Differentiated Instruction

Thanks for your response and the title of the book. It sounds like a great resource to look into.

Thanks Katherine for the title of a book that looks like will be a great resource for all teachers.

Teachers in this situation have extra DI challenges.

I'd love to swap ideas with you if you have this situation.
In high school chem:

1. I keep handy a list of each stu's favourite learning style. This way I remember who the kinesthetic learners are and get them to model the concepts. I remember who the oral kids are and choose them to give the oral snapshot of the lesson. etc.

2. I write three versions of lab instruction sheets when it is a planning lab and when there is data processing to be done. I dont justify why I am helping some kids more than other; and all know they can email me any time for tips. They seem to like that I see them as successful chemists who will figure it out on their own. They swell up with pride when I take one aside and say, dont waste your busy time with this homework tonight, instead, listen to this university lecture podcast and summarize it for me in a paragraph.

3. Daily formative work keeps me on top of who needs differentiation for each concept because I make a big point of noting that the same student doesnt need scaffolding for every concept.

I am desperate for ideas for DI that works when we dont have the students for longer chunks of time so please put me in touch with someone who can help.

Thanks,
Jane Altemen, Hanoi Vietnam

Teaching Esperanto as your class' first foreign language engages more of your class because the less able have more chance to make progress and the more able can make a wider choice of application. This is because the unique regularity of the "rules" encourages and rewards innovation.
As Esperanto is spoken as a second language in dozens of countries, your students can choose which cultures they would like to contact and explore, with it.
You can teach and learn Esperanto at the same time using "Talking to the Whole Wide World" available from www.mondeto.com

One of the many ways I have used differentiation in my classroom is to create a project that revolves around teen novels. I include a variety of assessments throughout the project, allowing teens to select their own novels and choice for demonstrating what they know. I teach the basics about literary tems, plot, etc. using written and non linguistic representation, videos, and otherd instructional strategies. This takes about a month to finish, but each student is able to present what they learned using various means of expression from writing to visual presentations. This can be used year after year and the products created by students are usually quite awesome.

My answer is to not try to cover it all. It's clear that U.S. standards try to do too much each year and end up doing too little. Choose the essential standards for your course and hit them very hard from multiple perspectives and with engaging activities and appropriate practice. When a student "gets it" before the others, challenge them with extension problems or a project or have them independently work with material that the rest of the class may not get to. Expect mastery of the core material from all students but be reasonable. Don't end up the year having achieved too little because a couple students wouldn't allow you to progress. This to me is the heart of differentiation: challenge each student appropriately and engagingly.

http://udlspotlight.wordpress.com/category/vsa-arts/ describes a method for accomplishing UDL, an approach to instruction and learning that assumes that students will need a variety of paths ( linguistic, physical, visual, etc.) to engage subject matter in order to be successful an express what they know. VSA Massachusetts will offer a course for graduate credit on Arts and UDL this fall. email cjwashburn@vsamass.org for more info.

Differentiated Instruction is simply a reaction to the failure of heterogenous grouping.

After I retire, I am going to hit the lecture circuit-
My keynote speach will be the new instructional rage:
"Differentiated Coddling"
Look for it in ~ 2 years.

I've read about differentiated activities many times.... having work for students to do, leveled activitied, next steps for fast finishers, and such, but my question is does anyone ever make this work effectively? How would one keep students working and motivated if they do not want to do the work, don't care about school, or only want to do the bare minimum. My problem with differentiation isn't getting the work/activities for the students, it's getting the students to not compare their work to someone elses and having that motivation to work on the next step if they understood well or finished quickly.

[quote]Differentiated Instruction is simply a reaction to the failure of heterogenous grouping.[/quote]

I find that even in a group of streamed students, there's such a variety of approaches to all aspects of learning: working memory, how they process input, how they best express their understanding...