678 Module 6 discussion
Hello Class,
This module focuses on differentiation and the tools available to help educators accomplish differentiated instruction. I have been fortunate enough to teach co-taught biology for the past 11 years. During that time, I have had 3 courses a year consisting of around 40% students with IEP's and then the rest being regular ed students. I always mention that I think my classroom might be the most diverse group in the building because I have students struggling to read at a 2nd grade level up to students I recommend for Honors Chemistry as a Sophomore. Because of this, differentiation becomes a critical component of our lessons. Luckily, over the 11 years, I have had 2 great co-teachers to work with that have really helped me modify, differentiate, and come up with a number of different strategies to reach all students!
To me, differentiating instruction can mean multiple things. For one, it means adapting and modifying daily lessons to meet the needs, and challenge, all learners in the classroom. Secondly, it means providing opportunities to learn for different types of learners (visual, kinestetic, auditory, etc). For this module I am going to focus on the first definition. I think my first definition fits pretty well with the definition provided by Reading Rocket. It is a tough task, especially in my biology class because of the variety of learning levels. My co-teacher and I need to accomplish this goal on a daily basis if we want all students to succeed in our classroom. I really have learned a lot from her over the years, and really value her experience with differentiated instruction. This could be as simple as reducing the amount of work required of a student, or as complex as changing the lesson to allow for her to pull specific groups to teach it differently in the hall or in a prep room. Either way, because of the diversity of learners in our class, we really differentiate now without even thinking about it or putting that label on it.
We have had a lot of different examples in the classroom as far as Assistive Technology is concerned. Over the years we have had 100's of students with IEP's and 504's that count on the technology for various physical or learning disabilities. The most frequent revolve around our chromebooks and different software available for students. This could be anything from software making reading passages more assessable to low level readers by changing the Lexar score, to text to speech or speech to text programs for students with various disabilities. We have also had a number of students need help keeping them on track or staying organized with help for assistive technology from stress balls to software reminder programs. My favorite piece of "AT" had to be last year where we had our first 4 legged student, Duffy, who assisted with everything from opening a backpack and getting out supplies, to opening doors or other physical barriers.
The first digital learning tool I reviewed was Rescue Time... Wow, this seems like an amazing app that not only could benefit my students, but also me and my personal life. This is a time management app that helps you organize important tasks, but also makes time for necessary down time and fun as well. This is one of the biggest issues my students face, especially freshmen. Most of the students I have that fail or do poorly are because of poor organization and time management skills. I am going to research this further, and possibly add it as a suggestion to the Special Ed Dept. as well as a tool to suggest using for parents and students at PTC's . .. Using an assignment notebook is great, but students very rarely want to write stuff down anymore. Maybe if it was an engaging app they would be more likely to do so.
The second tool I am also excited about on a professional and personal level with my own children. The tool is called EpicWin and uses a video game like reward system to organize tasks and acomplish goals. This reminds me of Class Dojo that my kids use but I think it may really entice some of my students that have organization skill deficits (ALL FRESHMEN). Many of my students are obsessed with their phone and play video games often in class. How amazing would it be to use this APP to get them excited about task management. Your character grows, powers up, learns new abilities as you turn in assignments or check off tasks. Could be a really good program to use for my students with IEP's that really have a hard time with focusing on the task at hand. Might have to try this as a pilot with a couple of students this semester getting towards finals. I was thinking of maybe using it to organize all of their study guides and study habits heading into final exams.
Thank you,
Jim Nielsen
This module focuses on differentiation and the tools available to help educators accomplish differentiated instruction. I have been fortunate enough to teach co-taught biology for the past 11 years. During that time, I have had 3 courses a year consisting of around 40% students with IEP's and then the rest being regular ed students. I always mention that I think my classroom might be the most diverse group in the building because I have students struggling to read at a 2nd grade level up to students I recommend for Honors Chemistry as a Sophomore. Because of this, differentiation becomes a critical component of our lessons. Luckily, over the 11 years, I have had 2 great co-teachers to work with that have really helped me modify, differentiate, and come up with a number of different strategies to reach all students!
To me, differentiating instruction can mean multiple things. For one, it means adapting and modifying daily lessons to meet the needs, and challenge, all learners in the classroom. Secondly, it means providing opportunities to learn for different types of learners (visual, kinestetic, auditory, etc). For this module I am going to focus on the first definition. I think my first definition fits pretty well with the definition provided by Reading Rocket. It is a tough task, especially in my biology class because of the variety of learning levels. My co-teacher and I need to accomplish this goal on a daily basis if we want all students to succeed in our classroom. I really have learned a lot from her over the years, and really value her experience with differentiated instruction. This could be as simple as reducing the amount of work required of a student, or as complex as changing the lesson to allow for her to pull specific groups to teach it differently in the hall or in a prep room. Either way, because of the diversity of learners in our class, we really differentiate now without even thinking about it or putting that label on it.
We have had a lot of different examples in the classroom as far as Assistive Technology is concerned. Over the years we have had 100's of students with IEP's and 504's that count on the technology for various physical or learning disabilities. The most frequent revolve around our chromebooks and different software available for students. This could be anything from software making reading passages more assessable to low level readers by changing the Lexar score, to text to speech or speech to text programs for students with various disabilities. We have also had a number of students need help keeping them on track or staying organized with help for assistive technology from stress balls to software reminder programs. My favorite piece of "AT" had to be last year where we had our first 4 legged student, Duffy, who assisted with everything from opening a backpack and getting out supplies, to opening doors or other physical barriers.
The first digital learning tool I reviewed was Rescue Time... Wow, this seems like an amazing app that not only could benefit my students, but also me and my personal life. This is a time management app that helps you organize important tasks, but also makes time for necessary down time and fun as well. This is one of the biggest issues my students face, especially freshmen. Most of the students I have that fail or do poorly are because of poor organization and time management skills. I am going to research this further, and possibly add it as a suggestion to the Special Ed Dept. as well as a tool to suggest using for parents and students at PTC's . .. Using an assignment notebook is great, but students very rarely want to write stuff down anymore. Maybe if it was an engaging app they would be more likely to do so.
The second tool I am also excited about on a professional and personal level with my own children. The tool is called EpicWin and uses a video game like reward system to organize tasks and acomplish goals. This reminds me of Class Dojo that my kids use but I think it may really entice some of my students that have organization skill deficits (ALL FRESHMEN). Many of my students are obsessed with their phone and play video games often in class. How amazing would it be to use this APP to get them excited about task management. Your character grows, powers up, learns new abilities as you turn in assignments or check off tasks. Could be a really good program to use for my students with IEP's that really have a hard time with focusing on the task at hand. Might have to try this as a pilot with a couple of students this semester getting towards finals. I was thinking of maybe using it to organize all of their study guides and study habits heading into final exams.
Thank you,
Jim Nielsen
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