Differentiation

If you use the CAL SIOP model in your classroom, do you ever wonder how much it matters how (including how often) you use these features, such as language and content objectives? Echevarría, Richards-Tutor, Chinn, & Ratleff (2011) found that the quality and frequency with which teachers used SIOP model features in their classroom were directly related to student gains.

The study showed that teachers who were high implementers of the CAL SIOP model not only demonstrated a wider variety of teaching techniques within the classroom but that those teachers who implemented the CAL SIOP model with the highest fidelity also were the classrooms in which students made the most gains over time.

Overall, the study suggested that high implementers talked less during their lessons, allowing students to use and practice their academic English, resulting in higher student gains over the course of the study.

Setting clear language goals for students and allowing time for students to practice academic language can make a real difference!

Resource

Echevarría, J., Richards-Tutor, C., Chinn, V., & Ratleff, P. (2011). Did they get it? The role of fidelity in teaching English learners. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 54(6), 425–434.

For many educators, differentiation may seem overwhelming and may leave some wondering “how am I supposed to personalize my lessons for each student and make sure that everyone is still progressing through and adequately learning the necessary curriculum?” Differentiation doesn’t have to be a challenge—it is a flexible strategy meant to help different groups of students at various levels. With ELs, differentiation is intended in part, to help students both acquire content-area knowledge and continue to develop English language skills. There are also a ton of resources available to help you develop differentiated lessons and offer suggestions! 

If you are interested in reading more about differentiated learning, or personalization within the classroom, check out a few of these great resources from Edutopia!

This article discusses myths and facts around personalization in the classroom, what it means, and also what it doesn’t. Check it out!

This great resource highlights how you can effectively use technology to enhance learning through differentiated instruction. It includes some suggestions of tools and websites and also highlights some import things to consider when incorporating technology into your differentiated lessons.

Lastly, check out this great link for a discussion about issues around differentiated instruction. The article also offers 3 ways to help plan for diverse learners in your classroom! 

Differentiation is a key part of any ESL or mainstream classroom—it involves determining the skill levels of your students and making sure your lessons are challenging to all students across all levels. Differentiation becomes especially important in classes where English learners and native English speakers have shared instruction. 

While differentiation might seem intimidating, there are a few small steps you can take in both the planning process, and lesson delivery, that can help make sure your lessons are accessible to all students across language levels.

1)   Know your students. Before you begin planning, make sure you know your students’ literacy skill levels, both in English and their Native language, their learning styles, and educational backgrounds.  This information can help you set realistic goals and expectations for both individual students, as well as the overall lesson.

2)   Once you know your students’ levels, how might you identify places that should be differentiated?

1.      Is it when you introduce new content? Will the introduction require additional materials? Is there any pre-teaching that will be necessary for major concepts or vocabulary? Will you need to moderate your speech or presentation style?
2.      Is it for specific tasks that students will be asked to preform? (This could be for activities that require students to practice oral or written language goals.) Will you be grouping students, if so, how?
3.       Or, will differentiated instruction be necessary when checking for comprehension over the course of the lesson? This may involve either leveled written or oral questions to gauge where students may be struggling and to set attainable comprehension goals for various students.  

Take a look at this short clip with Carol Tomlinson about how to get started using differentiated instruction in your classroom—remember, even changing a little can make a big impact for your students!

For a tool that can help you start to look at designing differentiated lesson plans that also address the needs of EL students, check out this article from Colorín Colorado.

Or, for a short discussion, complete with examples of how differentiated instruction can be used in a classroom, check out this resource, created by WIDA about Differentiated Learning and scaffolding.

 For a list of some valuable classrooms strategies to make your lessons more adaptable for all learners check out this resource! 

