The Gifted Kids Network

Vickie Davis, Cool Cat Teacher, wrote a blog today on Technology Driven Differentiation .  Wow, what a great post. It’s definitely worth visiting her site to view her Presentation on this topic. Vickie’s post got me thinking about the ways I use technology to differentiate and what I can do better.  Carol Ann Tomlinson, defines differentiation as adapting content, process, and product in response to student readiness, interest, and/or learning profile

Differentiation is adapting content, process, and product in response to student readiness, interest, and/or learning profile. Technology provides many ways to differentiate.

Content is the knowledge, skills and attitudes we want children to learn. Differentiating content means that all students are learning the same big ideas and principles but are using different levels of complexity, depth, or sophistication. Differentiating content requires that students be pre-tested so the teacher can identify the students who do not require direct instruction. Students demonstrating understanding of the concept can skip the instruction step and proceed to apply the concepts to the task of solving a problem.  Another way to differentiate content is simply to permit the student to accelerate their rate of progress.  Naturescapes is a good example of how to provide tiered resource materials for research on the internet. Lessons can be differentiated by creating tiered podcasts for students and varying the complexity of the material presented in the podcast.

Readiness – One easy way to allow student to progress at their own rate is to utilize hyperlinked PowerPoint presentations.  Each of my online classes begins with a PowerPoint lesson.  The first slide in each PowerPoint includes this information:

Students can self pace through a lesson and go deeper into any topic they are curious about and want to explore further or with more complexity.  Students enjoy this flexibility and it enables me to differentiate content without any additional work!  Blogging is also a perfect tool for differentiating.  Students can be given blog prompts at various levels of Bloom’s and at varying levels of complexity. 

Process refers to the activities that help students make sense of, and come to own, the ideas and skills being taught. Differentiating the processes means varying learning activities or strategies to provide appropriate methods for students to explore the concepts.  In differentiating process, students utilize different methods to learn the same concepts, big ideas, and principles. Like content, process can be varied by student interest and learning preferences as well. It is important to give students alternative paths to manipulate the ideas embedded within the concept. For example students may use graphic organizers, maps, diagrams or charts to display their comprehension of concepts covered. Varying the complexity of the graphic organizer can very effectively facilitate differing levels of cognitive processing for students of differing ability.  Math concepts can be introduced and virtual manipulatives can be offered.  I use wiki’s in my class regularly. Some of the uses include collaborative notes, group projects, providing students with links to additional resources (podcasts, videos, articles and reading materials),

Learning Style – students can be offered a variety of ways to learn content.

• ◦ Podcasts – a collection of files that can be found at a specific website address. People “subscribe” to updated files using a service such as iTunes or an aggregator. When new “episodes” become available in the podcast they will be automatically downloaded to that user’s computer. The user can then listens on his computer or portable media player.
• o The Discovery Channel www.discovery.com/radio/podcasts.html
• o NPR www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php
• o NASA Planet Quest planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/pqPodCasts.cfm
• o National Geographic www.nationalgeographic.com/podcasts/
• o The Education Podcast Network www.epnweb.org/

• ◦ Video files – Videos can also be found to support research projects and presentations.
• o Teachertube (www.teachertube.com) Access educational videos and upload your own content. Create digital storytelling projects and share them with the world.
• o YouTube (www.youtube.com) You Tube is blocked at most schools. Y
• o ou can download video from You Tube into quick time and play it on most any computer. Use zamzar.com to convert to quick time format.

• ◦ Articles and reading materials – online databases of magazine articles as well as web sites provide opportunities to provide students with a variety of print material at various lexiles.

Product – refers to culminating projects that allow students to demonstrate and extend what they have learned. Differentiating product allows students to use different methods to demonstrate their knowledge.  Product Differentiating the product means varying the complexity of the product  that students create to demonstrate mastery of the concepts. Students working below grade level may have reduced performance expectations, while gifted students should be asked to produce work that requires more complex or more advanced thinking. It is motivating for students to be offered choice of product.

Rather than have students prepare a traditional presentation, students can be asked to produce a short video on a chosen topic.

For example, my student’s watched two videos   based on We Didn’t Start the Fire. 

They analyzed what Billy Joel was saying about the 40 years he covered. Then they thought about what they would want to say about the years 1985 – 2008.  As a group they are creating a similar video using late 20th century and early 21st century events. 

Interest – students can be offered variety in topics they investigate.

In each of my units I ask student to investigate a particular aspect of the content.  For example in the unit on Ancient China I ask students to create a presentation for the class. They can select an aspect of culture or daily life from one of the Chinese dynasties.  They are to compare and contrast this to either modern China or the modern United States.  The assignment asks student to identify how the practice in ancient China influenced modern society.  Differentiation by interest is built into this assignment as students select which aspect of culture and daily life they wish to investigate. The internet provides easy access to a variety of learning materials on the topic so lack of library or classroom resources does not inhibit student choice. With younger or less technologically experienced students I provide bookmarks or a trail for students to follow. 

Differentiation can occur in the content, process, product or environment in the classroom. Multi media allows you to differentiate for learning and expression style.  High level content available on the internet allows for easy differentiation by readiness.

Want more ideas and resources? 

• Technology to Differentiate.
• A Different Place
• Tools for Differentiated Instruction using Technology
• Using Technology to Support Diverse Learners
• Success through Differentiation and Technology
• Web Tool Boxes
• Using Technology for a More Differentiated Classroom
• Tools for Differentiation

Please share your ideas on how you use technology to differentiate in your classroom.

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