Integrating Exceptional Students Synthesis Platform
1. What are the key underpinnings of differentiated instruction that you embrace in your own teaching practices?
This semester, I was enrolled in a class called Integrating Exceptional Students, which focused on the different ways we can include students with special needs in a general education classroom. One of the main focuses of this class was on differentiated instruction defined in McLeskey as “shaking up what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn” ( 2013). This means changing our instruction to meet the needs of our students, which is the main purpose of differentiated instruction, and something I strive to do in my own classroom.
There are six ways we can differentiate our instruction. Teachers can differentiate the content, process, product of the material and they can differentiate by readiness, learning style, or interest. When teachers differentiate content, they teach their students different material. This can be done by having small groups in the classroom such as enrichment, on grade level, and below level. The context in the groups would be similar material, but slightly different based on the readiness of the students. Teachers can also differentiate the process of the material. Differentiating the process of the material is changing how the students gain access to and learn the material. One example I saw in a video in my class where the teacher differentiated the learning process based on the learning styles of her students. She had different areas of the classroom for her visual learners, kinesthetic learners, mathematical learners, musical learners, etc., while they were all learning material on the same subject matter. When teachers differentiate by product, they allow their students to choose the way in which they want to present the information that they learned. I designed a social studies lesson plan that differentiated by content. I let my students choose their product after an assignment. Some choices were writing a poem, writing a journal entry, singing a song, making a diorama, drawing a very detailed picture with labels and sentences to go along, or writing in their reader’s response journal. Differentiating by readiness is when teachers take their students achievement levels into account when designing lessons. These lessons may have a component where students are getting material on their readiness level, such as enrichment students getting a more challenging set of tasks and below level students getting a task that meets their educational needs. Material can be differentiated by learning style when the teacher designs instruction based off of learning styles. An example of this would be having material represented in ways that fit the needs of the visual, auditory, kinesthetic, musical, and spatial learners. Lastly, teachers can differentiate their instruction based on student interest. Before a lesson, students can take an interest survey as to what topics they would like to learn about in the year, and try to lessons based on their answers.
Another way to differentiate instruction is to make accommodations for the students. Accommodations are changes made to facilitate student’s learning, not for them to achieve an easier standard. Some accommodations may include allowing students to use a graphic organizer to facilitate and organize their thinking, having extended time on tests and assignments, or allowing a student to type their assignment instead of writing it. Whatever the accommodation, they are intended to help students succeed by meeting their needs.
Lastly, teachers can embrace the use of assistive technology in their classrooms to differentiate their instruction. Assistive technology (AT) students a chance to have access to material they may otherwise not be able to access. AT can be as simple as a pencil grip to as complex as a computer that monitors eye movements to choose phrases.
In my classroom, I would love to be able to implement all of these differentiation ideas into my instruction. I think differentiating instruction allows teachers to meet the needs of off of their students, and allows everyone to have access to the material. Overall, I think it improves student achievement and the students get a lot more out of the material.
2. What struggles to do you continue to have with the notion of differentiated instruction?
I struggle with finding ways to enrich the students who need enrichment. I find it easier to design material to benefit the struggling and on-level learners, but struggle when it comes to finding activities and ways to differentiate instruction and material for students who need enrichment. I do not know how much father I can go into the material, if I should go ahead, or find a way to make the content deeper. Once I figure this out, I struggle with finding materials for them.
3. What questions do you still have or have arisen because of our work this semester?
· How can I differentiate the material for students who need enrichment?
· How do I make time for differentiation in my classroom?
· Is RTI a part of differentiated instruction?
· What specific benefits does differentiation produce?
4. While answering these questions share some benefits and challenges from your own personal experience you have had using the philosophy and methods covered in this course. Be specific.
I have had so many benefits from taking this course. One of these benefits is being exposed to a whole new set of strategies that I can implement in my classroom. I have learned about many tools that will help my students focus on their school work and succeed, and that can work for any student, not just exceptional ones. I have also learned a lot more about differentiation. I feel confident in my abilities to differentiate instruction in a variety of ways based off of my student’s needs. Although I have not had as much experience with differentiation as I would like, I am confident that I will be able to implement it next year, as a final year intern.
As stated before, one of my challenges is finding material for the students who need enrichment. I also am challenged by finding time to design and implement differentiation. I have a lot of ideas I would like to try, but it is just hard to find the time to design lessons and make them engaging with differentiation. Next year, I will try much harder to plan lessons that have engaging material and differentiation.
McLeskey, J., Rosenberg, M. S., & Westling, D. L. (2013). What is inclusion, and why is it important?. Inclusion: Effective practices for all students (2nd ed., ). Boston: Pearson.
