Madison Meredith's Diverse Learners

3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners: What Teachers Do by John McCarthy


The beginning of this article describes the movie The Wizard of Oz. The characters in this movie are described as examples of children that can be in your classroom. Dorthy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion all showed fear and frustration when they were going on an adventure to slay the Witch of the West. But, what they didn't know is that they had a heart, a brain, courage, and a way home. All while they thought they had nothing and couldn't do it. The students who show this in the classroom can feel that way as well. Until they try something, they'll never know what they can do.

"Differentiated instruction (DI) casts a spell on educators as to how it meets all students' needs. The core of differentiation is a relationship between teachers and students. The teachers' responsibility is connecting content, process, and product. Students respond to learning based on readiness, interests, and learning profile."

CONTENT: is comprised of the knowledge, concepts, and skills that students need to learn based on the curriculum. There are an endless varieties for this, such as videos, readings, lectures, or audio. Students may have the opportunity to choose the content they're interested in.

PROCESS: is how students make sense of the content. They need time to reflect and digest the learning activities before moving onto the next part of the lesson. At the end of a lesson, students always feel overwhelmed and have so much knowledge that they don't know what to do with. Taking time to reflect allows students to really lay out what they do and do not understand. Some strategies are: think-pair-share, journaling, partner talk, literature circles, etc.

PRODUCT: is most common. Teachers give choices where students pick formats OR students propose their own design thoughts. "The key to product options is having clear academic criteria that students understand. When products are cleanly aligned to learning targets, student voice and choice flourish, while ensuing that significant content is addressed."

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-ways-to-plan-john-mccarthy