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Directed Questions
Curricular Design
Directed Questions for Lesson 5:
Differentiation for Diverse Students
Multiple Choice
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1.
Identify and describe one differentiation technique as it relates to one lesson you have planned for one learning outcome your students are working toward. Designate within the technique how at least one student with a mild disability receives an accommodation and/or adaptation.
example:
I teach sixth grade, and one of my school system´s new curriculum outcomes is that students can ´construct timelines by noting key events and people from ancient civilizations in Athens and Sparta and early and classic Chinese dynasties.´ From that outcome, one lesson´s outcome is ´construct timelines by noting key events,´ and the materials I´ll have students using for constructing timelines will vary. I´ll be using what Tomlinson calls ´tiered assignments,´ in that I´ll have all students working on constructing timelines, but the reading level of their material and events will vary. One set of students (working independently, not as a group) will be listening to tapes of the chapter on Athens´ civilization and will be responsible for constructing a timeline that focuses only on Athens. For a student with a reading disability, it would be an adaptation that the student is doing a timeline focusing only on Athens (because the outcome is changed in a minor way-for this lesson activity-to only one timeline instead of several timelines), and the accommodation is that the student is listening to the chapter on tape. Another set of students will be reading the chapter on their own and working on two timelines-for both Athens and Sparta. A third group will be reading the chapter on their own and also using other research materials to develop timelines for Athens, Sparta, and early Chinese dynasties. If a student with a learning disability in reading (i.e., low reading level) is in this third group and gains the information for the timelines through an electronic book/book on tape or other sources, then this would be an accommodation (student held to same standard as most of students in the class, but input method varies).
2.
Target two sets of information that learners in your class need to memorize. Develop a mnemonic that you can use when teaching that information.
example:
I teach 9
th
grade Geography, and one of our curriculum outcomes is that students ´can identify the dynamics of the four basic components of the Earth´s physical systems: the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere. Because these terms don´t have to be in a specific order, the first type of mnemonic I´d try is whether a word can be made using the first initials of these components, which narrows me to A, B, L, and H. I´m not real crazy about the word, but the one that I come up with is ´BLAH.´ In using that mnemonic, I´d introduce it to students by portraying the mnemonic as really an antonym for what happens within and among the Earth´s physical systems-BLAH, for one interpretation, can mean boring. So I´d introduce the course/lesson by talking about the exciting ways that the Earth´s physical systems impact our life-what we do, how we live, how our economies are impacted by geography (e.g., a dessert), and so on. It is not BLAH, but if they remember BLAH then they´ll be able to remember the four basic components of the Earth´s physical systems, which we´ll be learning throughout the course/unit. The second set of information that I´d use a keyword mnemonic for is the definitions of the four components. For example, I could teach ´biosphere´ by also linking it to ´life is here.´ The acoustic link of the two (the term biosphere to the keyword mnemonic life is here) can help students more quickly retrieve the term´s definition: the realm of Earth that includes all plant and animal life forms. Although I realize that the keyword mnemonic doesn´t have to contain the term´s definition in it, that works out well here for biosphere as a term.
3.
Develop a plan for how you can simultaneously have students working on three different activities during a 30-minute session of your class. Within your plan, be sure you have sufficient and appropriate challenges for three types of homogeneous learners: high-achievers, typical students, and students who require accommodations or adaptations. Be sure you specify the learning outcome that the activities relate to.
example:
I teach 9
th
grade Geometry. I´m going to use a mixture of techniques described in Lesson 5 text and required readings. I think the overall technique could be called a ´tiered instruction´ approach as described by Tomlinson, but I´m also using some ideas for activities within each center from the readings. Group A are the typical students, Group B are the students who require accommodations, and Group C are the high achievers. Groups A and B are working on the same outcome: Students compute areas of polygons, including rectangles, scalene triangles, and equilateral triangles. GroupC adds to that listing the area computations for rhombi, parallelograms, and trapezoids. (This might be called an adaptation for this group, as it is a minor change in the outcome-they´re calculating a few more types of polygon´s areas.) All groups are working independently, and I´m circulating and assisting (actually trying to use the ´mediated scaffolding´ described in an earlier Lesson!) as they´re working. All students have been presented with how to calculate area for polygons using concrete objects, and I´ve used real-life objects as well as why you´d need to calculate areas for polygons (e.g., how much carpeting you´d need for a room), and we´ve practiced together for several lessons. All students can use calculators if they want. Now students are moving toward this 30-minute learning center session, and here´s what they´d be doing: Group A has memorized the formula (the rule-or BIG idea!), needs no further work with concrete objects, and is working on a paper-pencil task with some word problems. Group B is still memorizing the formula, and they have a color-coded rule/checklist to refer to as well as concrete objects they can use-and they have the same paper-pencil task as Group A with some word problems. Students in Group B are required to show their checklist with checks on it for each problem-I´m trying to move them toward self-regulating their work and checking whether they´ve followed the steps on their own instead of relying on me to tell them where they made an error. The checklist would help me to do the ´mediated scaffolding,´ in that I could dialogue with them around the checklist steps (´Which step are you on? Is that answer correct according to the calculator? What´s the next step? Did you do it? OK. If you skipped that step, what do you need to do now to get back into the process? That´s right. Pick up at that step for that problem now, and remember-you need to use all steps for each problem.´) Group C has the same types of problems and same number of problems as Groups A and B, but they also have the three additional polygons (rhombi, parallelograms, and trapezoids) that they´re calculating areas for.
