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Learning Styles & Multiple Intelligences: Theory Integration

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What kind of learner are you? - The 4 different learning styles

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To help create lessons that engage and resonate with a diverse classroom, below are 20 differentiated instruction strategies and examples.

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20 Differentiated Instruction Strategies and Examples [+ Downloadable List]

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As students with diverse learning styles fill the classroom, many teachers don't always have the time, or spend additional hours to plan lessons that use differentiated instruction (DI) to suit students' unique aptitudes.

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Resource: Improving Engineering Education Pedagogy via Differentiated Instruction

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Resource: Improving Engineering Education Pedagogy via Differentiated Instruction

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"In a differentiated classroom and laboratory, the teacher proactively plans and carries out varied approaches to content, process, and product in anticipation and response to student differences in readiness, interest, and learning needs."

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Podcast:  Real Talk on Differentiated Instruction

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Podcast:  Real Talk on Differentiated Instruction

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Five master teachers discuss how to make differential learning less time consuming in the classroom.

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This week on the Truth for Teachers podcast: Real teachers talk about differentiated teaching strategies that worked - and didn't work - in their classrooms.

Last season of the podcast, I introduced you to a new episode format I'm calling the Productivity Roundtable. I've always thought it would be really cool to get a group of master teachers together to hash out some of their toughest challenges and also to share what's working.

So joining me are five members of the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club's graduate program, these are teachers who have completed the full year of the club and are now in year three or four of taking those results to the next level and continuing to streamline. They have done a tremendous amount of work in experimenting with various productivity strategies in their classrooms and creating systems and routines that work well for them and their students. They teach at different grade levels and subject areas, in different types of school settings and communities, in a diverse set of locations throughout the United States. So you're going to hear what works with a variety of teaching contexts and teaching styles.

This time around, we're talking about how to manage differentiation. During the roundtable, we'll move past "differentiation" as a buzzword and talk about what's happening in real classrooms. Each roundtable member will share how they differentiate instruction, and then move into how we can make differentiation more scalable. In other words, we all know how differentiated instruction COULD be done, but what are some strategies that work when you're trying to differentiate for 30 kids at once?

We'll start by talking about their differentiation fails and mistakes, and some traps or pitfalls they think teachers should avoid as they look for ways to differentiate.

Want to listen instead of read?

Download the audio, and listen on the go!

I feel like "differentiation" is a buzzword that has very different meanings to different people. Just about every teacher is expected to differentiate, but it's rare to hear exactly what sustainable differentiation on a daily basis is supposed to look like. There's a lot of misconceptions out there. I know some teachers who are creating 4-5 different versions of every lesson plan, assignment, and test, and it's causing them to work insanely long hours.

So I'd love for you to start by sharing your overall approach to differentiation. For example, do you differentiate content (ie different levels of reading passages) or presentation (ie provide a word bank on one version and not another, or eliminate one of the multiple choice answers on each question), or both?

(Nicole) I'm Nicole Guzman, and I teach 5th grade in Provo, Utah. No teacher really has time to make five different versions of every lesson. I think the key to differentiation is to consider student needs when planning your lessons and build differentiation into your structures and routines. Is there enough visual support? Are there multiple entry points to your lesson? Have you planned your questions in a way that all students can participate and be challenged at some point? Are there options for how students can practice or demonstrate their learning? All of these are ways that you can differentiate for your students in a short amount of time and with little-to-no prep.

(Osa) I'm Osa Oyegun, and I'm a 1st grade teacher in New York City. Differentiation should be meaningful and purposeful. I differentiate my reading and math groups simply because students tend to grow at different rates in these two subjects. While I may have whole class mini-lessons, once the lesson is over, students get to practice their new skills at levels that best suit their capabilities. In reading, this could be learning a decoding skill, then going off to read a leveled book with your group or on your own. In math, it could be learning a new strategy, then going off to practice with a partner who may or may not be on your level. There's a flexibility to differentiation, and I try to listen to what my students say that they need and what they like to do in order to keep them engaged.

(Des) I'm Desirae Nunez, and I teach 4th grade in Modesto, CA. The majority of my classes have been below to far below grade level. To help scaffold the content from the beginning, I rely on EDI and GLAD strategies, especially in ELA. In math, I generally teach the same lesson twice to two small groups and use Zearn. I also pull small groups a couple of times a week. When I think of differentiating, I often think about the couple of students who are at or above grade level. I have utilized HyperDocs, giving them more freedom or choice with an assignment, cutting out the scaffolding pieces, or offering an extension piece that is fun or related to their interests. I get especially excited when a student can come to me with a request for how they can show their learning.

