Mrs. Karle's Sight and Sound Reading -Learn to read free! Differentiated Instruction: Resource Roundup. Understanding Differentiated Instruction Summer DI Readings List: 150+ Seedlings for Growing Stronger Learners: Browse a bountiful reading list as you plan your garden of differentiated-instruction methods and strategies for the year. (Edutopia, 2015) Myth-Busting Differentiated Instruction: 3 Myths and 3 Truths: Get to the bottom of common misconceptions about differentiated instruction. For a quick reference on what differentiated is -- and what it isn't -- Differentiation Is / Differentiation Is Not, a set of infographics from ASCD, is also worth checking out. (Edutopia, 2015) Defining Differentiated Instruction: Take a look at a few specific examples to better understand differentiated instruction in practice: using graphic organizers, offering alternative assignments, and providing extended work time.
(Edutopia, Updated 2014) Differentiation Concept Map: Reference a flowchart that shows key elements of differentiated instruction and relationships among those elements. Equity vs. 8 Pathways to Every Student's Success. Teachers who transform lives understand not only how to teach curriculum, but also how children develop into capable, caring, and engaged adults. They see beyond quantitative measurements of success to the core abilities that help students live healthy, productive lives. Famous educator Maria Montessori wisely remarked, "The greatest sign of success for a teacher. . . is to be able to say, 'The children are now working as if I did not exist.'" The world has changed dramatically since the early 1900s when Montessori made her mark in education.
Yet the same goal remains: scaffolding children toward self-sufficiency. How does this occur today, particularly when test results often seem more important than the development of a child ready to tackle career-life challenges? In a nutshell, it happens when we understand how children and teens successfully mature to adulthood and how we impact their growth in key developmental areas. Image credit: Marilyn Price-Mitchell, PhD Curiosity Sociability. Resources for Getting Started With Project-Based Learning. Just getting started with project-based learning (PBL)? Our curated list of resources for educators new to PBL should help you. Before you get started, be sure to check out Edutopia's PBL page, including information about the research behind effective PBL practices.
You can also connect with Edutopia's community to learn and share PBL tips. PBL Defined and Clarified What the Heck is PBL? By Heather Wolpert-Gawron (2015) In project-based learning, students show what they learn as they journey through the unit, interact with its lessons, collaborate with each other, and assess themselves and each other. Video What Should "Gold Standard" PBL Include? Stories and Examples My PBL Failure: 4 Tips for Planning Successful PBL, by Katie Spear (2015) Here are four lessons learned from a failed PBL unit: align with the school calendar, allow planning time, carefully create the topic and guiding question, and collaborate with peers. Other Tips From Teachers and Experts.
Genius Hour and the 6 Essentials of Personalized Education. There is a difference between differentiation and personalized learning. In the last year, I've been shifting toward the personalized learning aspect of curriculum design. How do I engage my learners and make their classwork more authentic? Last year, my school rolled out iPads for every student, and with the transition to Common Core, it was the perfect time for a massive curriculum shakeup. I'm lucky that my department gave me ample time to start working on this process. Simultaneously, I started experimenting with Genius Hour for my 8th grade students. Genius Hour equated to one hour a week, or one class day, where I let the students become experts in anything they wanted. So what are the essentials of personalized education, and how does something like Genius Hour play a role? 1. To use Genius Hour effectively, get all your pieces together and ready to go so that you can use your valuable face-to-face time with the students. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Genius Hour Resources. Step by Step: Designing Personalized Learning Experiences For Students. The phrase “personalized learning” gets tossed around a lot in education circles. Sometimes it’s used in the context of educational technology tools that offer lessons keyed to the academic level of individual students. Other times it’s referring to the personal touch of a teacher getting to know a student, learning about their interests and tailoring lessons to meet both their needs and their passion areas. As with most education jargon, the phrase isn’t fixed, but it usually connects to the idea that not all students need the same thing at the same time.
It implies choice, multiple pathways to learning, many ways to demonstrate competency and resists the notion that all students learn the same way. Educator Mia MacMeekin has put together a clear infographic highlighting some of the ways teachers design “personalized” curriculum. What Do We Really Mean When We Say ‘Personalized Learning’?
Naomi Chung/Flickr The idea of personalized learning is seductive – it implies moving away from the industrialized form of education that pumps out cookie-cutter students with the same knowledge and skills. After decades of this approach, it is clear that all children don’t learn the same way and personalization seems to honor those differences. However, that term has taken on several different meanings. “When you say personalization, what do you mean by that?” Asked Diana Laufenberg, director of Inquiry Schools and a former teacher at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. “It’s not a word that always means the same thing.” Personalization is often used in the ed-tech community to describe a student moving through a prescribed set of activities at his own pace.
“That has nothing to do with the person sitting in front of you,” Laufenberg said. Related. Step by Step: Designing Personalized Learning Experiences For Students.