Since I knew I would be sitting for a long time, I brought along a few books to occupy my time. The one I really got into was called Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom.
I am the first to admit that my skills at differentiating are not where I'd like them to be. I have learned a lot about how to differentiate and what good differentiated instruction looks like because I have been able to see many different teachers this year while I support students in their classrooms, but I know it is lacking in my own practice. Reading this book really helped me to get a better 'big picture' of how to make differentiation work.
I am going to try and summarize the main concepts as a set of steps that I am hoping to use in the future in order to better differentiate instruction and learning tasks in my classroom.
1. Make a curriculum map: This includes Subject, Unit/Theme, Essential Questions, Unit Questions, Curriculum Standards, Content/Topics, Skills, and Projects/Products. There is a nice organizer in the book that lays this all out nicely so that everything can be organized at the beginning of the unit.
2. Complete a Matrix Plan: Another great organizing tool which requires using the different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy to create a project menu to ensure that projects/assignments touch on various levels of thinking from concrete to more abstract.
(Levels of Bloom's Taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, evaluation, synthesis)
3. Create an Integration Matrix: A third organizer that crosses Bloom's Taxonomy with Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. The idea is to ensure that the types of assignments/projects/activities incorporate different learning styles at different levels for children who have various strengths and learning preferences.
Multiple Intelligences:
verbal/linguistic (say it)
logical/mathematical (count it)
visual spatial (picture it)
bodily/kinesthetic (move it)
musical (hum it)
interpersonal (lead it)
intrapersonal (reflect on it)
naturalist (investigate it)
These three steps can be done prior to the start of a unit to ensure that there are clear learning objectives and that students are able to demonstrate learning and thinking in a variety of ways. I have never before sat down and thought about categorizing the nature of my activities to ensure I am doing enough activities that cater to the various learning styles. I know I incorporate a lot of visuals (maybe because I am such a visual learner and I know visual input is great for ELL students) but I need to make sure I have enough for the musical learners, the tactile learners, and the naturalists or 'discovery' learners. How would I feel if I went to a class and there was no visual input? I would not learn as much! I need to be more cautious of this in the future!
The book also talked about project menus that allow incorporate activities or projects that touch on different learning styles. This incorporates the element of choice which is a great way to motivate students and have them engaged in and excited about their learning. Sometimes it is good to let students choose, but there can also be times when the teacher assigns projects to have students working on skills they need to develop more. Finally, the book discussed tiered assignments which differ based on challenge level, complexity, resources, outcome, process, or product to ensure that students who need to practice basic skills have enough time to do so, but students who can move farther ahead have opportunities to be more challenged.
I am really looking forward to incorporating these ideas into my lesson planning next year. I really want to improve my differentiation skills and I know it creates a work environment much more conducive to learning growth for all students.
How do you differentiate in your classroom?
What kind of learner are you?
I am visual (color coding!!), verbal, and intrapersonal.
I need to see it, talk about it, and reflect on it.
Which kinds of learners do your lessons cater to the most? The least?
3 comments:
Differentiating is definitely a lot of work, but of course- essential to helping to improve the learning of all kids. I think my best differentiating tip is to use the workshop models for both Reading and Writing. Writing workshop automatically lends itself to differentiation because all kids are working at their own level, and when you are conferencing with kids you can always push them to where you want them to be. As for Reading, I use Daily Five (have you read that book? I forget if we talked about it). I don't follow it perfectly, but when kids are reading to themselves they read books at their level and when I meet with kids it's all leveled as well (but the groups are very flexible- I have a kid reading on a 3rd grade level that can't segment- he meets with me with kids reading level a or b who also can't segment, but when it's time for book reading he reads with me and other students). Math is a lot trickier for me, but it is something I have improved. I have been using Kathy Richardson math materials which lend themselves to differentiating a lot more. Next year I wnat to set up the Curriculum Map and look at it as a whole year process rather than activity to activity.
My old school was ALL about differentiated instruction, so I was definitely influenced by the topic. I actually did a lot of work with/research on multiple intelligences in my workload for my masters degree, so I would've incorporated teaching towards the different learning styles anyway.
I think it is really important. I am definitely a visual learner, but I also consider myself a linguistic and logical learner. In my music classroom we were always doing many different things to incorporate as many of these as possible - write words on the board, sing about the topic, do a worksheet about the subject, move to a piece of music. I must admit, it is sort-of easy in a music room to get across to most of the intelligences.
In my elementary classroom (when I have one of my own) I plan to do much of the same just with different topics. It can be done - I look forward to that challenge!
I have this same book and need to get it back out and revisit it too. Some of the things in my district are so "same-based" that I feel like my ESL kiddos and some of my at-risk kiddos don't get the help they need and deserve. I wrote my Master's project on Reading Workshop because we use a basal series and it does not allow for differentiation at all. I plan to follow Daily Five/CAFE when I return to teaching this fall because it builds in the differentiation to the reading block and will make it easier for me to focus my differentiation on math before bridging that with science/social studies too.
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