Our products on DI 2021-2 by Patricia

Your readiness to differentiate

PatriciaA — 2021-08-19 21:02:41 UTC

1. Please share in this space the results of the self-evaluation instructional design form 🙀
_{(you can express your results in terms of how close your responses were to the right side of the scale)}

2. What factors do you consider have an influence on your use of the teaching strategies presented in the instrument?
(this activity is due Tuesday 24 of August, 8:00 a.m.)

Basics of differentiated instruction

PatriciaA — 2021-08-19 21:06:25 UTC

Basics of differentiated instruction

PatriciaA — 2021-08-19 21:08:14 UTC

Use this and any other post-its to share your findings on the exploration of Basics of differentiated learning. You can share your answers to the questions there provided in note form, screencasts or videos.
Don't forget to pay a visit to your classmates' products.
Ask them any questions (or comments) using the space in this wall. Don't forget to reply to their questions.
(this activity is due Tuesday 31 of August, 8:00 AM)

Differentiated learning by Sandra Sanchez

2021-08-21 13:27:58 UTC

What I have noticed is that I have a keen eye for identifying my students’ needs and abilities, however I used to follow the school’s instruction verbatim. This meant there was little space for students to have access to different content, practice or product. Some practices from the self-assessment that were more common in my classes included giving learners the possibility to choose a topic of their interest and present information they found worth sharing. They could choose what sorts of visuals to use to explain their topics such as posters, graphic organizers, diagrams or slides. Students could choose their groups, however this usually represented a problem because they only chose their friends of people they got along with. Probably having a flexible grouping system would have promoted more interaction and would have allowed other needs to emerge. Something that is intrinsically part of Colombian education is the lack of differentiation in terms of goals, except for medically certified cognitive or physical differences. All students must attain the same learning goals and in many situations learning difficulties are dropped to parents.

As many other situations that take place in the classroom, stiff curriculums that incorporate lots of content, classroom management practices, lack of time and resources can negatively impact teachers spirits to do things better. When thinking of differentiated classrooms the fear of overwork pops out in teachers’ minds and usually motivation drops.

Q1 : I try to give students a chance to select from a choice of activities, as appropriate, in a unit. But this does not happen all the time.
Q2: I use mostly whole class instruction
Q3: I usually allow student to choose their groups. I do not particularly pay attention to their interests or needs.
Q4: I try to incorporate different teaching strategies, but they mostly attain the groups' needs.
Q5: I do not apply a formal pre-assessment, but I try to be very observant of students' attitudes, skills and performance in class.
Q6: In reteaching, I use a different method from what I used the first time.
Q7: Enrichment work demands critical thinking and production of new ideas.
Q8: I use ongoing summative assessment to check learning.
Q9: I do my best to provide a variety of ways for students to demonstrate skills, I still need to work on this area.

Thanks Sandra for this useful reflection. As you mentioned, unfortunately stiff curricula are the characteristics of many school and other educational setting in the country which limit the educators action towards the creation of differentiated classrooms. What results did you obtain when you answered the questions in the instrument?

Sandra Sanchez

2021-08-21 23:17:39 UTC

Differentiation depends a lot on factors both from the outside and the inside of the classroom. It pretends to avoid that students feel alone trying to figure out what is going on in the lessons, quite opposite to this, it’s purpose is to guide students to attain their particular goals and see how they progress after that. Differentiated instruction does not imply that students are going to do more or they are going to do less than the rest of the group, but that whatever they do in the classroom is within their possibilities while being a bit pushed to advance. For me it has to do with Vigotsky’s Zone of proximal development and can be mediated by the teachers through carefully tailored teaching strategies. The way I see it it does not have to do with kids getting the same scores in proficiency tests, but leading them to scaffold their learning and gain the confidence they need to achieve higher goals each time.

Hello Sandra. Thanks for this reflection. Can you please address the questions provided in the Google doc where you signed up for two resources?
Cheers.

Differentiating learning self-evaluation by Agata Ferreira

aferreira34 — 2021-08-22 16:20:51 UTC

While doing the reflection on the self-evaluation about instructional design, I have noticed that I have some questions on the lowest level (left level) of the differentiation level. Therefore, I detailed went to each one of the questions to see why I had those results.
Q1: All the students complete the same activities.
Q6: Learning goals are the same for all the students
Q10: I use the same assessment or project for all students

These answers were closer to the left side, but thinking in dept about them, they have somehow differentiation during the learning process within the school assessment policies. The performances level were created understanding that each student will reach a goal differently, there are some students that can reach the basic level of the objective, some will be able to go further and get high or even superior level of understanding of the same goal. In that sense, the assessment and goals are the same for everyone.

On the other hand, there are questions in which the answer were neutral.
Q3, Q4 and Q5
These questions had similar answers because I either use one or the other strategy based on the grade of the students and the learning objectives that I have for them. For primary school, creating groups based on some abilities could help or not, depending on the closeness of each student. Also, I take into consideration that some vocabulary I will work with grades such as 1st and 2nd, is new, so I eventually start the unit with the same strategies to engage them to the new words and the class itself.

