Differentiated instruction is a strategy used where teachers adapt instruction to meet the needs of all students in the classroom (How Differentiated Instruction Can Help You Reach Every Student in Class, 2020). Each student is unique in their own way; they have their own experiences, conditions, and needs that affect their academics. When teachers implement differentiated instruction, students are provided with a variety of resources for understanding and mastering a learning concept in the way that works best for them, depending on their needs.
Differentiating Instructional Strategies
Students approach learning based on their readiness, interests, and learning style. Therefore, when choosing instructional strategies, the content being taught must be differentiated. Differentiating content includes using a variety of delivery formats such as YouTube videos, excerpts or read-alouds, or audio (McCarthy, 2014). In this lesson, students learned to preview a nonfiction text and identify the text structures to help them understand the important parts and key information. In addition, students learned that identifying text structures in a text encourages them to organize their reading and note taking.
I am currently teaching an informational reading unit on the Revolutionary War. For the unit, students are in groups to research a subtopic of the time period, such as Surrender at Yorktown, The Boston Tea Party, and The Boston Massacre. To develop the groups, I created a Google Form with the subtopics for students to complete. Before completing the form, I created a Google Slides presentation that included paintings of events from the Revolutionary War. I also included the name of the subtopic above the painting.
In my classroom, each student has a 1:1 Chromebook device, meaning all have access to the internet and our school's online programs.
The form I created included all subtopics, as well as directions for students; they were to choose the three subtopics that peaked their interest to research. The form was assigned on Google Classroom, being easily accessible and familiar to my students. (Accommodation: For my EL and special needs students, they have an extension called "Snap & Read" that can read aloud their computer screen downloaded to their browser). Students choosing their top three subtopics of interest gave me insight on how to create the research groups.
At the beginning of the lesson, I reviewed our previous unit's anchor chart, "Common Nonfiction Text Structures," and played a YouTube clip of Samuel Adam's speech, informing students to be on the look-out for key transition words.
Differentiating Assessments
The assessments chosen for the lesson plan were formative. Formative assessments monitor students' understanding of learning while in the process; it is a continuous process that requires response by the classroom teacher (Beard, 2021). Throughout the lesson, I was circulating the classroom listening in on students' conversations. Also, I was asking questions regarding the structures they identified and notes they had written. This game me insight as to where my students were in understanding text structures, as well as provide feedback and guidance to my students.
At the end of the lesson, students engaged in a Kagan cooperative learning structure, Mix-Pair-Share, to educate their peers on the text structures they found in their text, as well as the important information. Mix-Pair-Share is a processing experience for students; they are reflecting on and expressing their new knowledge and learning while teaching others (McCarthy, 2014).
When students' individual needs are considered, whether academic or personal, they can reach their highest potential.
References
Beard, E. (2021). What is formative assessment? Teach. Learn. Grow. https://www.nwea.org/blog/2021/what-is-formative-assessment/
How differentiated instruction can help you reach every student in class. (2020). Waterford.Org. https://www.waterford.org/education/differentiated-instruction-strategies/
McCarthy, J. (2014). 3 ways to plan for diverse learners: What teachers do. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-ways-to-plan-john-mccarthy
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