(Erin) I'm Erin Palazzo, and I teach high school English in Shrewsbury, MA. I mainly teach AP English Language, but for the past 11 years, I've also taught sophomores (a combination of the three different levels of English we offer to them). Because almost all of our students go on to some form of higher or continuing education, I teach mostly the same content, but I alter the pacing and the amount of scaffolding for each level. My goal is to help bridge the transition gap between where they are and what they'll need to be able to do in a two or four-year college. Within a particular class, I will add additional support where needed, such as audiobooks, more specific guiding questions for journal assignments, or graphic organizers for writing. My goal is to always appropriately challenge my students - I don't sell the struggling students short in their potential, but I don't want their growth to seem unachievable.

(Kevin) I'm Kevin O'Shaughnessy and I teach in Wells, Maine. I currently teach a required sophomore history course and a senior elective, "AP Psychology." I think the only differentiation that anyone should be interested in is "sustainable (or survivable) differentiation." At its most basic level, it starts with knowing your kids. I have them complete surveys that provide information about their lives, interests, and aspirations. After this, I try to meet and directly refer to some information from their answers to let them know I've taken the time to read and think about their responses. It can be as simple as saying, "I know you're interested in art and drawing, why not do an art exhibit as part of your social studies project presentation?" Project presentations are a major assessment in each of our social studies units, so we offer choices on topics, formats (Google Slides, art exhibits, videos, journal entries, etc.), and then we might modify the length or depth of the project based on the individual student's needs. But the day to day stuff, like having five versions of every lesson plan? It's a one-way ticket to burnout. You can't survive doing elaborate flips and twists to accommodate all learners every day. What you can do is build in a series of flexible routines that allow for tiered assignments, tiered assessments, and student choice on topic and product for major projects and presentations.

I'm wondering how we can make differentiation more scalable. I feel like there are lots of ways it COULD be done, but many of those strategies become really unmanageable for the teacher when you've got 25 or 35 kids in a class. Can you give an example of a tool or quick strategy that's made it easier for you to differentiate?

(Kevin) I mentioned Jupiter grades and Juno in the last podcast, and I've found them to be really valuable tools for differentiation. It's very easy to create your standard assignment or assessment, and then copy that into a new pod and edit it to create a tiered option with fewer multiple choice options or fewer sentences for written responses. These can be shared with colleagues who can revise them or use them as a template for future assignments and shared back to you. My other strategy is to incorporate student choice on topic and product as much as possible for major assessments.

(Osa) When it comes to having larger class sizes with young children, I've found that having a good management strategy is key to successfully maintaining a high quality of instruction. The Daily 5 and CAFE programs are a great help because they teach students steps to learning independence, and as a teacher, once you've practiced these steps with your students at the beginning of the year, you can work with a small number of students knowing that the others are doing meaningful, independent work. Any program that encourages students to be aware of their learning goals and teaches them how to be successful independent learners (with occasional check-ins with the teacher) can only help to maintain the quality of instruction.

(Nicole) As I mentioned before, I believe building classroom routines to naturally allow for differentiation makes it much more manageable. Osa mentioned Daily 5, which is a great framework for setting up literacy instruction. I've adapted it in the upper grades to be Daily 3. I use a similar framework during math time. I do not create literacy or math centers for every week or even every unit. You have to break out of the center mentality if you want it to be manageable. Instead, I have a few basic hands-on activities that easily adapt to multiple topics. Also, take advantage of the many computer programs that adjust to students based on their needs. Use this structure to meet students' varying levels, while freeing you up to work with students who need extra attention. For those in the 40HTW Club, Angela created a form that you can find in November Week 3, and it allows me to quickly sort my students into groups for reteaching, based on the results of a quick assessment.

(Erin) As the others have mentioned, technology helps a lot in simplifying this. I use Schoology and in the past have used Google Classroom, both of which allow me to assign work to specific students or groups of students. I create a spreadsheet at the start of every year to keep track of which students are on IEPs. It's an easy reference for when and where they are in their academic skills class with their special education liaison, and it also serves as a quick reference guide to their accommodations. And then wherever possible, I make those accommodations universal (such as giving graphic organizers to all my 10B students before an essay). A lot of the work just becomes being a good analyst of the data: Seeing where students excelled and struggled in our last essay helps me group them up to do targeted skill practice before the next essay.

