Main Body
Effective teachers think proactively when planning lessons. Consider the particular students you will be working with, your time frame, the activities you’ve planned, the materials you are using and possible scenarios that may impact your plans; be prepared to adjust your instruction accordingly. Describe the possible points in the lesson in which adjustments may need to occur and points in which instruction might be flexible in approach in response to specific student needs. Prepare a plan to give more direct instruction or adapted instruction to specific students who may not be understanding the topic as well as a plan for increasing the rigor or difficulty of tasks when necessary. Anticipate any behavioral challenges and create a proactive plan for managing classroom climate. Consider the technology planned during the lesson and describe a backup plan should the technology fail. Also consider pacing, teacher roles, grouping, assistive technology, and individualized student accommodations.
Identify points in the lesson where you might need be flexible in your approach in response to student needs. How will you adjust your content? What plan of response to student actions/behaviors are you prepared for?
Examples of Proactive Considerations:
- Being aware of my two students with poor attendance records, I will place them in different pre-planned groups.
- To address any misunderstandings as to the activity steps, I will post the steps and provide a model to each group.
- For my students who often complete the assigned activity earlier than peers, access to laptops will be available, as well as a the link to an online ‘Jeopardy’ style game, reviewing the lesson content.
- In case of a technology malfunction, a graphic organizer will be available on which students will complete a concept map.
- I plan to offer J.D. a movement break 10 minutes into the group activity following his 504 plan.
Example of Proactive Considerations from a CEP Student’s Lesson Plan:
| ● If extra time exists at the end of the lesson and students are not showing signs of
needing a movement break, students will be given a noun and a verb and asked to create their own sentence to be labeled by a peer. ● Students will have an opportunity to complete the activity during make-up time with the associate teacher in case of absence. If K.D.’s behavior interferes with peers’ focus he will be given a choice as to moving to a separate work station or to a desk in the hall to complete his work. ● J.Y. and T.C. have demonstrated persistent difficulty with labeling the elements of a simple sentence. A classroom assistant will intervenethe if this is observed and will pair these students up, prompting completion with discussion and her corrective feedback as beneficial. |
Differentiation:
It is in this section of your lesson plan that you share how you plan to differentiate your instruction as you strive to meet the varying needs of all of your learners. Differentiation supports the provision of equity to your students. No two students are alike, however, the variety of needs presented among your students do not always qualify them for 504 Plans or IEPs. Teachers can meet students’ needs without the requirements of formal accommodations or modifications noted in one of these documents. In fact, high-quality instructors do this on a consistent basis to offer equitable learning opportunities to their diverse learners. The biggest difference between differentiating instruction and these last two practices is that accommodations and modifications are noted in legal documents and required to be implemented by teachers.
Differentiation is a practice that high-quality teachers choose to implement as they strive to meet the varying needs among the students in their classrooms. This practice is not required through a student’s IEP or 504 Plan. It is a practice a high-quality instructor uses to make a change to the content of a lesson, the process students are using to make sense of that content, or the product students are completing to demonstrate their learning. By analyzing pre-assessment data, a strong teacher determines the students for which the lesson objective may need to differ in order to be appropriately challenging. Due to various readiness levels identified through pre-assessment, some students will need to meet higher expectations in order to progress in their understanding while some students may need greater support through a difference in the content (not the topic) or the process to show increased understanding.
Following analysis, describe how you’ll differentiate your instruction to meet these diverse individual needs. Remember that differentiated instruction isn’t a strategy, but a framework that can be used to implement a variety of strategies such as grouping students for instruction. As you begin to differentiate instruction, there are three main instructional elements that can be adjusted to meet the variety of learners’ needs:
- Content – the knowledge and skills students need to master
- Process – the activities students use to make sense of and master the content
- Product – the method students use to demonstrate learning
- Learning Environment– the climate of the classroom
Readiness levels are not the only consideration in differentiating instruction. Each of these instructional elements can also be differentiated by considering either students’ interests or learning profiles. Consideration of these elements prompts increased student investment and engagement in lessons and thus learning.
It is wise to begin implementing differentiation gradually. taking ‘baby steps’. This can be an overwhelming task. With time and experience, however, it becomes automatic for teachers. There is no reason to strive to differentiate more than one element of a lesson at a time (content; process; product; environment). At the Center for Educator Preparation our focus will be on the Teacher Candidate’s implementation of differentiation of content, process, or product. Differentiating the learning environment requires much less planning and effort and doesn’t require analysis of student’s academic performance.
Examples:
Content differentiated by:
- readiness – materials at varied readability levels
- interest – range of materials that apply key skills/concepts to a variety of real-world situations; sub-topic choice
- learning profile – video or audio notes for students who learn better through repetition
Process differentiated by:
- readiness – mini-workshops
- interest – expert groups
- learning profile – choice of working conditions (alone or with a partner)
Product differentiated by:
- readiness – varied resource options
- interest – use of student interests in designing products
- learning profile – varied modes of expressing learning (PowerPoint; oral presentation; role-playing; game creation)
Environment differentiated by:
- readiness- provide materials that reflect a variety of learning levels
- interest- vary the places where learning occurs (lab, outside, flexible seating), provide materials that appeal to a variety of interests
- learning profile- places to work quietly and without distraction as well as places that invite student collaboration
Citations: Tomlinson and Allan, 2000
Example from CEP Student’s Lesson Plan:
- One student often displays negative behaviors associated with writing tasks. This lesson’s product will be differentiated considering the student’s learning profile/preferences. The lesson will be previewed with him and he will be given the choice of sharing his responses with the teacher or class orally.
- The process of this lesson will be differentiated for K.D. due to her speech-language impairments. Along with consultation with her speech-language pathologist questioning strategies I can use for appropriately providing corrective feedback, K.D. will draw from response cards prepared to support her verbalizations.
CPS’s Aligned LOFT Evaluation Criteria and Annotations – Pro-active Considerations; Differentiation
Pro-active Considerations:
|
