Differentiation
2016-2017
Support for Struggling Learners
I have created a series of short videos to help struggling learners with challenging topics. Some videos are designed to help with specific assignments, while others just cover complicated concepts. I have received positive feedback from students about this practice. Students tend to feel less intimidated by watching the help videos than they do asking a question in the live session. Sometimes students will email me to request a help video about a particular topic.
Enrichment for Advanced Learners
One of my favorite parts of teaching is challenging students to think about problems that are just beyond their current level of understanding. In my face to face school this occurs naturally through discussion and class interaction. I have to be much more deliberate in my approach when teaching online. I often use the discussion board and sometimes news announcements to present these problems. I find that unless I find very interesting problems, many students will ignore my attempts to stimulate beyond the prescribed curriculum. In face to face class they cannot ignore me. I continue to work on an online approach to engage more students in enrichment.
Extensions
Students in computer science courses have a very wide range of experience, background, and developed problem solving skills in beginning programming courses. Some students breeze through the assignments and are hungry for more, while others struggle to meet the minimum requirements. Many of my assignments include an "extension" at the end. The extension is optional, but usually provides an interesting and challenging problem for advances learners to ponder. Students in computer science participate in the extensions enthusiastically, in contrast to what I see in my math classes.