Strategies in Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated Instruction is an approach to education that is increasingly taking hold in the earlier stages of primary education. This proceeds from the understanding that all individuals learn, integrate and apply knowledge differently. This is true of learners at all ages.

The lesson plan here employs such strategies as they apply to a classroom of 3rd graders. The average age of students here is 9 and most students are believed to be of generally proficient learning capability.

Goals of the Lesson:

The lesson plan laid out here is contextualized by the Geography discipline with a specific focus in this unit on the 50 States. The primary goals of the lesson are to: teach students to identify all 50 States; to teach students to identify their geographical arrangement; and identify states according to key landmarks or other identifying symbols. The overarching goals is to help students connect the geographical and cultural characteristics of the 50 States and the U.S. At large.

Assessments to Be Used:

The primary assessments used will be a quiz game to drive in-class participation; a group puzzle project with instructional support; and individual projects in which each student selects and reports on a state.

Differentiated Instructional Strategies:

The text by Hall (2009) indicates that recognition learning will be a strategy of great importance when facilitating success for a diversity of learning styles. This approach denotes that because all learners tend to identify patterns and integrate knowledge in their own unique ways, a successful classroom is one that offers a wide variance of approaches to delivering a lesson on a subject such as the 50 States. It is thus that Hall refers to "the importance of providing multiple, flexible methods of presentation when teaching pattern" and goes further to note that "no single teaching methodology for pattern recognition will be satisfactory for every learner." (Hall, p. 1) So in the basic presentation of knowledge, a number of strategies will be employed that combine audio, visual and conceptual information to discuss the 50 states. The use of a map is essential to this process, but should be complimented by the use of available educational and popular music outlining the 50 states. Many examples exist of this type of audio content. This should additionally be supplemented by the use of flash cards which connect each state to a key landmark or state symbol. These flash cards will be used to promote a quiz-based game on the states thereafter.

One of the primary strategies that will employed thereafter is that of flexible grouping. As part of a process adaptation, this approach will follow primary instruction and collective activity. This will divide students into smaller groups dedicated to the completion of specific projects. For instance, in the learning of 50 states, a smaller group activity might be the assembly of a puzzle comprised of these 50 individual pieces. In this approach, the designation of smaller learning groups will help the instructor to identify groups and to distill individuals within groups who require additional support. The text by Hall (2009) denotes that this instructional strategy is likely to produce a scenario in which different students rise to fulfill different group roles or, conversely, demonstrate the need for assistance in order to participate more fully.

The Hall text also indicates that flexible grouping creates an idea scenario within which to encourage supported practice. Here, instructional assistance can be divided as those groups who demonstrate higher collective proficiency are given greater independence and those who are shown to have collective need or to have individual members with a particular need can be aided a teacher or teacher's assistant. This will also help provide the instructor with a more intimate understanding of the deficiencies suffered by some students and, conversely, the strengths demonstrated by others. Using this hands-on approach to engage groups as they work through the puzzle activity, the teacher can gain a greater awareness of the cognitive makeup of the classroom and its individual students. According to Hall, this is an absolutely instrumental level of individualization in the context of differentiated education. According to Hall, "differentiated instruction promotes this teaching method by encouraging students to be active and responsible learners, and by asking teachers to respect individual differences and scaffold students as they move from initial learning to practiced, less supported skills mastery." (Hall, p. 1)