(Des) In math, I rely on the reports I receive from Zearn and how students are performing on quick check-ins/quizzes to create groups. My lowest group tends to be the same students and we work on foundational skills, but the others flex a lot. When I work with the groups, I will bring in more manipulatives and either use the whiteboards or all the extra copies of practice problems we are provided with. I try to utilize what I already have to save time. Our ELA curriculum is Benchmark Advance, so to make this more accessible to my students, I use GLAD strategies, multiple reads of the text (I read, partners, audio, etc.), EDI lesson designs, and creating learning progressions. As the others have mentioned, there are a ton of different technology resources that help make differentiating quick. I also utilize Google Classroom, Zearn, MobyMax, and HyperDocs.

I think a lot of this is learned through trial and error, and experimenting to see what works with your teaching style and for the specific group of kids you have each year. Let's try to help the teachers who are listening learn from your experience. Maybe you can think of something you tried that was an epic fail, or a strategy you used previously but stopped when you found a better way, or an important mindset shift that you needed to make. Are there any traps or pitfalls you think teachers should avoid as they look for ways to differentiate?

(Osa) I remember attempting to give differentiated homework one year because a parent had demanded that their child be challenged at home because the homework was too easy. That turned out to be a mistake because rather than alleviating the parent's concern, the students were now feeling pressured to perform at home with their parents. That should never be the case with young students. I learned to gently remind parents that in the younger grades, being able to easily complete homework was a sign of independence and helped to boost their children's confidence in their abilities. In my opinion, homework has no value if my students do not enjoy or like to do it, and if it does not help to consolidate learning. Since then, by following my instincts and students' recommendations, I always have a happy class where students continue to be engaged and build confidence in their abilities. I say trust in your instincts and when in doubt, ask your students. Their opinion is what really matters.

(Nicole) One of my best mistakes in my career was thinking that in order to differentiate, I needed to teach math entirely in small groups, at completely different rates. You can imagine the disaster that was! First of all, it definitely wasn't sustainable. Second, I imagine it actually did more harm than good during the short time I tried it ... not all of my students were receiving tier 1 instruction! I have found the workshop style to be very conducive to differentiating. I teach a whole group lesson (with differentiation strategies woven in), and then spend the remainder of the time conferring with students, and working with small, flexible, strategy and skill-focused groups. Differentiation does NOT mean six completely different lessons!

(Kevin) For several years, we tried to give bonus points to kids whose projects were at higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. We loved David Sousa's book "How the Brain Learns," and so we literally taught the kids the Taxonomy and had them choose the Bloom's level they were going for with their presentation. The kids chose their topic, the presentation format, and the Blooms level! It sounded so great in theory. But we couldn't make it work ... the grading just felt too subjective and arbitrary. What was better? A failed attempt at evaluating whether the Black Panthers were Revolutionaries or Terrorists or a fairly straightforward presentation on the causes and effects of 9/11 attacks on the United States? I didn't know so how could I ask kids to know? I am still passionate about using neuroscience in the classroom. I have five or six brain models strategically placed around my room, and whenever a student asks me why they are there, I tell them it's to remind me what body part I'm actually trying to teach and reach.

(Erin) For a long time, I had "differentiation" and "learning styles" meshed together in my head. As I read the research debunking the concept, I stopped trying to obsess over offering practices or projects that would cater to all the learning styles every time. Around the same time I was making the big shift that I think many English teachers are or have been making - moving away from being more of a content-driven teacher (You need to remember all of the details from To Kill a Mockingbird five years from now and be able to list the nine comma rules by heart) and moving toward being a skills/application-driven teacher (What life conversations can we have after reading TKAM ? How is this writing passage crafted? What makes it effective? How can we mimic the punctuation, word choice, and sentence structure in our own writing to improve it?). Those two shifts have naturally created less pressure to differentiate a rigid curriculum and paradoxically helped me find a manageable way through conferring and doing more writing together in the classroom to meet each student where they're at without the need for 25 different lessons or sets of materials.

