One of the most promising aspects of teaching I have come to enjoy is how diverse the student backgrounds are in the classes which I have observed and subbed in. Not only are there cultural differences, but also the level at which the students learn and absorb the information is quite different. Effectively teaching these differences requires that we as teachers understand how to differentiate our strategies to meet multiple learners. I started out studying Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and that has really helped me identify multiple motivating strategies for teaching content. Along with this strategy builder is the ideas presented in the many books I have read from Carol Tomlinson, who is a leader in differentiated instruction. What I take into account before preparing any lesson involves three key student components: readiness to learn, interest level, and the learning need to progress to the next level.
Readiness to learn helps me identify what the students background knowledge consists of. I like to open new discussions with simple open-ended type of questions which help me determine the level of understanding from both a class level and an individual level of comprehension. The principles I use are evidence-based questions regarding why things happen, how they relate to students' themselves, and what do they understand about the way we might already use the principles in question.
This type of questioning helps me assess where I need to focus my attention or if I need to move ahead or slow down to allow everyone to successfully understand the concept. I generally will break the classroom up into one-thirds. One third that needs more support, one third who is on track with understanding, and one third who already grasps the concepts and need more stimulation synthesis to improve understanding. Which brings into clear view the interest level that each student has for the subject matter. This allows me to reflect upon real-world applications that students can use along with the information to keep them interested and motivated to learn more about the subject.
And then once I can differentiate learning objectives, I then like to focus attention on how to differentiate learning products. With the idea of multiple intelligences, I like to offer multiple ways in which students can demonstrate they have learned the objectives and goals set forth in the lessons. This can be through oral demonstration, written, technology based PowerPoints, web-based presentations, I-movies, graphs, models, or many other ways that project the interest and the ideas of the learning objectives. This is why I like to begin at the end, so-to-speak. If my students clearly understand what they are to know and learn then we can begin to construct ideas in collaboration that will peak interest levels as well as satisfy the learning standards of the common core goals.
These ideas are based on what works best for me as I teach strategies and modifications to reach diverse learners, and it comes from the practical learning experiences I have been exposed to at National University. I have taken the personality tests and have determined what works best for me is the idea of structure and flexibility. It is clear to me that classroom management along with cooperative rule setting by myself and my students allows me to conform to basic principles that are rigorous to learning, but open to new ways of displaying that learning. I like rules and I like ingenuity that stays within the boundaries of an educational setting.
