Special Education Differentiation
Content – The visuals and promise of group work should appeal to the many SN students that find joy in working with others. On the other hand the ability to break away and work on a task individually for a few days before paring back up with the group will give students that prefer individual learning the best of both worlds. All students will be provided with a checklist and sample completed assignment so that they can maintain an idea of where they should be.
Specific Examples of differentiation for content are:
- For the Day 2 research activity, students are given clear instructions available verbally, projected in the class and available after class on the website.
- For all of the different lessons in the unit, students are able to see data, in tables and written explanations, art, readings, group work, etc. to address multiple intelligences.
- On Day 1, when introducing students to categorical and quantitative data, a formative pre-assessment is done to determine the student knowledge levels and design exact instruction and objectives from this knowledge.
Process – The students will be offered a variety of instruction that will appeal to auditory and visual learners. The teacher’s example of satisfactory work should keep any students from getting stuck and the option of how to participate will give students the opportunity to decide how they could best contribute to their group. The teachers will also point any struggling learners in the direction of someone in another group with a parallel task. By doing so, special needs students will have not only their group to rely on for help but also the several other students in the room that they share a common task with.
Specific Examples of differentiation for process are:
- On Day 3, we present a graphic organizer to help students understand cultural assimilation and maintenance of cultures.
- Groups are put together based on the students' interests and also based on the people who will work the best with those who have additional needs.
- The debate process is a tiered activity because no matter where the student is coming in, they can contribute to the debate event.
Product – The students should benefit from selecting their part of the assignment. Academically gifted students will be recommended a more analytical role while other SN students will take on a role more devoted to understanding the basic content or research. Each student’s individual work will show what that student probably learned best from the activity but the work of all students within the groups and even of other groups will be at least familiar to the students after completion of the lesson. A system of buddy review will be one last point to make sure everything is looking good before the culminating debate.
Specific examples of differentiation for product are:
- The exit ticket on day 2 from math class asks students to put together an overview of the information they found. They are free to present in any form that they find the best to show their findings.
- The art component of the project allows students to choose a variety of art forms, combined together to show products from different cultures.
- Although the final product is the debate activity at the end, each student contributes to different parts of the project, based on their interests and abilities. A rubric is available for students to see what is expected, but how exactly they do the work can be different.
Specific Examples of differentiation for content are:
- For the Day 2 research activity, students are given clear instructions available verbally, projected in the class and available after class on the website.
- For all of the different lessons in the unit, students are able to see data, in tables and written explanations, art, readings, group work, etc. to address multiple intelligences.
- On Day 1, when introducing students to categorical and quantitative data, a formative pre-assessment is done to determine the student knowledge levels and design exact instruction and objectives from this knowledge.
Process – The students will be offered a variety of instruction that will appeal to auditory and visual learners. The teacher’s example of satisfactory work should keep any students from getting stuck and the option of how to participate will give students the opportunity to decide how they could best contribute to their group. The teachers will also point any struggling learners in the direction of someone in another group with a parallel task. By doing so, special needs students will have not only their group to rely on for help but also the several other students in the room that they share a common task with.
Specific Examples of differentiation for process are:
- On Day 3, we present a graphic organizer to help students understand cultural assimilation and maintenance of cultures.
- Groups are put together based on the students' interests and also based on the people who will work the best with those who have additional needs.
- The debate process is a tiered activity because no matter where the student is coming in, they can contribute to the debate event.
Product – The students should benefit from selecting their part of the assignment. Academically gifted students will be recommended a more analytical role while other SN students will take on a role more devoted to understanding the basic content or research. Each student’s individual work will show what that student probably learned best from the activity but the work of all students within the groups and even of other groups will be at least familiar to the students after completion of the lesson. A system of buddy review will be one last point to make sure everything is looking good before the culminating debate.
Specific examples of differentiation for product are:
- The exit ticket on day 2 from math class asks students to put together an overview of the information they found. They are free to present in any form that they find the best to show their findings.
- The art component of the project allows students to choose a variety of art forms, combined together to show products from different cultures.
- Although the final product is the debate activity at the end, each student contributes to different parts of the project, based on their interests and abilities. A rubric is available for students to see what is expected, but how exactly they do the work can be different.