Are you interested in trying a flipped learning model with your ELs? Some suggestions from those who have considered it specifically for ELs include starting small with one lesson, focusing on an area in which ELs may need more support. Other ideas might be to use a podcast or PowerPoint presentation instead of the more common video approach. Additionally, you could develop two or three flipped lessons, rather than one, that are differentiated to respond to the varied language backgrounds and proficiency levels of students in your classrooms. Flipped settings can provide a structured space for strategically grouping English learners with native speakers of the target language or others with whom they might address content using their native languages.

While often overlooked, differentiated instruction can be a valuable approach for ensuring that all students are receiving the support necessary in order to learn core content.  Differentiated instruction in science lessons is critical when working with ELs because it allows teachers to gauge and respond to the needs of all students, as well as provide them with level-appropriate tasks and scaffolding to better promote students’ engagement with the content material.

 Incorporating differentiated instruction in your science lessons doesn’t have to be hard. Like any good planning, it often starts with knowing your state’s or school’s benchmarks. This could involve recognizing what students are expected to know in, for example, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Next, getting started with differentiated instruction involves asking a few questions:

Who is in my classroom?

What are their backgrounds with science?

What are students expected to learn?

How will I know if and when they have learned it?

How will I respond if students don’t learn the presented content?

How will I respond if some students have learned it?  

 (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2006)

Differentiated instruction also requires continual assessment to gauge student learning and comprehension throughout the lesson; this allows teachers to modify, adapt, re-teach, or challenge students throughout the lesson and keeps students actively involved with the content material.

Differentiated instruction for ELs in science units or lessons often requires being ready to use demonstrations, hands-on field activities, audio-visual presentations, non-linguistic representations, opportunities for cooperative learning and practice, and additional scaffolding for language and terminology.

For a brief overview of what differentiated instruction might look like in a science classroom or lesson, check out this link!

For a sample of a tiered lesson plan and a brief discussion around supporting all students in your science lessons, take a look at this blog post from the National Science Teachers Association.

Finally, for a more in-depth look at differentiated instruction strategies and why this might be important for supporting ELs’ science learning, try this article.

What activities do you use to facilitate students’ growth in writing? What strategies and techniques do you use to ensure that all students are able to engage with the writing process and work to hone and develop their skills? 

While the four domains of language (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) develop simultaneously and in overlapping ways, writing often takes longer to progress and might begin later in the language learning process. Due to later development, writing skills can be positively influenced by advancement in the other domain areas, such as reading comprehension and oracy. For ELs, writing abilities also relate to previous experiences, such as literacy development in the native language(s) and/or previous language(s) of schooling.

Teachers should ensure that classroom activities are designed to meet the developmental needs of all students, and account for all four language domains, as well as the relationship between skills in both oracy and literacy. 

To best promote writing skills that build from the other domains, teachers should pre-plan instruction that is deliberately differentiated across students’ skill levels.

For a closer look at activities for differentiation in writing, check out this article from Colorín Colorado.

Or, for a more broad look at how differentiation can be incorporated in writing lessons and activities, check out this Reading Rockets resource!

How do you differentiate reading for your classroom? As an educator, how can you ensure that your students are challenged but not overwhelmed by the texts they read?

ReadWriteThink highlights three ideas for differentiating a sample lesson. The first is grouping students together in a variety of ways for collaborative assignments. Groups could be formed by interest, readiness, or learning profiles, with different articles or products assigned to each group. The second way involves tiered texts. Students may be given different versions of the same text based on their ability to comprehend challenging text. For example, more advanced students might work with an original government document, while students needing extra support could work with a news article that summarizes it. Finally, the third way relates to flexible use of reading strategies while processing a text. Thus, students might choose to read for the main idea, to engage in meta-cognition, or to make connections between the text and their own thoughts—in each case, engaging a different reading strategy.

To learn more, visit the full Strategy Guide from ReadWriteThink, which includes related lesson plans. Or, for many more ideas on differentiating your instruction for reading and other skills, be sure to check out Edutopia’s new post on Teaching a Class with Big Ability Differences.