Thanks a lot for your honest and useful reflection Agata. By the way, I am glad to hear form you. I was missing your contributions and active participation in the course. But I am glad to see you around.

I took the liberty to highlight a section of your very useful reflection (above) to comment on the importance of adapting learning objectives to the Ss' level. That is a very important move.
Please explore these examples with some inspiring ideas to continue giving choice options to your students.

Patricia

Hi Agata, thank you for sharing your experiences. I can definitely relate to your reflection. However, if the goals are the same and some students get the basic level, medium or higher, for me, it still means that all students' abilities are "measured equally" and low-achievers will have a hard time as they will feel all they could get was the " basic level". As a teacher I do understand your point, because we to tend to see those results as something they got to do, specially after they have struggled for a while. However, it would be nice to see how each student has progressed and has raced against themselves, the way I see it is compare them from point A to point B and see how much they have advanced, despite the way the whole class has advanced. Do you think that is possible in your current teaching environment?

Differentiated instruction by Sandra Sanchez

2021-08-22 16:34:07 UTC

Concept of differentiation

Viewing the classroom as a space where individuals particular needs can be met through careful planning instead of one-fits-all instruction. This planning should respond to learners' abilities, readiness, interests and learning profile.

What does the presenter mean by responsive classes rather than one size fits all?

Start looking at learners as individuals and not as a group. Try to understand learners identity: their learning profile, interests, abilities and readiness to learn. Design lessons to teach better and guide learners to accomplish their particular learning objectives not just to cover content. This process entails foreseeing blockages for learning and shaping careful and flexible planning.

What are the non-negotiable elements of differentiation?

They are respectful tasks, quality curriculums, flexible grouping, continual assessment and building community.

Your own concept of differentiated learning

Current students bring learning needs to the classroom: these could be in terms of age, ethnicity, culture, social status, background, gender among others. Differentiated instruction is a teaching strategy that facilitates the process of meeting learners' particular needs in the classroom and transform them in successful learners who achieve their particular goals.

How your DL concept fits into your teaching context

As a new ESL student in high school, my students are immigrants from around the world that need to learn the language so they can succeed in other classes. These students range between 15 and 18 years old, their time in the US goes from 5 to 1 year and so is their English process. Differentiation in my current classes is not an additional instructional practice but a necessity. After only 5 days of class with these learners I am in the observation and diagnostic period, identifying their particular needs and thinking of strategies that would allow me to meet them. I see a long way ahead of me, but I am confident I will get to lead the group to accomplish individual goals.

Two ideas to differentiate by content in the OLE you are currently crafting?

One of my classes is English intermediate, this class is supposed to be thought to ESL students as natives learn it. It means focusing on reading comprehension and writing focused on literary texts. In this class I have varied English levels (based on my perceptions) from -A1 to B1. So I have decided to use different content to teach the same subject to students with different needs. I am going to propose three different graphic stories, they are different in terms of length, lexical resources, and grammar. My intention is to propose somehow similar activities that students can do while still implying a bit of challenge ( not too much so they do not get easily frustrated). Another idea is to integrate technology in the class and pre-select some reading suggestions for learners, they can access the reading assignment they consider better suits their learner's profile; I would still need to design a strategy so students do not choose texts that are beneath their level just because they want the task to be easy.

Two ideas to differentiate by process in the OLE you are currently crafting.

For differentiating the process I will try to appeal to students skills; so I'm going to ask them to report their understanding of the story read through storyboards, graphic organizers, recordings or texts, anything that I can use to verify students have comprehended the gist of the story and are able to show critical thinking skills. Also, flexible grouping may give learners the opportunity to work together and share with other learners that read the same book and interpreted something similar or different to what they did; or to exchange stories, ideas and experiences with other learners who had a different reading assignment.

Two ideas to differentiate by product in the OLE you are currently crafting.

Considering that the process may be different the product can be the outcome of students' choices. They can have different products that display their understanding of the stories read along with some kind of analysis of how the story is reflected in real-life scenarios.

Differentiated learning - Jhonatan Betancourt

jhony102112 — 2021-08-24 01:06:46 UTC

The self-evaluation of instructional styles made me reflect upon how my principles sometimes differ from my actions. I try to do many activities with other purposes considering learning styles and giving students the opportunities to learn in different ways but, I usually assess all my students in the same way. So I plan and design having "differentiated learning" in my mind, but I do not apply the same principles in the assessment part. I firmly believe that teachers should plan their classes taking into account students' interests and needs. A great strategy to work on that is through pre-assessment adjusting goals for students. In that way, I have realized through this self-eval, I use a different method from what I used the first time, changing what did not work and making my teaching practice like a cyclic process in which the final state is the new initial starting over and over again with changes if any. At the end of this self-eval, I realized how I do not think in differentiated assessment for all my students; this is a weakness I have to work on that.

