Differentiating Instruction: Process

Video Transcription

Hello, and thank you for joining me for differentiated instruction with a focus on process. By the end of today's tutorial, we will be able to answer the following essential questions. In what ways can the learning process be differentiated? And what are some examples of differentiated learning process?

Let's begin by reviewing what differentiated instruction is. Essentially, differentiated instruction is a framework. And this framework that teachers follow allows you to make changes to content, process, and products. What this means is making changes to the content that is taught, making changes to the way that we teach the content-- that's the process-- and making changes to the way that the students produce mastery. It also includes making changes to the environment. And this can mean both the physical environment and the classroom mentality.

An important part of differentiated instruction is creating student profiles. And this doesn't mean necessarily tracking students based on race, or gender, or anything like that. A student profile is made up of the following. It's made up of interests-- so what the student is interested in outside of school-- the student's learning style, which can be determined by the teacher through a simple learning styles quiz or observations, the student's dominant multiple intelligences areas, which can also be determined through a simple multiple intelligences quiz.

The student's gender, because there is research showing that girls and boys learn differently. The student's culture, which helps the teacher also be cognizant of any cultural biases that he or she may have in the classroom. And other factors, such as socioeconomic factors, or the feeder school that they've come to you from, or if this is elementary school, whether or not they've ever been in formal schooling before.

Again, this is not tracking. And this is not a negative thing. This is the teacher realizing that they need to educate the whole child, and that education doesn't happen in a bubble. It's actually influenced by many different factors. With that in mind, we're going to focus on the process area of teaching. And this is how we deliver the content.

So remember that differentiated instruction is based on student learning. Remember that the process of learning new content is differentiated based on how students learn, and how they acquire facts, concepts, and skills. And this was really made popular by Anderson in 2007. So he basically says that we understand that students are working at different levels of understanding and that they also learn in different ways. With that in mind, we cannot expect to teach them in the same way.

This goes back to what we've been saying. One-size-fits-all teaching doesn't work. If I have a student who's facing content for the first time, and I have another student who's already familiar with the content, then I need to differentiate the way that I present this content to both those students. Also, if I have a student who learns best through reading, and I have another student who learns best through hands-on activities, I can't just stand up in front of the classroom and lecture to those students, because they won't get it. We have to differentiate the process based on what they know and how they learn.

There are a couple of different ways that we can differentiate instruction. This is the fun part. You might like the theory of differentiating how you deliver the content to your students, but you may not know how. One way is by having interest centers. Interest centers are just where you group students based on the different interests that they have.

So if you have one group of students who really learns well from reading about the content, you might have an interest center with an article about the content. If you have another group who, as in our example earlier, does best with hands-on learning, you're going to have an interest center that appeals to those learners. You're also going to have tiered lessons and assignments. And what this just means is it's the same end goal, but the levels of difficulty for the lessons and assignments are based on what the student already knows.

You're also going to have anchor activities. And these are going to be activities that everybody does, but then that we can go off from. So maybe the anchor activity is you use flipped learning to introduce the content to the students at home through an online tutorial. That online tutorial is going to be the anchor activity. When they get to class the next day, then they're going to go on to different enrichment activities based on that anchor activity.

You'll also have flexible groupings. You might at the beginning of the year create groups based on what a student already knows. You might have groups based on ability, or interest, or maybe you've completed a learning profile for the students. But you need to be flexible also within that grouping because students change over the course of the year. And also, give the students choice.

And what this just means is let them choose how they're going to learn the content. Maybe you've always had a kid who enjoys reading about the content as their way of acquisition of knowledge, but they want to try something else out for this new unit that you're going over. Be willing to let them make that choice and to allow them to follow through on that choice.

Another really important thing is options for homework. An example is on a particular concept, you might have students do section A. If after section A, they reflect on it and they feel like they need more practice, maybe they need to do section B to get more practice. If after section A they feel like they've got it, then they can move on to section C for some enrichment activities.

This is important because it allows the students to self-assess. And eventually this is going to lead to some metacognition on the student's behalf. And also, just a sense of advocating for him or herself because they're thinking about their needs.

It's important when you're differentiating that you ask yourself some questions. And these questions are we're going to talk about focus solely on the process. So you might ask yourself, how might different students be grouped in the most effective way? What choices can I provide to my students for classroom work and homework? What process differentiation strategies or techniques might best lend themselves to the particular content I am teaching?

So are small groups always going to work? Are interest centers always going to work? Is it appropriate to give choice in homework for this content? And what digital tools might help me differentiate the learning process for students?

Is Google Docs going to be helpful for me? Do I want to use turnitin.com? Do I want to use Socrative? How can I collect data? How can I present the content? Maybe I want to use Sophia to present the content, or maybe I want to create a class web page on Schoology.

Let's reflect. Do you see yourself using any of these strategies in your classroom currently? If not, which strategies are you most likely to use?

Let's review what we talked about today. Today, we talked about what ways the learning process can be differentiated and what some examples of differentiated learning process are. For more information on how to apply what you learned in this video, please view the additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. The additional resources section includes hyperlinks useful for applications of the course material, including a brief description of each resource. Thank you for joining me, and happy teaching.