(Des) I love learning about new strategies and trying them in the classroom. I also get bored easily, so I have a tendency to change things up regularly. While I think these traits help me to grow as an educator, I would warn against trying out too many new things at once. If you come away from this podcast with a list of new ways to differentiate, pick one! If it works for you, great, and if not, that's okay, too. A mindset shift change I had to work on, and still do, is that I have a limited amount of time and energy. This means I am unable to meet every student's varied needs every day in every lesson. Give yourself a little grace and try to choose strategies that impact the most students most of the time or a strategy that supports a group of students that you are working to better reach.

About the Productivity Roundtable participants
Nicole Guzman is a 5th-grade teacher, wife, and mom of five in Provo, Utah. She has taught kindergarten through 5th grades, and her favorite part of teaching is the fun, laughing, and learning with her students. She loves flexible seating, workshop-style instruction, project-based learning, and technology integration. After a year in the 40HTW Club, she has freed up enough time to start sharing her ideas at elevatingelementary.com. Osa Oyegun is an elementary school teacher who has worked in independent schools for 11 years. After teaching in Turkey, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates for seven years, she returned to the U.S., teaching in Washington, D.C. for two years. She now teaches 1st grade in Manhattan, New York. When not teaching, she likes to read, sing, travel, and host dinner parties for her friends. Osa blogs atwww.thegoodeapple.com. Desirae Nüñez lives near Modesto, California, and is in her fourth year of teaching 4th grade. She enjoys spending time with her husband and kids, playing soccer, traveling, being with friends, and experiencing new things. Kevin O'Shaughnessy lives in York, Maine and is originally from Buffalo, New York. He began his teaching career at age 39. Kevin has two sons (ages 23 and 21) and has been married to a pediatrician for 26 years. He has spent his entire 16-year career at Wells High School, and currently teaches a required sophomore history course, "The World After 1945" and a senior elective "AP Psychology." Kevin enjoys yoga, golf, swimming, biking, bowling, and is a big fan of the movie "The Big Lebowski" as you can tell by his photo. Erin Palazzo is a self-proclaimed bookworm who set her heart on teaching in the 1st grade. For the past 13 years, she has been sharing her love of language in her English classrooms, working with a wide range of student ages and abilities. She completed her Master's of Education in Curriculum & Instruction and Teacher Leadership through Penn State's online World Campus. Currently, she teaches Advanced Placement English Language and Composition as well as sophomore English at Shrewsbury High School in Massachusetts. She loves working with her students to help them find their passions, develop their skills in communication, and to provide balance and perspective into their often overbooked and over-stressed lives. When she's not teaching or reading, Erin loves spending time with her husband, two kids, and family and friends. A lifelong New Englander, she feels lucky to call this beautiful landscape, rich in history and culture, her home. This post is based on the latest episode of my weekly podcast, Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers. A podcast is like a free talk radio show you can listen to online, or download and take with you wherever you go. I release a new short episode each Sunday and feature it here on the blog to help you get energized and motivated for the week ahead. I'd love to hear your thoughts below in the comment section! This episode was sponsored by Really Good Stuff. What are the top 10 challenges that teachers face in the classroom? Really Good Stuff released the findings of their National Poll with over 700 participants. Visit reallygoodstuff.com/solutions to find the results, plus solutions to these challenges, teacher tips, resources, and innovative products designed to save you time. Use promo code RGSTRUTH10 for 10% off of your Really Good Stuff order (expires 12/31/18). See blog posts/transcripts for all episodes Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes Subscribe to the podcast in Google Play

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Real talk on how to make differentiation less time-consuming

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Facebook72Tweet0Pin991 This week on the Truth for Teachers podcast: Real teachers talk about differentiated teaching strategies that worked - and didn't work - in their classrooms. Last season of the podcast, I introduced you to a new episode format I'm calling the Productivity Roundtable. I've always thought it would be really cool to get a ...

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Podcast: A Look at Differentiated Instruction

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Podcast: A Look at Differentiated Instruction

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Steve Barkley chats with an 8th grade science teacher and her take on differential instruction.

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Podcast: A Look at Differentiated Instruction - Steve Barkley

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Steve Barkley is joined by 8th grade physical science teacher and PLS Classes instructor Gloria Herlihy, to discuss differentiated instruction.

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How does PBL support Differentiated Instruction?

The following interview with John McCarthy, a former member of the PBLWorks National Faculty and expert on differentiated instruction, highlights key points made in his webinar, Differentiated Instruction and PBL.
Why is Project Based Learning a natural structure for differentiated instruction?