This semester, I was enrolled in a class called Integrating Exceptional Students, which focused on the different ways we can include students with special needs in a general education classroom. One of the main focuses of this class was on differentiated instruction defined in McLeskey as “shaking up what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn” ( 2013). This means changing our instruction to meet the needs of our students, which is the main purpose of differentiated instruction, and something I strive to do in my own classroom.
There are six ways we can differentiate our instruction. Teachers can differentiate the content, process, product of the material and they can differentiate by readiness, learning style, or interest. When teachers differentiate content, they teach their students different material. This can be done by having small groups in the classroom such as enrichment, on grade level, and below level. The context in the groups would be similar material, but slightly different based on the readiness of the students. Teachers can also differentiate the process of the material. Differentiating the process of the material is changing how the students gain access to and learn the material. One example I saw in a video in my class where the teacher differentiated the learning process based on the learning styles of her students. She had different areas of the classroom for her visual learners, kinesthetic learners, mathematical learners, musical learners, etc., while they were all learning material on the same subject matter. When teachers differentiate by product, they allow their students to choose the way in which they want to present the information that they learned. I designed a social studies lesson plan that differentiated by content. I let my students choose their product after an assignment. Some choices were writing a poem, writing a journal entry, singing a song, making a diorama, drawing a very detailed picture with labels and sentences to go along, or writing in their reader’s response journal. Differentiating by readiness is when teachers take their students achievement levels into account when designing lessons. These lessons may have a component where students are getting material on their readiness level, such as enrichment students getting a more challenging set of tasks and below level students getting a task that meets their educational needs. Material can be differentiated by learning style when the teacher designs instruction based off of learning styles. An example of this would be having material represented in ways that fit the needs of the visual, auditory, kinesthetic, musical, and spatial learners. Lastly, teachers can differentiate their instruction based on student interest. Before a lesson, students can take an interest survey as to what topics they would like to learn about in the year, and try to lessons based on their answers.
Another way to differentiate instruction is to make accommodations for the students. Accommodations are changes made to facilitate student’s learning, not for them to achieve an easier standard. Some accommodations may include allowing students to use a graphic organizer to facilitate and organize their thinking, having extended time on tests and assignments, or allowing a student to type their assignment instead of writing it. Whatever the accommodation, they are intended to help students succeed by meeting their needs.
Lastly, teachers can embrace the use of assistive technology in their classrooms to differentiate their instruction. Assistive technology (AT) students a chance to have access to material they may otherwise not be able to access. AT can be as simple as a pencil grip to as complex as a computer that monitors eye movements to choose phrases.
In my classroom, I would love to be able to implement all of these differentiation ideas into my instruction. I think differentiating instruction allows teachers to meet the needs of off of their students, and allows everyone to have access to the material. Overall, I think it improves student achievement and the students get a lot more out of the material.
2. What struggles to do you continue to have with the notion of differentiated instruction?
I struggle with finding ways to enrich the students who need enrichment. I find it easier to design material to benefit the struggling and on-level learners, but struggle when it comes to finding activities and ways to differentiate instruction and material for students who need enrichment. I do not know how much father I can go into the material, if I should go ahead, or find a way to make the content deeper. Once I figure this out, I struggle with finding materials for them.
3. What questions do you still have or have arisen because of our work this semester?
· How can I differentiate the material for students who need enrichment?
· How do I make time for differentiation in my classroom?
· Is RTI a part of differentiated instruction?
· What specific benefits does differentiation produce?
4. While answering these questions share some benefits and challenges from your own personal experience you have had using the philosophy and methods covered in this course. Be specific.
I have had so many benefits from taking this course. One of these benefits is being exposed to a whole new set of strategies that I can implement in my classroom. I have learned about many tools that will help my students focus on their school work and succeed, and that can work for any student, not just exceptional ones. I have also learned a lot more about differentiation. I feel confident in my abilities to differentiate instruction in a variety of ways based off of my student’s needs. Although I have not had as much experience with differentiation as I would like, I am confident that I will be able to implement it next year, as a final year intern.
As stated before, one of my challenges is finding material for the students who need enrichment. I also am challenged by finding time to design and implement differentiation. I have a lot of ideas I would like to try, but it is just hard to find the time to design lessons and make them engaging with differentiation. Next year, I will try much harder to plan lessons that have engaging material and differentiation.
McLeskey, J., Rosenberg, M. S., & Westling, D. L. (2013). What is inclusion, and why is it important?. Inclusion: Effective practices for all students (2nd ed., ). Boston: Pearson.