4.
Develop another plan-same directions as for Question 3, except this time describe only one groups´ activities and make the membership of that group heterogeneous (i.e., all students in the group are not working on same level/toward same outcome).
example:
Here I´d consider more of a learning center approach, such as described by Tomlinson, and using a cooperative learning approach as described in Lesson 5 text and some readings. Using the same outcomes for the same three groups designated in my answer to Question 3 (Groups A, B, and C-working on computing areas of polygons), I could have one learning center (a corner of the classroom with a large table and materials they´d need) in which several students from each group are working as a team (total about 8 students) to complete their worksheet task. I´d add to the worksheet task (which already contains some word problems) that the group needs to develop their own original real-life word problem, solve it as a team, and have individuals on the team write how they solved the problem (individual accountability). I´d appoint tasks for specific team members: a Group C member would be responsible for reading the directions for the whole team. A Group A member would be responsible for reading each problem (Group A members could rotate reading problems so that each member participates), and a Group B member would be responsible for checking off on the checklist for the computation of area process that a step has been followed (again, this could rotate among Group B members so that they all participate). I´d also appoint one person each from Group A, B, and C (three students) a task-master, time-keeper, and recorder for the group problem developed and solved. I´d so this so that each group has a leadership role during the learning center activity. I´d also build in (this would be the task-master´s role) that each student first self-checks their response (e.g., ´Each of us should have completed problem # 1 by now. You have one minute to self-check.´) and then has peer check (´Now exchange papers and review someone else´s response to problem # 1. Begin now-you have one minute). I´m not sure if I´d require that they keep the same partner for this self-check/peer-check part; I might require that they rotate partners here so that students don´t ´stay´ with their same-level group. For peer-check on Group C´s problems (this group has more polygons to compute areas for), I can provide answer keys so that a Group A or B member can peer-check against the answer key.
5.
Using the required readings on peer-mediated and cooperative learning methods, target one method and describe how you could use it in your instruction so that it is responsive to the needs of most students in your class with and without mild disabilities.
example:
I´m an 11
th
grade Chemistry teacher, and one thing most students have problems with is memorizing the symbols that match the chemical elements (e.g., ´H´ is for hydrogen, ´O´ is for oxygen). I´d like to use the peer-assisted learning technique described by Fuchs, Fuchs, and Kazdan, and also described by Maheady, Harper, and Mallette. I´m going to call it PALS (Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies), although it also sounds like the ClassWide Peer Tutoring. With PALS, the whole class has set sessions across weeks where they partner with a peer (different peers across weeks) and both partners play the role of tutor and tutee. I can see developing flashcards with the chemical symbol on one side and the name of the chemical on the other side, so it becomes a self-checking type of activity. That is, the partner who is the tutee may not know the symbol yet from memory, but that tutor can still tell the tutee if the answer is correct or not, and when it´s wrong, the tutor can provide the correct response. I´d have the tutor stack the corrects and errors in two separate stacks. I´d plan for 3 minutes of the tutor showing flashcards to tutee (I´d need to teach the process and practice it before we ´officially´ began doing PALS), and then they calculate the # correct, then they switch roles so the tutor becomes the tutee for 3 minutes. Their calculations of # correct would be graphed on each student´s individual graph so they would have a visual representation of their progress, and I´d even like to incorporate goal-setting (e.g., ´Target how many more you aim to get correct during our next PALS session). If we set aside 10 minutes, three times per week, across the 9-week course, then my goal would be that as I´m teaching the symbols´ use, the students would be acquiring through PALS more fluency on naming the symbols so that they could focus more on using the symbols with the Chemistry content.
