Educating students should not be a "one size fits all" model. The methods and strategies educators use to teach should be as varied and unique as the learning styles of their students. Differentiated Instruction is an approach to meet the diverse educational needs within a class. In an attempt to maximize the learning experience, teachers employ multiple instructional strategies to engage all students. |
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Characteristics of Differentiated Instruction
D - Diverse instructional strategies
I - Involving all students at all levels
F - Focused on student learning styles
F - Fosters multiple intelligence designed lessons
E - Evaluates students based on individual differences
R - Reinforces curriculum standards
E - Encourages student participation
N - New content is introduced utilizing multiple techniques
T - Teaching methods are varied and unique
I - Increased student achievement on assessments
A - Accommodates students social, emotional and academic needs
T - Teaches students to be both independent and cooperative learners
E - Effectively maximizes the classroom learning experience |
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How to Plan Differentiated Instruction |
Step 1 |
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Determine what essential standards, concepts and skills the students need to master. |
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Step 2 |
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Determine strategies for presenting the information that will accommodate the various learning styles of the students.* |
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Step 3 |
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Determine the method of practice/reinforcement/enrichment according to the students levels of learning and academic needs. |
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Step 4 |
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Determine appropriate evaluations and assessments that measure student performance and achievement according to individual ability. |
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*Three categories of strategies for presenting information are: teacher-directed tasks, student-directed tasks, and graphic organizers. |
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Categories of Instructional Strategies that Strongly Affect Student Achievement
- Identifying similarities and differences
- Summarizing and note taking
- Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
- Homework and practice
- Nonlinguistic representations
- Cooperative learning
- Setting goals and providing feedback
- Generating and testing hypotheses
- Activating prior knowledge
Athappilly, K., Smidchens, V., & Kofel, J. W. (1983). A computer-based meta-analysis of the effects of modern mathematics in comparison with traditional mathematics. Education and Policy Analysis, 5(4), 485-493.
Helpful Links
Differentiated Instruction - Staff Development for Educators offers a wide variety of workshops, conferences, and resources.
What Works In Classroom Instruction - A McREL publication detailing instructional strategies that research shows have the greatest likelihood of positively affecting student learning.
Teaching Tips Index - A terrific resource of information from the educational department at Honolulu, Hawaii. It includes a variety of topics regarding instructional strategies.
Instructional Strategies Online - Instructional strategies determine the approach a teacher may take to achieve learning objectives. Five categories of instructional strategies and explanation of these five categories can be found within this site.
The Adaptive Dimension - Instructional Strategies - This resource provides a variety of instructional strategies, methods and skills.
Glossary of Instructional Strategies – This website provides a glossary of terms and links for Instructional Strategies.
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