Reflection on Differentiated Instruction

Reflecting upon my Differentiation Station

Throughout this course, my group has been very supportive and I have been fortunate enough to have been grouped with teaching professionals that are willing to take the time to help others. We have shared many resources and strategies that are beneficial in implementing the Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction. These particular resources will assist me in reaching those struggling learners as well as enriching those students who need a challenge. Through these two frameworks, all students can be successful.

A way that I will use these valuable resources is by saving them on my bookmarking page so that I can easily access them no matter where I am. Several of the websites that I have viewed have great organizers, rubrics, and lesson plans that I could seamlessly implement throughout my teaching career. I am also thinking of creating my own wiki that is devoted to differentiated instruction and technology tools in which my colleagues in my county can access and effectively use these resources. Lastly, I would love to use my knowledge of differentiated instruction and share it with the rest of my county by creating a presentation at a professional development inservice day. My principal has already approached a colleague of mine to create a presentation on technology for an inservice that we have in January. We are already beginning to plan a presentation together and I am hopeful that we can infuse these two frameworks as well.

My way of teaching has already changed for the better. I have found myself incorporating more visuals, video clips for those auditory learners, and hands on activities for those students that learn through kinesthetic motions. In math, I have been using more internet games to practice math facts and to review concepts such as place value. In writing class, students have been typing poems and have played games to review types of sentences. Some students have been struggling with subtraction with regrouping, therefore, I have been pulling some needs groups to incorporate reteaching while providing the rest of the class with more challenging activities to extend their thinking. I have been finding many instances in which I can use the Tic Tac Toe board to assess my students learning without forcing students to take a paper and pencil test. This activity makes learning more enjoyable for students and gives them the freedom of choice to demonstrate their understanding. In reading, students have completed a bio-cube on the Read Write Think website which made the book report fun and interactive, especially for my struggling readers.

I will be using the website http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/ quite frequently because it has endless information on this topic. My plan is to incorporate differentiation in all my lessons in some way, whether it is flexible groupings, varied activities, or varied teaching methods. “When teaching an entire class, teachers should use all learning styles in their presentations if they are to reach every student” (Orey, 2001).

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/