In differentiated instruction (DI) we talk about differentiation in terms of students' readiness, interests, and learning profiles. PBL can be designed and managed to include all three of these aspects. When you design a project, you should take into account where your students are in terms of knowledge and skills to make sure the project's topic and learning goals are right for them. When you're managing a project, you can provide varied scaffolding to meet different students' needs. PBL also takes students' interests into account. Teachers develop ideas for projects based on what will engage and motivate their own particular students, drawing from their lives, communities, and concerns. And finally, PBL provides many ways to create opportunities for students who learn well visually, verbally, interpersonally, and so on, and yet stretch them to learn in new ways.

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How does PBL support Differentiated Instruction?

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How does PBL support Differentiated Instruction? The following interview with John McCarthy, a former member of the PBLWorks National Faculty and expert on differentiated instruction, highlights key points made in his webinar, Differentiated Instruction and PBL . Why is Project Based Learning a natural structure for differentiated instruction?

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Strategies of Instruction

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Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Reflecting on learning and student voice and choice are core elements of project-based learning, and they're also key to differentiation.

Photo credit: Laurie Sullivan via flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Project-based learning (PBL) naturally lends itself to differentiated instruction. By design, it is student-centered and student-driven, and it gives space for teachers to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways. PBL can allow for effective differentiation in assessment as well as daily management and instruction.

PBL experts will tell you this, but I often hear teachers ask for real examples, specifics to help them contextualize what it looks like in the classroom. We all need to try out specific ideas and strategies to get our brains working in a different context. Here are some specific differentiation strategies to use during a PBL project.

1. Differentiate Through Teams

We all know that heterogeneous grouping works, but sometimes homogenous grouping can be an effective way to differentiate in a project. Sometimes in a novel- or literature-based PBL project, for example, it might be appropriate to differentiate by grouping students by reading level. That way, I can take groups that need intensive work and ensure they are getting the instruction they need.

Teaming should be intentional, and we need to know the why of how we structure teams. Are you differentiating for academic ability? Are you differentiating for collaboration skills? Are you differentiating for social-emotional purposes? Are you differentiating for passions? If you're a designer or co-designer of a PBL project, teams can be an effective way to differentiate instruction.

2. Reflection and Goal Setting

Reflection is an essential component of PBL. Throughout the project, students should be reflecting on their work and setting goals for further learning. This is a great opportunity for them to set personalized learning goals and for you to target instruction specific to the goals they set.

At specific milestones in a project, one teacher that I observed had students reflect on what they'd learned so far in math and science, and then create goal statements for what they still wanted to learn. The teacher then designed activities to support students in learning not only what they wanted, but also what they needed to know.

3. Mini-Lessons, Centers, and Resources

This is probably one of my favorites. In addition to being a great management strategy to prevent time sucks in class, mini-lessons and centers are a great way to differentiate instruction. Perhaps you offer mini-lessons or center work to support your students' learning, or maybe you show students a variety of resources from which to learn, including videos, games, and readings.

I know a teacher who has a well-oiled PBL machine of a classroom. Students move seamlessly from product work to learning stations, resources, and mini-lessons based on what they know. Students are so in tune with their learning that they are able to truly take ownership of it, and the teacher provides instruction without assumption. Not all students may need the mini-lesson, so you can offer or demand it for the students who will really benefit.

4. Voice and Choice in Products

Another essential component of PBL is student voice and choice, both in terms of what students produce and how they use their time. With the products, you can allow students to show what they know in a variety of ways. From written components to artistic or theatrical, you can differentiate the ways that students are summatively assessed. Their passions actively come into play here.

Again, it all depends on the standards that you're assessing, but don't let standards confine your thinking. Yes, you may have a written component if you're assessing writing, but ask yourself, "How can I allow for voice and choice here?" Embrace possibilities for differentiated student summative products.

5. Differentiate Through Formative Assessments

Formative assessments can look the same for all students. They can also look different. We know that students can show what they've learned in different ways, as mentioned above in terms of products produced as summative assessment. In addition, as you check for understanding along the way, you can formatively assess in different ways when appropriate.

Perhaps you are targeting collaboration in the project. You can differentiate a formative assessment of this in a variety of ways. Perhaps it's an oral conference. Perhaps it's a series of written responses. Perhaps it's a graphic organizer or collage. More importantly, these formative assessments allow you to differentiate the type of instruction needed as you feed forward in the project.

