PLE at Your Fingertips
Personalizing Learning at Lincoln Academy/Hairston Middle
cheerPLEF's Pep Talk
Can we do it? YES - WE - CAN!
PLE / IGS of the Month: Differentation
As introduced during PACE Summer Training in the IGS (Instructional Grouping Strategies) we will spend time focusing on each of the 9 strategies. We will not move to next strategy as a school until we see 70% percent mastery with teachers. The fist strategy of focus is differentiation. Did you give your learning inventories? What did you with the data? Who are you going to differentiate for? These are just a few questions to answer before we get started.
At its most basic level, differentiation consists of the efforts of teachers to respond to variance among learners in the classroom. Whenever a teacher reaches out to an individual or small group to vary his or her teaching in order to create the best learning experience possible, that teacher is differentiating instruction.
Teachers can differentiate at least four classroom elements based on student readiness, interest, or learning profile:
- Content – what the student needs to learn or how the student will get access to the information;
- Process – activities in which the student engages in order to make sense of or master the content;
- Products – culminating projects that ask the student to rehearse, apply, and extend what he or she has learned in a unit; and
- Learning environment – the way the classroom works and feels.
Learning Environment
Examples of differentiating learning environment at the elementary level include:
- Making sure there are places in the room to work quietly and without distraction, as well as places that invite student collaboration;
- Providing materials that reflect a variety of cultures and home settings;
- Setting out clear guidelines for independent work that matches individual needs;
- Developing routines that allow students to get help when teachers are busy with other students and cannot help them immediately; and
- Helping students understand that some learners need to move around to learn, while others do better sitting quietly (Tomlinson, 1995, 1999; Winebrenner, 1992, 1996).
References:
Excerpted from: Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000). Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education
Websites to help with differentiation:
http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-differentiated-instruction
Teacher Spotlight will return next month! PLE walk-throughs will begin soon! Where will you get caught?
During PLC...
During Class...
After school...
Gradual Release and the Tablet
ME: It is all about you! BE the SAGE on the STAGE! TEACH!
WE: Model and Connect! Make sure they know and understand the content.
FEW: Differentiation! Small groups! LMS! TABLETS!
YOU: Reflection, Critical Analysis, and Transfer of Knowledge.
PIN IT!
Feel free to contact me!
I am truly passionate about this thing called Personalize Learning, if you truly want to get there, I can help! Let me know what and when and I'm there!
Email: bellglw@gcsnc.com
Website: ple.gcsnc.com
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Twitter: @cheerplef