Action Plan for Differentiation: Bella Writing Center Format your title page according to your university guidelines.   *This sample PowerPoint was adapted by the Writing Center from original submission by a student. Used by permission.

Part A: Bella’s Learning Profile Third grader (8 years old) at Star Elementary School Family immigrated from Mexico five years ago Family lives at poverty level Bella speaks English at school, Spanish at home Bilingual interpreter needed for all parental, in-person conferences Writing Center

Part A: Bella’s Learning Profile, Continued Due to Bella’s struggles with reading comprehension and math, she was evaluated for specific learning disabilities. It was determined that she has an average IQ, but has dyslexia and expressive language processing disorder. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that primarily affects reading and its severity varies between individuals (Learning Disabilities Association [LDA], 2016). Language Processing Disorder (LPD) impacts how a student processes language from the sound of letters, words, sentences, and stories (LDA, 2016). Writing Center

Part B: Strategies for Bella’s Success Speech Pathologist Increased teacher time Classroom Accommodations Shorter reading assignments Longer time for math Time with Tutor (me) Location: Star Elementary One-hour sessions, twice a week Collaboration with Bella’s teacher to strategize Writing Center Continued on next slide

Part C: Strategies for Bella’s Success As Bella’s tutor, I plan to use the constructivist approach for effective learning. Vgygotsky developed constructivism methods with the premise that children and adults are unique in how they take in, process, and recreate information; this approach supports teaching strategies such as scaffolding and modeling (Hall, Quinn & Gollnick, 2015). Scaffolding. Hall et al. (2015) explained that “scaffolding denotes starting instruction with small tasks the learner already knows and building on that knowledge” (p. 14). Modeling. Modeling occurs when a teacher explains a concept while providing an example for the learners (Hall et al., 2015). Writing Center

Part C: Strategies for Bella’s Success, continued Bella’s teacher said that Bella has difficulty reading at the first grade level and suggested that she work with sight words and first grade books. Both sight words and phonetics have been proven to help students who have dyslexia (McArthur et al., 2015). With this in mind, my lesson plans include: Recognizing letters and numbers by use of a movable alphabet and numerical set Modeling by saying the names of the letters and sounds so I can help her encode and decode letters and create phonemic awareness (Wadington, 2000). Scaffolding by removing the letters and asking Bella to put them back in order with the goal of completing the line of letters by herself. Writing Center

Writing Center In conclusion…. As shown here, successful teaching and learning takes understanding of a student, collaboration with other educators and parents, a careful, strategic lesson plan, along with appropriate teaching strategies to help a child, like Bella, with learning difficulties. Writing Center

Writing Center References Gardiner, K. (2009). Children’s Mariachi [photo]. Retrieved from http://www.photosforclass.com Hall, G. E., Quinn, L. F., & Gollnick, D. M. (2014). Introduction to teaching: Making a difference in student learning. Thousand oaks, CA: SAGE. Learning Disabilities Association (LDA). (2016). Types of learning disabilities. Retrieved from http://ldaamerica.org/ McArthur, G., Castles, A., Kohnen, S., Larsen, L., Jones, K., Anandakumar, T., & Banales, E. (2015). Sight word and phonics training in children with dyslexia. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 48(4), 391-401. doi: 10.1177/00222219413504996 Wadington, E. (2000). Effective language art instruction for students with Dyslexia. Preventing School Failure, 44(2), 61. Writing Center