• Sufficient

• Distributed over time

• Cumulative

• Varied

• Judicious, not haphazard

Primed Background Knowledge

• Aligns with learner knowledge and expertise

• Considers strategic and proximal pre skills

• Readies learner for successful performance