To apply differentiated learning, we as teachers need to provide our students diverse classroom opportunities showing different avenues for understanding that is to say all students can learn effectively, regardless of their ability.

Hello Jhonny, Thanks for your honest and useful reflection about your implementation of differentiated learning in your classroom setting. It is great that you have reached this level of awareness because both you and the students can benefit from the adjustments you make to the assessment and learning process. Here you can see some strategies that you may find useful for your context.

Hello Jhonatan, 
As I read your reflection I immediately thought how often we cannot meet our teaching expectations in the classroom. I am not sure what specifically it is but teachers always have a hard time fulfilling their teaching goals. When I read about teaching strategies, learn something new or talk to people about the ideas I have for my classroom, everything sounds great and I feel like an amazing teacher. However, at the time of actually developing those ideas I find it difficult to match the schools', parents', other teachers' and students' expectations to my own. Do you have any suggestion to successfully incorporate differentiation in the classroom?

Differentiating Instruction: It’s Not as Hard as You Think by Agata Ferreira

aferreira34 — 2021-08-25 01:26:34 UTC

Which of the differentiated strategies mentioned in the video do you consider are transferable to online learning environments?

R: One of the differentiating strategy could be to allow students to choose a topic without leaving the objective aside. Also, collaboration and team effort can be transferable to online environments.

Provide at three examples.

1. Students might choose a topic of which they have to create an infographic with some specific information given by the teacher
2. For different activities the groups may change for a high level of understanding, a group with low and high achievers can be created. For activities that are art focused, the leaders could be the artistic ones.
3. Have different types of readings or videos that will have the same purpose for the teacher

Dear Agata:
Thanks for the insightful comments you posted. I agree with you, collaboration is a essential pillar to a successful class as it allows the teacher and students to interact socially with each other to convey needs, praise and more importantly, to learn in collaboration with each other.
Jhonatan

Faculty conversation: Carol Tomlinson on differentiation - Jhonatan Betancourt

jhony102112 — 2021-08-30 13:36:36 UTC

Empirical evidence for the effectiveness of differentiation

Tomlinson pointed out that teachers accept the responsibility of making sure that every kid learns as well as they possibly can when teachers take on the responsibility of teaching. Moreover, teachers face many challenges every day in their teaching practice, and it is not easy to work from a differentiated perspective. In my teaching experience, I just remembered a specific moment in which I was teaching how to read in Spanish to very young learners. More or less the 50 % of students were progressing with the methodology implemented, and I had to find other methods and strategies to work with the other percentage.

In your view, may differentiated learning be effective in online learning environments? How? Why?

From my experience, working in virtual environments let us know many new perspectives in education. We find many teachers worldwide who work with students’ learning styles, and they assume that they have differentiated instruction. However, as Tomlinson mentioned, they have neglected readiness differentiation, interest differentiation, how culture influences us, how gender influences us, and how intelligence preferences influence us.

Five Tips for Getting Started With Differentiation in a Secondary Classroom - Jhonatan Betancourt

jhony102112 — 2021-08-30 20:16:39 UTC

May some of the tips suggested work for your teaching context. Why? Why not?

I consider pre-assess as a great strategy to work with my students. Pre-assessment helps us, as teachers, to identify students' abilities related to our learning goals. Pre-assessments can be efficient and robust as long as we design our classes, considering students' needs. Also, the most meaningful strategy I will use is to Tweak an existing task. I used to think of differentiation as the creation of a vast list of educational options. But the most efficient differentiation strategy is to "tweak" or adjust aspects of an assignment to create versions that students find more accessible, more advanced, or enjoyable.

Are there other ideas you can come up with?

I do need to start thinking from a differentiated perspective!

‘Embracing Technology’ as a Tool for Differentiation by Agata Ferreira

aferreira34 — 2021-08-31 00:48:45 UTC

Select at least two of the strategies proposed. State how you would adopt and or adapt them to procure differentiated assessment in an online learning environment.

1. Assessing with technology, as a technology teacher, I like to use different tools and websites to assess my students differently. One of the websites I use the most is scratch, this allows students to be creative at the same time as use the main blocks to create the video or game. I ask students to use at least a number of blocks seen during the class, and then they are free to use other blocks

2. Another assessing tool I used a lot was Flipgrid, there, students are able to create videos answering some prompts that I ask them on different types of videos, add filters, emojis and other cool things. Then I can give feedback as a video as well or as different types comments.

How To Play YouTube Videos In Slow Motion - Tutorial by Agata Ferreira

aferreira34 — 2021-08-31 02:39:13 UTC

How can you use slow-motion videos to provide differentiated instruction in an online learning environment?

During class, this tool of slowing the speed of the videos has been an excellent tool. For example, during the hybrid class last week, this video was the main source for the students of 3rd grade. The important aspect of the video was the explanation about the pulleys, but I found the speed of the presenter and the video to quick for the student's English level. Therefore, I had to lower the speed of the video to allow all the students to understand the concept