Jack, Mia, and Serena are A2 Economics students who are struggling with catching up with the rest of the class, and the main reason for being behind is their level of English. They are ESL students whose English is not at the level necessary for comprehension and understanding the content. Cindy is a student with hearing impairment. Mike, James, and Catherine are gifted learners who complete the tasks quickly and need to be challenged more to stay engaged. How to differentiate for their needs?
The chart below shows the first steps of the process. After assigning a particular formative assessment, the teacher realizes who is struggling, and what are the additional resources and modifications to be made to assist the needs of these groups. If no students demonstrate difficulties in showing their skills/knowledge, the teacher can move on to the more complex assignment or new learning objective. However, it's very likely that there would be a need for modifications in terms of resources of differentiating strategies. In this post, we analyze the ways to support the needs of the ESL learners, gifted students and the students with hearing impairment.
Differentiating for student needs - Identifying the groups that need instructional modifications
How can we support Cindy who is a student with hearing impairment? If she was not able to complete the task due to her disability, the teacher needs to make sure that adaptations were made to the resources she is using and the instruction so that Cindy can succeed. If the video was shown to the students, the teacher should make sure that the subtitles were provided so that Cindy can understand the information presented. Any audio information has to be supported with transcripts, and handouts provided for all assignments and content, in advance. The teacher needs to make sure that the learning environment supports the learning of the student - quiet and with full visual access and support. The teacher should speak clearly and naturally, repeat important information while facing the whole class and allow extra time for oral responses. The final product of Cindy's collaborative work could be in written form as well, and collaboration and communication could be enforced using the chat room and texting technologies. This will make her communication with the peers more effective and prevent any issues in collaboration with the rest of the team. Supportive technology should also be taken into account, such as voice-to-text.
Modifications for the students with hearing disabilities
On the other side, Jack, Mia, and Serena are the students at the low level of readiness whose English level prevents them from performing better in Economics class. The chart below shows adaptations for their needs in further assignments and instruction. Use of graphic organizers/mind maps and flow charts, which can be created by the students, but also provided as aids to the materials, will enhance their comprehension and understanding of the materials provided in a foreign language. A visual support to the texts with simplified use of language, as well as dictionaries (provided and/or created by the students) will improve their understanding of the readings and assignments. Small group instruction, collaborative tasks, and tiered assignments are great ways of differentiation of the process of learning and these enhance collaborative learning and put less pressure and more focus on completing the task successfully. The teacher has to make sure that the language used is adjusted for their needs, more time allowed in providing the answers, and oral communication is clear and natural.
Modifications for the ESL students who are struggling
Finally, Mike, James, and Catherine need special attention since we need to make sure they are not wasting their time while the others are trying to catch up. They should be assigned to work on extended assignments which are requiring the use of additional literature and more advanced/complex learning materials. Use of technology for their research will play an important role in the further exploration of the given topic. Other options could also be creating expert groups where they would be responsible for teaching other students and asking them to create assignments/practical problems to be solved.
Modifications for the gifted students
To conclude, formative assessment is a valuable source for further differentiation and adjustments of the instruction with the goal to ensure that each learner develops its skills and moves forward. Some modifications could be made immediately, in response to the information collected from the formative assessment, while the others help in planning future practice in shaping the skills of the students.
References:
Goodwin, B., & Hein, H. (2016, February). Tap ELL's strengths to spur success. Educational leadership, 82-83.
Friend, M. P., & Bursuck, W. D. (2015). Including students with special needs: a practical guide for classroom teachers. Boston: Pearson.
Heacox, D., & Cash, R. M. (2014). Differentiation for gifted learners: going beyond the basics. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing.
Special Education in the Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved September 03, 2017, from https://www.cec.sped.org/Policy-and-Advocacy/CEC-Professional-Policies/Special-Education-in-the-Schools
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