Differentiating Lesson Plans to Meet Student Needs Objective: In writing informational/explanator...

1. Learning Profiles:

1.1. A learning profile is anything about a student that will effect their learning process, including level of readiness, background, language spoken at home, previous academic experiences and so on. This includes areas of strengths and areas where the student is challenged. Knowing and understanding different student's learning profiles is a key piece in differentiating instruction to meet their needs.

2. Interests:

2.1. Using student interests to engage them in a topic can be a great way to motivate them to invest themselves and reach for deeper understanding. This includes relating academic content to relevant issues, life skills, and future needs of a student based on their interests and situation. Linking students interests to academic content is a great way to differentiate lessons to ensure that all students are staying focused and immersed in the learning goals.

3. Levels of readiness:

3.1. A student's level of readiness refers to a student's current understanding and level of skill in a subject area. It is important to know your students' unique levels of readiness in order to help them all achieve their learning goals concurrently. Classrooms are incredibly varied when it comes to level of readiness, and it is crucial that the teacher is aware of where each student is at whether it be in math or reading, writing or science. Once you have determined where your students are in relation to the content they will need to learn, you can differentiate lessons and instruction to help students reach the finish line of that topic with the tools they need.

4. Strategy #1: Linking Content   to Interests.

4.1. For differentiation with this objective, it is necessary to gauge which students are interested in what, and even perhaps why. Getting to know your students through beginning term questionnaires or open discussions can be useful in discovering what they are each passionate about.

4.2. To work towards this objective I would allow students to choose a subject that they were already interested in and explore the "lingo", official terms and precise language for that topic within an academic context. For example, if a student is really into music, I would have them create a list of 20-30 words that are only used when speaking about music, and include their precise definitions. If a student is passionate about sports, I would have them discover words used to talk about sports, and include their definitions and in what manner those words are used in sports, uniquely. In this way students will start to see that each topic, subject or discipline has a set of vocabulary that is most accurate for it.

5. Strategy #2: Working With Different Levels of Readiness

5.1. Determining where each student's level of readiness lies within a subject is the first step in differentiating based on their level of readiness. Pre-assessments like quizzes, task and brainstorming activities are great ways of discovering this.

5.2. Once you have determined where each student is in a subject, there are many ways to differentiate lessons and instruction to accommodate those differences in levels of readiness between students. Slowing down or speeding up the pace of instruction is one way that you can accommodate differing levels of readiness within a given subject. After the initial determination of where each student is at, I would then use frequent formative assessments to gauge progress and the need for a slower or quicker pace.

5.3. Working with this objective, I would use pre-assessment tools to see where each student is in relation to the objective (their understanding of what constitutes "appropriate and precise language" as well as their understanding of the importance of using this language in this context). I would do this by have an open discussion about the objective, give examples of different topics, and have students come up with examples of their own for these topics. In this way I will be able to see which students understand the objective, and which may need more clarification of the terms and learning goal.