The Connected Curriculum - Challenge #9

Differentiating Instruction to Increase Student Achievement

 

 

 

To nurture class participation and student success it is vital to provide a friendly and respectful classroom, as each of us sees through the lens of our own experience. That experience, when connected correctly with the learning environment will only aide in student success and positive self-esteem. To successfully choose teaching processes and help students learn, I believe you must first know something about whom you are teaching. My students come from very different backgrounds and have various learning needs. Many of my students, regardless of their gender or racial background, feel disheartened when they see inconsiderate behavior on the part of teachers or other students. Treating students with understanding and interest, and encouraging them to treat each other likewise will provide a quality day for all involved. Providing a welcoming atmosphere can be challenging but the information found in the following information will give you ideas on how to continue and/or foster such a classroom.

 

When given a chance, students can and do take possession of their learning as in a the four stages of the Self-directed Learning Model. Providing such opportunities, however, can prove exigent for teachers who must also safeguard that students meet academic objectives established by their districts or states. A teacher who fosters student self-directed learning will allow kids choice within a range of potential goals and opportunities for success. The learning style of the student, tied with support from a teacher who knows the child, will establish how the student gets to those objectives. Students are lively participants in their learning and make choices about what they will learn and how.  They work in partnership with others and construct new knowledge and skills by building on their current base.  Clear expectations are defined and the students are encouraged to use self-assessment measures during the lessons. Because the instructor has recognized the different learning styles students will show authentic learning connected with preceding experiences instead of passively receiving information. Because of this students are inherently motivated to reach goals they have set for themselves.

The Project-based model of learning is one that I use often as a technology instructor.  By focusing on a few power standards learning can be concentrated on one subject rather than multiple disciplines. Make sure that project won't take more than two to three weeks and have the learning occur in my classroom as many of my students do not have computers at home.  By doing specific planning you can effectively map out a project that's ready to go in the classroom. Once planned, you're free to differentiate instruction and meet the current needs of your students rather than being in perpetual crisis-mode trying to figure what will happen tomorrow.  Project based learning is not so much about the project itself, it is the learning that goes on during the project. With project based learning you are educating through the project, not teaching and then doing the project. We are all students, and when we start something new, we start small. We limit our focus to help us understand the bigger things step by step and not become overpowered.   

  

 

Curriculum Compacting is a practice that we do as a team in the Computer department of our school.  My partner and I came into the department from different areas but at the same time, and what we found was a very inconsistent level of learning with our students.  We decided at that time to map our curriculum together and compact as much of it as possible so that we could be assured that all students were getting what they needed at each grade level.  This helped us prepare lessons for the student’s following year because we then knew what had been taught.  Several tips that I found during my research included 1) identifying outcomes of the curriculum, 2) measuring and recording a student’s previous mastery of those outcomes, and then 3) Learning to generate appropriate and thought-provoking alternatives to those lessons.

 

Educators assemble students based on readiness, interest, learning styles, and draft lessons to match their attributes and I can see this working in my classroom.  Depending on the point of the lesson, flexible grouping offers students with opportunities to work with others with related readiness and interest, or with dissimilar students. By using flexible grouping assignments you can ensure that all of your students have the opportunity to work with students that have both similar and different abilities and levels. The use of peer role-modeling is a definite positive that you can implement during your instruction.  Once students are grouped you can create and assign specific activities that respond more to the students’ learning needs.

 

I believe it is very useful to understand how the memory works (and doesn’t work). Studying how our memory works will help you to understand how and why some things “stick” with your pupils (and why others don’t).  The different learning approaches are not magic; they work because they use what we know about how our memory functions and are just applications of basic memory principles.  Use your knowledge about the Information Processing Model, the memory principles, and your student’s learning style to select appropriate learning strategies and adapt lesson plans to those needs. In the process of my learning I have discovered that as a teacher I am weak with rehearsal and feedback on a daily basis.  Coming from a high school background, I have a real tendency to overload my middle school students with too much new information in daily lessons. By slowing this down and limiting the chunks that I teach my students, I will give my students more of an opportunity to process the information better in both their short and long-term memories. Applying more feedback each and every day will improve their retrieval process and it may even speed up the completion of assignments as it will be a more organized review of the material.

 

By implementing this information, you will have a classroom where students work together to maximize their own, and each other’s learning.  By applying more collaboration and differentiated instruction you can create a climate of creative learning instead of one where the students feel like they are in competition.  Structure your classroom so that it requires that students work together to attain goals that they could not achieve individually. This will create a classroom where students are likely to reach higher levels of achievement, increase their time on task, create friendships, experience heightened self-esteem and build life-long collaboration and communication skills so that they can be a beneficial member of society.

Until tomorrow...

Collaborate and connect your curriculum!