6. Balance Teamwork and Individual Work

Teamwork and collaboration occur regularly in a PBL project. We want to leverage collaboration as much as content. However, there are times when individual instruction and practice may be needed. You need to differentiate the learning environment because some students learn better on their own, and others learn better in a team. In fact, we all need time to process and think alone just as much as we need time to learn from our peers. Make sure to balance both so that you are supporting a collaborative environment while allowing time to meet students on an individual basis.

As you master the PBL process in your classroom, you will intuitively find ways to differentiate instruction for your students. You will design the project to scaffold content and skills in a variety of ways. You will create formative and summative assessments to allow for student passions and goals, and you will manage the process so that it allows you to meet students where they are and move them forward.

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6 Strategies for Differentiated Instruction in Project-Based Learning

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Project-Based Learning (PBL) Reflecting on learning and student voice and choice are core elements of project-based learning, and they're also key to differentiation. Photo credit: Laurie Sullivan via flickr (CC BY 2.0) Project-based learning (PBL) naturally lends itself to differentiated instruction.

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Process Model for Differentiated Instruction using Learning Analytics

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Process Model for Differentiated Instruction using Learning Analytics

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THE THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES – A KEYINSTRUMENT FOR TEACHERS FOR AN ACTIVE ANDDIFFERENTIATED LEARNING IN THE KNOWLEDGE BASEDSOCIETY

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THE THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES – A KEYINSTRUMENT FOR TEACHERS FOR AN ACTIVE ANDDIFFERENTIATED LEARNING IN THE KNOWLEDGE BASEDSOCIETY

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THE THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES – A KEY

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Differentiated Learning Patterns with Mixed Reality 

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Differentiated Learning Patterns with Mixed Reality 

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Differentiated Learning Patterns with Mixed Reality

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Differentiated Learning Paths Through the Use of Differentiated Instruction within MOOC

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Differentiated Learning Paths Through the Use of Differentiated Instruction within MOOC

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Differentiated Learning Paths Through the

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The Nature of Cooperative Learning and Differentiated Instruction Practices in English Classes

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The Nature of Cooperative Learning and Differentiated Instruction Practices in English Classes

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The Nature of Cooperative Learning and Differentiated Instruction Practices in English Classes

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Teachers’ Perceptions of Customizing Students’ Learning through Differentiated Instruction at a Tertiary level 

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Teachers’ Perceptions of Customizing Students’ Learning through Differentiated Instruction at a Tertiary level 

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Teachers’ Perceptions of Customizing Students’ Learning through Differentiated

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POSSIBILITIES AND POTENTIAL BARRIERS: LEARNING TO PLAN FOR DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION IN ELEMENTARY SCIENCE

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POSSIBILITIES AND POTENTIAL BARRIERS: LEARNING TO PLAN FOR DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION IN ELEMENTARY SCIENCE

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POSSIBILITIES AND POTENTIAL BARRIERS LEARNING TO PLAN FOR DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION IN ELEMENTARY SCIENCE

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Mentoring pre-service teachers on school students’

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Real World Learning: toward a differentiated framework for outdoor learning for sustainability

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Real World Learning: toward a differentiated framework for outdoor learning for sustainability

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Real World Learning toward a differentiated framework for outdoor learning for sustainability

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Student teachers’ practice and experience with differentiated instruction for students with higher learning potential

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Student teachers’ practice and experience with differentiated instruction for students with higher learning potential

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Student teachers practice and experience with differentiated

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Maximizing Student Success with Differentiated Learning

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Maximizing Student Success with Differentiated Learning

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Maximizing Student Success with Differentiated Learning

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The importance of job resources and self-efficacy for beginning teachers' professional learning in differentiated instruction

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The importance of job resources and self-efficacy for beginning teachers' professional learning in differentiated instruction

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The importance of job resources and self-efficacy for beginning

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A practical approach to assessment for learning and differentiated instruction

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A practical approach to assessment for learning and differentiated instruction

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A practical approach to assessment for learning and differentiated instruction

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The Deficit Doctorate: Multimodal Solutions to Enable Differentiated Learning

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The Deficit Doctorate: Multimodal Solutions to Enable Differentiated Learning

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TASC: Thinking Actively in a Social Context.A universalproblem-solvingprocess: A powerful tool to promote differentiated learning experiences

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TASC: Thinking Actively in a Social Context.A universalproblem-solvingprocess: A powerful tool to promote differentiated learning experiences

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Differentiated Teaching Strategies with Children with Learning Difficulties

