Developing Differentiation Skills

This module is part of the Teaching & Learning Skils Development course. Each module comprises a short introduction to key skills.  Teachers are challenged to implement these skils over the duration of a month and reflect on their progress toward outstanding provision. 

30 Day Challenge

To implement your new learning and support your journey toward becoming a master teacher the following skills, which demonstrate this module’s outcomes, should be practiced over the next 30 days

Where possible, find a colleague who you know is highly skilled in this area.

Shadow them and learn from them. Ask them to support you by observing you put these new skills into action.

Special Needs – If you have students on an Individual Education Plan IEP or an Advanced Learning Plan ALP, any accommodations or modification listed in those plans should be reflected in your lesson differentiation. 

Level of Prior Knowledge –Review your curriculum map, if students have gaps in knowledge from the prior year differentiate content in order to catch up.

Create an interest centre -survey your students and find an area of interest that they want to learn more about. Based on your school’s priorities for learning  set up an interest centre where students can learn independently, extend their knowledge and work collaboratively. 

 

Student Behavior – If you have students with severe behavior issues or on a behavior contract, ensure that their learning processes are differentiated. This might include having them work alone instead of in a small group or keeping them separated from a particular student, or even ensuring that they always work alongside a teacher or aide.

Learning Styles – Do you have students who are strong visual learners, and always learn best from graphs, illustrations, or graphic organizers? Or maybe you have students that are very tactile and need to manipulate objects in order to solidify concepts in their mind? Appraise your students and accommodate their preferences in all lessons.

Lesson Purpose – In all lessons consider the purpose of your lesson. If the purpose is for students to learn presentation skills such as public speaking and debate, then you can easily differentiate the content to a topic that students are passionate about.