I experienced this in our project in which we needed to take three students and assess their learning styles and their intelligences and then come up with ways to teach all of them using the way they learn best. I saw this as a pretty big challenge because it's hard to differ from the way you learn and try and realize that your students may not be able to learn the same way as you do. Another thing that was tough was trying to find ways to allow every student to use their learning style to learn the material and making sure that they all have enough time to do all of the work.
Technology could definitely be an important part of differentiation in the classroom. Technology would allow students to have access to material and work which would allow them to work on the material for an extended period of time which would insure that all of the students could get their work done. You could also use PowerPoint's and other presentations in order to offer a presentation that incorporates all of the different learning styles. You could provide tests and other presentations through Google Drive which would also allow the students to access all of the material as much as they feel is needed. I really feel that if technology is implemented in an effective way
I agree. Diff. puts the existing strengths to use so that the kids can learn. I see it as a way to keep the entire class engaged and learning, no matter the subject.
ReplyDeleteVery good post Do you think more teachers are trying to use this method in their classroom or are they just using their old style of teaching methods?
ReplyDeleteI feel it would be super hard to differentiate in a classroom of twenty-some students! At times, I almost think it is unrealistic to meet everyones needs. But at the same time, that is our job as teachers and we have to try our best to do so.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that differentiation is taking everyone's strengths and playing up to them. This is what will make your classroom a positive environment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this quote from you blog: "This not only means making sure that students have enough time to learn the material but also allowing those students who master the material faster than others to move on to more advanced subjects and material." However, I feel that true differentiation is impossible. Every student learns at different levels so differentiation would entail making a new lesson plan for every student and there is just not enough time to do that for 30-35 students. If the students are broken into groups, some still may fall behind in their group. I also feel that grading each student would be very difficult. It would be unfair to give a student in the slower group an "A" while a student in the faster group earns an "B." Finally, some students might loose confidence in themselves if they are placed in a slower moving group.
ReplyDeleteThis was done very well. I agree on everything you said and your pictures and layout were nicely put.
ReplyDeleteI think you presented some important parts of differentiation. Most people don’t think about the students who are advanced and finish early. This is one of the biggest problems I see in the classroom that I am in. I am always trying to come up with extra projects to keep the students that finish early engaged in the material. It is also difficult because these students are then a distraction for those still working. I think that technology could be good for this, as long as it is still monitored and what they are doing is productive. To me a big frustration in the classroom is wasted time. There is a lot of this we can’t control, so what we can prevent needs to be.
ReplyDeleteI think technology would be a great way for differentiation to be used in the classroom for those who work slower, and those who work faster. I like having our assignments on D2L because I can work at my own pace.
ReplyDeleteI loved the way that you opened this post with how you talked about how you see differentiation as using the children's strengths to create a lesson and an atmosphere. That is so important for us as future educators to see that this is a change for the students not ourselves. Your post was all around very well done!!
ReplyDeleteYES! Student's strengths! That's where its at! Your definition of Differentiation is the best one that I have read! You got it right with this post!
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