Differentiation by Content
Tiered Content - Teachers organize students into groups by readiness, learning style, or student interest for a particular lesson (Adams & Pierce, 2003). Videos could be used by students while in groups. A technology tool I would suggest is Playposit.com. Students could be divided into three groups based on their readiness. The lowest group would be taught and be shown several examples by the teacher before beginning the classwork. The middle group would watch the video that the teacher put into Playposit and then the teacher would show a few more examples before beginning the classwork. The third group would watch the same video and then independently work on the classwork. I would use tiered content in the linear equation unit. Some of my students can just watch a video and understand how to graph a line. I have some students that struggle because there are letters in equations, and some students just need a little support. Tiered Content is "useful when a teacher wants to ensure that students with different degrees of learning proficiency work with the same essential ideas and use the same key knowledge and skills" (Tomlinson, 2014, p. 133).
Vary Presentation - Students have many different learning profiles (Tomlinson, 2014). Ahmad (2015) suggest that the learning styles include auditory, visual and kinesthetic. Offering different presentations of the lesson will reach more students. Using a Podcast would meet the needs of the auditory students. An interactive whiteboard would meet the need of the visual students. Manipulatives would meet the needs of the kinesthetic students. I would vary my presentation in the integer unit. I would lecture the lesson, use the interactive whiteboard, and have my students use integer chips to learn about adding and subtracting integers. My students would use the integer chips online. Integers is a hard concept for many students. Just having a lecture and notes do not meet the needs of my students. In this unit, there are many different ways students can come up with the correct answer and it beneficial to show students as many ways as possible to calculate the answer.
Scaffolding - Students may need more support in their learning by having "tasks broken down into smaller steps or more strategies for organizing their thinking and work" (Heacox, 2009, p. 92). Voicethread is an online tool that can be used for scaffolding. Solvie (2013) stated "it was clear that use of VoiceThread engaged students in thinking deeply" (p. 336). "VoiceThread proved especially effective in this study as a scaffold for deep reflection and building a sense of efficacy" (Solvie, 2013, p. 338). I would use scaffolding in the quadratic unit. The quadratic is a completely new concept for my students. Using VoiceThread as a scaffolding tool will help my students with the steps to graph the quadratic, the maximum/minimum, and axis of symmetry.
Learning Contract - Tomlinson (2014) stated a learning contract is an agreement between a teacher and students. A technology tool that I would use for a learning contract would be Office or Google Docs. I would create and share the contract with my students. My students would color the tasks they complete and then share the completed contract with me. I would use a learning contract for the solving systems of equations unit. Students would have a choice and would be more motivated. "Differentiation of instruction is a timely, much-discussed topic for the same essential reasons: Students need to be enfranchised in their learning" (Greenwood & McCabe, 2008, pp. 17-18 ). A learning contract would meet the needs of the readiness, interest, and learning style of my students.
Variety of Materials - Classrooms that have a variety of resources for the students meet the needs of the students' readiness, interest, and learning style (Tomlinson, 2014). A technology resource in addition to the students' online textbook that I would use in my classroom would be Kahn Academy. I would use this method in my solving equations unit. Kahn Academy has videos and practice problems for students to try. Cuda (2001) suggests students have enthusiasm for learning that comes from a multi-resource classroom.
Differentiation by Process
Learning Centers - Tomlinson (2014) mentions that a "learning center is a classroom area that contains a collection of activities or materials designed to teach, provide practice on, or extend a student's knowledge, skill or understanding" (p. 133). I would use a learning center in my quadratic unit for factoring trinomials. The technology tools I would use would be The Wreck Factor and XP Math. Both of these activities have different levels for the students to achieve. These particular centers would meet my students' readiness needs. King-Sears (2007) stated "organized learning center activities can provide differentiation for students using the same or similar activities but with individual students focusing on specific content that is appropriately challenging for them ( p. 138).
Graphic Organizers - Heacox (2009) stated a graphic organizer "requires students to apply their knowledge of an issue to a decision-making process" (p. 41). Graphic organizers would meet the need of readiness for my students. I would use graphic organizers in my exponent unit. The graphic organizer would help my students find patterns to create the rules to operate with exponents. The technology tool that I would use would be Slatebox. A student could decide the look of their graphic organizer. Cummins, Kimbell-Lopez, and Manning (2015) mentioned:"This process of establishing cognitive categories, or schema, is the same process students use when working with graphic organizers, they have to establish categories based on the relationships among the information" (p. 15).