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Differentiated Teaching Strategies with Children with Learning Difficulties

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Differentiated Teaching Strategies with Children with Learning Difficulties

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Leading Differentiated Learning for the Gifted

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Leading Differentiated Learning for the Gifted

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Leading Differentiated Learning for the Gifted

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Differentiated learning: from policy to classroom

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Differentiated learning: from policy to classroom

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Differentiated Overt Learning Activities for Effective Instruction in Engineering Classrooms

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Differentiated Overt Learning Activities for Effective Instruction in Engineering Classrooms

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Differentiated Overt Learning Activities forEffective Instruction in Engineering Classrooms

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Bringing It All Together: Curriculum and Instruction Through the Lens of UbD and DI

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Bringing It All Together: Curriculum and Instruction Through the Lens of UbD and DI

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Bringing It All Together Curriculum and Instruction Through the Lens of UbD and DI

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The design of blended learning in response to student diversity inhigher education Instructors’ views and use of differentiated instruction in blended learning

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The design of blended learning in response to student diversity inhigher education Instructors’ views and use of differentiated instruction in blended learning

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The design of blended learning in response to student diversity in

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Using Multiple Modes of Instruction to Differentiate Based on Student Needs

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Using Multiple Modes of Instruction to Differentiate Based on Student Needs

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Guided Practice and Teacher Station - Becky Schueth

Differentiation has been the greatest improvement I have seen in my BlendEd Geometry classroom. I am moving towards the fully integrated differentiation in my classroom which has been a personal goal since beginning teaching. BledEd has given myself the tools necessary to achieve the differentiation needed for students.

The students may be working on different guided practice activities or at the teacher station, but they are selecting what will help them to best understand the new concept. I love the ability to let students choose an online piece, an activity or paper practice problems; the students know whichever path they choose, they will have the correct answers and be certain that they understand the skill before moving on with the homework assignment.

At first, students just merely wanted the homework assignment to get it finished and move on to the next thing. I have helped them see the benefit in practicing and I intentionally make their homework assignments much shorter to reward them for practicing the material and becoming more confident in their skills.

The teacher station has been an excellent addition as well. I can work directly with a small group of students at their level. I try to touch base with every single student everyday to help ensure they are understanding the content. I have included challenge activities to many of my lessons to help challenge the students who understand the content very quickly. I have always wanted to differentiate more in my math classroom and BlendEd has provided the scaffolding to help me see how I can manage the classroom and be effective and deliberate in helping all students at their level.

I am attaching a sample of my guided practice stations for students to choose with a discussion prompt to get them thinking about the concept in a real-world application. I love the combo of online and hands on learning that occurs when the students are given choice in geometry.

Example of station rotation differentiating instruction

Independent Split - Marshall Payer

One of the models I like to use is what I call the "independent split" method. In the method, students start the class period by taking a short formative quiz over the previous lesson's content. After the quiz is when the differentiation begins. Attached here (Links to an external site.) is a link to the quiz for one day in the Algebra class.

The first group to independently split off and begin the next lesson's content is the group that demonstrated that they understood the previous concepts in the quiz. By showing they understood the topic, they differentiate themselves from their classmates and are able to work independently on the topic for the day. Attached here (Links to an external site.) is a link to the place where students went to find their work for the next topic, which was located on the students' LMS.

Usually, about half of the class is left, which turns into a discussion about the common mistakes shown in the quiz. After a few minutes and the discussion comes to an end, I ask some students who looked like they had a particularly tough time getting the correct answers on the quiz to work through some problems with me in a small group. The rest of the students are then able to move onto their independent work.

This differentiation allows the students who understood the concept to move at their own pace ahead of the rest of the class. The students who had small issues were given a chance to reinforce their understanding through a discussion. Finally, those students who struggled greatly were not only part of the discussion to reinforce the concept, but also get time to work through those issues in a more one-on-one way with the teacher. Attached here (Links to an external site.) are different problems that were gone over for the previous lesson to the independent split guide above.

Using Assessment and Student Choice - Lauren Rabourn

Differentiation is absolutely created when it is necessary. I don't know that it is always observable to someone that isn't aware of what is going on in my classroom or to someone that may have never been in there before. I think that if you spent some time looking through the units/modules that have been created and talking with students about their learning experiences, you would definitely see differentiation being integrated. Much of the differentiation happens throughout a unit. Assessments do play a role, but many of the learning experiences are created and then what comes out of those or what comes next is tailored for the student and/or group. My instructional modalities do change as I see a need for a more teacher-centered experience for any single student, group of students, or whole class. Otherwise, students are provided with new information in a variety of ways, and they are given a lot of different ways to practice using those new skills before being given an assessment. Oftentimes, students are provided a couple of options for how they want to demonstrate their mastery of specific skills - sometimes I give them their choices and other times they get to just choose.

