D IVERSITY IN D IFFERENTIATION I NSTRUCTION Callie Sloan

I observed a Kindergarten class at Roopville Elementary. The main subjects I observed was Math and Language Arts. There were 17 students in the class, 9 boys and 8 girls. All of the students were Caucasian. I observed the class over three days equaling 21 hours.

This was my first placement and I learned many things from the supervising teacher. The first thing that she explained to me was how she handled classroom management. -Red Light Clips -Recess Time Deduction -Daily Notes Home in Agenda -Prize Box

The next thing my supervising teacher had taught me was how she assessed all her students. -Assessing Low, Medium, and High during Language Arts -Assessing the class as a whole for Math

I really enjoyed watching my teacher interact with her students. She makes a point of talking to each student at least once throughout the school day. -Personal Life -Homework -What the daily leader wants to do

Differentiated instruction is a theory that allows teachers to face a certain challenge by taking diverse student factors into account when making lesson plans and exercises for the class as a whole.

It is also the purpose of Differentiation Instruction for the teachers to structure the learning environment to address all learning styles, interests, and abilities. -How does it work?

W HAT D IFFERENTIATED I NSTRUCTION MEANS FOR TEACHERS TEACHERS DO:TEACHERS DON’T: -provide several learning options, or different paths to learning, which help students take in information and make sense of concepts and skills. -develop a separate lesson plan for each individual student. -provide appropriate levels of challenges for all students, including those who lag behind, those who are advanced, and those in the middle. -”water down” the curriculum for some students.

4 S TEPS IN C REATING A D IFFERENTIATED L ESSON P LAN Step 1: Know your students Step 2: Have a Range of Teaching Strategies Step 3: Identify a Variety of Instructional Activities Step 4: Identify Ways to Assess or Evaluate Student Progress

H OW DO YOU ASSESS IT ? It is always a difficult procedure when the lesson unit comes to an end and it is time to asses the students and the teacher wants to make it as fair as possible. -Different types of assessments

A fun way to implement Differentiated Instruction into the classroom is to use “exit cards”. This lets you, as the teacher, to understand which students are grasping the subject or need a little more help on it. -Examples

I think that differentiated instruction is a very important part of education for the students to be able to learn what they are expected to learn each academic year. -Why?

R EFERENCES -Willoughby, Jennifer. "Differentiated Insruction." Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Web. 31 Mar (Slides 6-8) -Williams. "Creating a Differentiated Lesson." Worksheets, Lesson Plans, Teacher Resources, and Rubrics from TeAch- nology.com. Teachnology, Web. 31 Mar (Slide 9) -Watson, Sue. "Special Education." About.com. About.com, Web. 31 Mar (Slide 10)

R EFERENCES C ONT ’ D -Harris. "Seat Sack Educational School Supply Teaching Organizers." Sack School Web. 31 Mar (Slide 11) -Snowman, Jack, R. R. McCown, and Robert F. Biehler. Psychology Applied to Teaching. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Print.’’ -Hardin, Carlette Jackson. Effective Classroom Management: Models and Strategies for Today's Classrooms. Boston: Pearson, Print.