Differentiated Instruction Strategies & Resources by Jack Reeves

Choice Board (implemented)

snackreeves — 2024-12-13 04:55:35 UTC

This is the choice board that my department and I worked together to complete. We implemented it this week and it worked very well with most of our Spanish 1 classes. It was interesting to see which students chose which review task! Students were definitely more engaged when given the various review task choices and the work that they completed was impressive and gave my mentor teacher and I a better idea of what should be reviewed again as a class before finals. Once thing I would add to this choice board would be a listening activity since the final includes listening, speaking, and reading/writing portions.

Choice Board

snackreeves — 2024-12-13 04:55:35 UTC

This is the choice board I created for the unit 5 assignment. I created it for my Spanish 1 students to help prepare them for their upcoming final exams. It is designed to mirror both activities that we have done throughout the semester as well as the format of their finals.

Key takeway

snackreeves — 2024-12-13 04:55:35 UTC

When I first began learning about differentiation, I felt pretty overwhelmed. I didn't understand how a teacher could find the time to consistently and effectively differentiate their instruction for readiness, ability, and interest among different level classes. It seemed impossible! After working through this course, I've learned that there are truly infinite ways to support differentiation for student achievement, many of which can be easily implemented without spending hours and hours of precious planning time.

Getting to know students

snackreeves — 2024-12-13 04:55:35 UTC

One goal I have regarding how I would like to become more effective in differentiating my instruction in my residency is to get to know students better. I am moving to a different classroom at the end of this semester and will have 120ish new students to get to know. I feel like I did well in getting to know the students I have worked with this semester. It is easy for me to learn their interests, but I want to improve my ability to recognize their academic strengths and areas for improvement when grading/reviewing their work.

Interest

snackreeves — 2024-12-13 04:55:37 UTC

I really enjoy getting to know what interests my students, both in and out of school. I have also noticed, especially for my Spanish 1 students, that when I differentiate their instruction based on their interests, they are much more engaged and can more accurately demonstrate their level of understanding while also pushing themselves to learn more. I am no longer afraid of students saying "this is so boring" because I will simply ask them what they think we could do to make it more interesting if I don't already know. Many of the Spanish 1 students are obsessed with the few unblocked video games they can play on their Chromebooks (it's nearly impossible to keep them off of them when we are doing work with laptops). I have recently found a new Kahoot style platform that mimics currently popular video games called GimKit and I can't wait to try it out! (the link is in this post if you feel like checking it out)

Intentional pairing

snackreeves — 2024-12-13 04:55:37 UTC

I like this strategy because it highlights what students CAN do well. I have found that I often spend more time focusing on what students CAN’T do. The frequent use of this strategy will also help push me to complete my goal of recognizing students' strengths and areas for improvement through their output. . My mentor teacher and I often allow our students to choose their own partners and groups, which does not always yield the best results. I think that this strategy will function well with our Spanish 1 students who are mostly freshman that are more likely to pair themselves up with a friend and spend a large portion of the class period off-task. If I create pairs of students whose skills compliment each others areas for improvement, students should be more successful and be able to further their learning through teaching as well.

Peer Tutoring Program

snackreeves — 2024-12-13 04:55:37 UTC

We have implemented a structured peer tutoring program where NHS students can sign up to be tutors during our weekly enrichment period (study block). This provides additional support while building leadership skills and reinforcing learning through teaching.

Give choices

snackreeves — 2024-12-13 06:42:45 UTC

I love giving students a variety of options for assignments/projects. By giving them a choice, they feel more responsible for their use of class time and are given an opportunity to take charge of their learning. We read a lot of stories in order to introduce new grammatical structures and vocab in both Spanish 1 and 3. We then go deeper into the meaning and correct use of the new content and then students are asked to use what they have learned to respond to a prompt. This gets old quick! I have noticed that when students are given choices or the freedom to write about what they want (so long as they demonstrate their understanding), engagement soars. I have included the RAFT writing assignment I created for a previous discussion board because I really like this concept. It is fun to work with this style of activity and to figure out how to create different combinations of role, audience, format, and topic as well as see what students may propose on their own.