I do have one class period again, which I am sure I have mentioned before, where one particular student's needs are WAY different than the other 9 students in the classroom. This particular student is definitely not on the same path as far as what background in ELA he had before coming to me and what he plans to do in the future. After much one-on-one time and getting the student equipped with as many tools to be successful in the classroom as possible the year prior, I made the decision to give this particular student his own learning path. He has still been present in my classroom and working on the same basic skills - composition and literature - but he is not writing the same types of essays, he is not demonstrating his learning in the same ways, he reads some different materials, and his vocabulary lessons are quite different. This was made much easier for me by creating 2 separate courses in Canvas and a separate grade book so I didn't have to create and assign all tasks/activities/etc. to just one student while leaving out the others. This is just one very clear example of what differentiation looks like in my classroom.

This is an image from my "12th English - Composition" class where one student sat in the same classroom with 9 others working through his own units. This student worked on making a resume, which was something that he would actually use real life when it comes to writing. This is a partial list of some of the activities he worked through...

It was easier to do this with a small group of students as no one else even realized that he wasn't doing any of the same things and I could easily work with him individually - the same as all others in the class that were working on something else.

And here is an image of the tasks that students in my "English 12 - Composition" completed for an alternative research project. Again, 9 students in the classroom were working through this unit/module while the other 1 worked on an entirely different one.

Here is another way I have differentiated in my classroom with a novel unit using MAP data; I grouped students based on that data and had them work their way through a novel unit. The images show the groups split up and assigned a folder with a specific color. Within the folder is a calendar with the start date and end date of the unit. Each group was expected to fill in the rest of the calendar with the learning activities that they planned to complete each day (I expected at least a week's worth of planning at a time, which could be adjusted as needed). Students were also expected to rate their use of time and effort as well as rating their group members - there had to be a higher level of accountability. My lower level group spent a lot more time with me, the mid-level groups (2 of them) actually gravitated toward each other and helped each other much of the time, and the upper level group checked in with me most days and then went to work in the library. I kept a GoogleDoc up with the upper level group and based their work on what was submitted each day. I would add extra discussion questions, push them to further explain themselves when answering questions (right or wrong), etc. Feedback at the end? All groups liked what they were doing and how it turned out.

This is an image of the calendars that each of the groups made to help keep up with progress moving through the unit as well as a way for me to see what each group planned to complete each day and what they actually completed.

This is a picture of the group work directions and daily rubric that went along with the novel unit. They were hanging in the classroom during the entire unit right by the group folders and group accountability slips.

Using an LMS to Differentiate in Language Arts - Jen Kastanek

I love how our LMS allows for differentiation. I almost always add an audio file for every story or novel I am teaching. Students have the option of listening to things on audio rather than reading. Of course, I encourage them to follow along, but by giving them a variety of ways to receive the information, the students really have no excuse not to learn or become familiar with the material. In addition to providing audio files, I also provide a powerpoint with background information if students need help understanding the depth of the material. Sometimes, depending on the resources I have available to me, I can link to YouTube videos with visual explanations or depictions or Sparknote summaries. One thing that I have found I also help struggling students in secondary is pictures to aid comprehension. I also include vocabulary. These are just tools for students to use if they need to. If they don't need them, they can simply keep scrolling by them in the LMS module.

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Using Multiple Modes of Instruction to Differentiate Based on Student Needs

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Differentiation has been the greatest improvement I have seen in my BlendEd Geometry classroom. I am moving towards the fully integrated differentiation in my classroom which has been a personal goal since beginning teaching. BledEd has given myself the tools necessary to achieve the differentiation needed for students.

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Differentiated Instruction:Maximizing the Learning of All Students

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Differentiated Instruction:Maximizing the Learning of All Students

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Differentiated Instruction: Maximizing the Learning of All Students

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This Module discusses the importance of differentiating three aspects of instruction: content, process (instructional methods), and product (assessment). It explores the student traits-readiness level, interest, and learning preferences-that influence learning (est. completion time: 3 hours).