Responding effectively to student learning needs in the classroom.

Responding effectively to student learning needs in the classroom.

In the previous blog we discussed the different learning styles that could be encountered in the classroom. In this blog we will go into more detail about adapting the curriculum to reach all of the learners in the classroom

“While we are all in the same room we are not in the same place” Susan Bashinski quotes on the Public Broadcasting Service website summing  up the diversity of learning styles,religions, culture,race and talents and personalities a teacher will encounter in every classroom. Adaptations to the curriculum provide diverse learners with different ways to process information and to demonstrate what they have learned. As we found in the previous blog students learn by building on what they know already and curricular adaptations are intended to enable them to participate in a learning activity that will promote the acquisition of new skills and understanding.

The five areas of the curriculum where  beginning teachers can think about making adaptations  are:

·         instructional strategies and materials which are concerned with the process of learning

·         curricular content which can be modified to suit diverse learners

·         assessment practices which are concerned with the products of learning

·         learning environment  which can include differentiating for  individual, group and peer work

·         affect,  that is. the ambiance of the classroom whether is an enabling  environment

See the diagram below examples of differentiation.. for Tomlinson’s  differentiated Instruction  Model

 

Tomlinson's Model of Differentiation.

 

While it impossible to know everything about all students and to differentiate to cater for all their differences with more experience the teacher will begin to see patterns emerge in their classes,some students are slow, some too fast, some need reading support, some vocabulary, some can’t sit still etc. Understanding these patterns in the classroom enables the teacher to approach differentiation from the angle of what Tomlinson(2006) calls universal design. In this way instructional strategies can be adapted that will give all students opportunities for learning but in different ways at different  times throughout the lesson. Similarly, the teacher can differentiate the learning environment so that students can work at their own pace or in small groups. This ,however, requires skilful classroom management techniques .(See Tomlinson, et al,2006)

While there are many instructional guides to how to adapt the curriculum an approach to a differentiated classroom needs  to include  both  planning and improvisation. Tomlinson, et al (2006) liken it to a jazz musician  who keeps the melody and expresses it in different ways. In the classroom the melody is the curriculum goals  and  the teacher, with  a good understanding of how learning works, is  sensitive to the flow of the classroom,  ready to empower and  creatively link students to meaning.

References

Tomlinson,C&McTigue,J.(2006). integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design.ASCD

www.pbs.org/teachers/early childhood/article/adapting/html