Revitalizing My Teaching Practice

Differentiating Instruction (DI) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) both promote the philosophy of opening up the classroom to provide more avenues for learning for all students (Laureate Education, 2009). There are now many online resources that support UDL implementation in any class routine. Hence, UDL’s core principles to provide multiple means of representation, expression, action and engagement can be facilitated in all subject areas and grade levels, thus eroding the many learning barriers that hinder students’ understanding of content material. DI is a mindset that is guided by the non-negotiable fact that students must be allowed to carry out respectful learning tasks that are directed by a high quality curriculum. These tasks can be differentiated according to content, product and process, affect and the learning environment and in turn, they are differentiated according to the students’ readiness, learning style and interest (Laureate Education, 2009). Both concepts seek to provide alternatives to learning for students, alternatives that will engage the students to learn at their optimum (Laureate Education, 2009). In light of what I have discovered throughout this course, especially in my differentiation station group, there are three areas in my teaching and learning routine that will be adjusted. These areas include my pre-planning brainstorming process, the types of learning activities with which I will engage my students and the manner in which I assess my students’ progress.

Previously, I would spend a few minutes to a few days “thinking about” how I plan on teaching the specific topic as stated by the syllabus. My focus was mainly to address content requirements, however, in light of my exposure to UDL and DI, I see the need to use the pre-planning time to brainstorm better for technological and non-tech resources and teaching/learning strategies that will help me to differentiate according to my students’ interest, readiness and learning style. The use of graphic organizers is one of the learning strategies that I have discovered from my differentiating station group. The websites, edhelper.com and spicynodes.com, as well as the software mindmap and mindjet are just a few of the technological resources that my colleagues and I shared that will allow me to truly differentiate content, product and process according to my students’ interest, readiness and learning style. The graphic organizers provided by the edhelper.com web site can be printed as hard copies, which the students can use to help them organize the content that they need to know for the topics that they are expected to learn. They can represent their learning as an interactive concept map on spicynodes.com or as a mind map on mindjet or mindmap. Each tool will allow the student to be fully engaged in the learning process and can be used as an assessment product (Laureate Education, 2009).

My pre-planning ideas will automatically provide the direction in which I intend to guide the lesson, and hence, they will help me to choose the appropriate learning activities for my students. DI encourages the creation of flexible groups, whether they are individually based or if they consist of pairs of students or more (Laureate Education, 2009). I have used the idea of projects, power point presentations, dramatizations, and videos on many occasions as the means to an end. As a result of completing this course, I intend to add another dimension to my students’ experience and that is the use of Web Quests. The web site, pbs.org, as suggested by one of my group members, provides ideas and templates for such a class activity. The web site ThinkQuest.com also provides great ideas on how to create such an activity by providing models for all grade levels. This activity is ideal in that it can be done for any topic and hence can be differentiated according to the learners’ readiness, interest and learning style. Web Quests also make it possible for content material to be represented in as many a sensory mode as possible. They will keep the students engaged and they will provide them with the chance to express their learning in the mode that works best for them. In the same breath, not all work will be graded because I intend to differentiate the learning process in the hope of ensuring that all students understand the content material as they interact with it. By doing this, the atmosphere for learning according to their interest and learning profile will be encouraged. In the end, I hope to use my ongoing assessment of their intermediate pieces of work to influence how I assess them summatively (Laureate Education, 2009).

It is important that I therefore adjust how I assess my students’ progress. Formerly, I recorded a grade for each piece of work. I intend to alter this habit based on my new understanding of assessment in the framework of differentiating instruction (DI) and UDL (Laureate Education, 2009). I intend to walk around with a clipboard holding a list of my students’ names and the respective skills that I intend to check for the given topic (Tomlinson, 1999). I intend to use Excel to record all the data making it available to both parent and student. I know my students’ competences, but I wish to have this recorded so that I can provide them with better and more specific guidance that will help them to achieve more. When I engage in this kind of ongoing assessment, I will not only be addressing their understanding of content, but I will also address the interpersonal and intrapersonal issues that impact their learning. My “grade book” will therefore have a different appearance. It will not only be filled with numbers, but it will also be filled with qualitative comments that constitute the whole student learner. Technology, in the form of Excel, or an online organizer, will therefore help me achieve this change in my assessment process; a process that will involve the student learner and parent (Tomlinson, 1999).

As I learn about new technologies and teaching strategies that are grounded in research and apply them in my teaching practice, I will continue to grow as a scholar-practitioner. As I strive to be a better effecter of learning, I know that my students will be better learners. As I infuse technology into my differentiated lessons that are undergirded by UDL principles, I know that there will be a change in my students’ attitude, motivation, achievement and performance in my content area.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Reaching and engaging all learners through technology. Baltimore: Author

Tomlinson, C. (1999). Differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervisor & Curriculum Development