Jigsaw Activities - Jigsaw allows for differentiation in response to readiness or interest (Tomlinson, 2014). A technology tool that I would use for Jigsaw is Keeler's (2016) Jigsaw Template. This template allows groups to work collaboratively on one Google Slide file. I would use a Jigsaw in my geometry class for the trigonometry unit. The expert groups would be the different trig ratios and how to find an angle measurement. Expert groups would add their knowledge to the respective slides on the template. Sonwane (2011) concluded, "jigsaw learning design is much more successful when compared with traditional learning" (p. 70).
Tiered Activities - "Tiered activities allow all students to focus on essential knowledge, understandings, and skills, but at different levels of complexity, abstractness, open-endedness, and independence" (Tomlinson, 2014, p. 133). I would use the NCTM Line of Best Fit Tool in my data unit for the line of best-fit lesson. My weaker students could enter the given data into the tool to see the line of best fit. My middle students could use TI-84 calculators to find the line of best fit for the given data. The students who are in the higher group would find their data to find the line of best fit by using the calculator. Using tiered activities meets the needs of my students' readiness. Students are grouped for each skill based on their readiness."The teacher needs to assess continually when a task has become too easy for a student and offer the student a task that will continue his or her learning" (McMackin & Witherell, 2003, p. 14).
R.A.F.T. Activities - RAFT stands for role, audience, format, and topic. Tomlinson (2014) suggested RAFT assignments differentiate process. Coker (2013) has examples of using RAFT in a math classroom plus a template to create your own assignments. My tools of geometry unit would be a good place to use RAFT assignments. Students could use technology to create the product for the format. Some examples of technology that could be used would include Word, Piktochart, email, and video. "RAFT writing encourages creative thinking and motivates students to demonstrate understanding in a nontraditional, yet informational, written format" (Senn, McMurtrie, & Coleman, 2013, p. 54).
Differentiation by Product
Tic Tac Toe - Heacox (2009) explained: "a tic-tac-toe board is a form of choice board that provides students with nine choices of activities" (p. 74). Tic Tac Toe boards meet the needs of my students by their readiness or learning style. Cunningham (2009) has a template to create a Tic Tac Toe board. A Tic Tac Toe board could be used in any unit. I would use the Tic Tac Toe board in my polynomial unit. I would create the Tic Tac Toe board as a digital worksheet. Students would be able to use hyperlinks to complete their Tic Tac Toe boards. "Students approach each new tic-tac-toe board with enthusiasm, thinking about which assignments might be the most fun, not realizing that even those are chock-full of content" (Romano, 2014, p. 14).
Presentations - Students would have the choice as to what media they would use to present. Tomlinson (2014) suggested the use of varied media as a strategy for differentiating products. Using technology instead of just doing an oral presentation, would allow students to edit their presentation instead of doing it live. Some technology tools that could be used for presentations would include Powtoon, Videos, PowerPoint, and Podcast. I would use presentations in my quadrilateral unit in my geometry class. Girard, Pinar, and Trapp (2011) "teachers could improve students’ learning of class materials by using class presentations" (p. 80).
WebQuests - "WebQuests are inquiry-based lessons that link students to Web-based resources and materials" (Heacox, 2009, p. 121). "The WebQuest assignment adheres to the philosophy of differentiated instruction in that it gives students, particularly gifted students, an opportunity to make choices based on ability and interests, and individual motivation to learn" ( Schweizer & Kossow, 2007, p. 30). I would use a WebQuest for any unit, but I found several WebQuests on solving systems of equations. Solving systems of equations is a difficult unit for many students, and a WebQuest could help provide real-world examples. Real world examples would help make the material relevant to my students.
Orbital Studies - Orbital Studies last for three to six weeks and revolve around some topic of the curriculum (Tomlinson, 2014). Students would be able to choose a topic of their choice and relate it to a topic they have previously learned. I could see myself doing one Orbital a semester and allowing my student to chose any previous unit to relate to their topic. Students would be required to a single page handout and could use Canva. Katrein (2016) mentioned when her students did a project, she saw "passion blended with inquiry, engagement blended with grit, and her students were immersed in authentic learning" (p. 241).
Independent Study - Tomlinson (2014) mentioned a strategy for differentiating product is independent study. In Independent study, "the student proceeds at his or her own pace once the completion date is agreed upon and the outcome (product) is identified" ( Kapusnick, & Hauslein, 2001, p. 158). I would use independent study in the order of operations unit. This would work well since most of my students would have the confidence to work independently. There would also be several real-world applications that my students could easily relate to the unit. A wiki would be what I would ask my students to create for the independent study. Students would have the choice as to what to put on their wiki.
References
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