Joanne+Crooks

=**Week 6 - Additional Technology Tools for Differentiation**=

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2differentiate PB works site This PBworks site provides many resources and examples of cubing. I want to design lessons using cubing and will be referring to this link as I work to achieve this goal. This is only one page within the website, there are many more resources for creating differentiated lessons.=====

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ASCD If you scroll to the bottom of this webpage you will find many links to articles, books, and multimedia about Differentiated Instruction. You will also find there are links to blogs, professional development opportunities for Differentiating Instruction.=====

=**Technology Tools for Differentiation**=

Creating a learning environment where all students’ needs are met requires lessons developed using differentiation. A student survey will be conducted to collect information about interests, readiness, and learning profiles. Once this information is acquired lessons can be developed using technology to address students’ interests, readiness, and learning styles. Differentiating by interest means crafting activities that permit students to explore their own interests and develop new ones. When tasks promote curiosity, learning becomes more appealing to all students, even those who struggle most or are the most reluctant to learn. (Smith & Throne, 2007, p. 18)

Technology provides access to many resources not previously available in a text-based learning environment. The technology tool I have found to be best suited for differentiating high school geometry with a focus on student interests is a WebQuest. I have successfully created and implemented WebQuests for topics within the geometry curriculum. The website I used to create WebQuests is [|Zunal]. Allowing students to research an area of interest within a topic is motivating for student learning. For example I would use a WebQuest for ‘//Why are angles important in real-life?’// Depending on students’ interests the subtopics they choose from would be //music, construction, sports, recording industry, cutting hair, art, or they may choose another subtopic.// Students would begin by working individually researching resources provided within the Process component. Students will be grouped by interest and work cooperatively to create a presentation answering the question posed in the WebQuest. Implementing this technology tool for differentiating according to student interest supports the UDL framework by addressing the //“Why”// of learning the affective network. Technology supports the recognition network the //“What”// of learning by providing multiple examples in addition the strategic network the //“How”// of learning by offering flexible opportunities for demonstrating skills.

Differentiating for readiness requires information from an informative assessment to determine students with skills considered to be at-level, below level and above level. Once skill levels are established I will create three Tic-Tac-Toe boards one for each skill level with hyperlinks to level appropriate content resources, math games or math applets, as well as documents for practice. The boards will be available to students within the class Wiki. For example using information about students’ skill level for solving equations I will provide algebraic problems in the congruent triangles unit for students using as a guide the Visualization of Tomlinson’s Equalizer (Smith & Throne, 2007, p. 54). Differentiating for readiness supports the UDL framework, the affective network by offering adjustable levels of challenge.

Differentiating for Learning Profiles in high school geometry is more difficult to address in developing a lesson however differences in student learning profiles can be addressed by creating flexible opportunities for students to demonstrate learning. The quadrilaterals unit in high school geometry is a topic in which students can be offered the opportunity to create a presentation demonstrating the subtle differences between special parallelograms. A rubric can be created listing characteristics to be included in students product without requiring a particular format be used. Suggestions can be listed for students to create the final product – such as performing a rap describing different characteristics, creating a game (can be traditional or technology based), perform a skit, interview a community member where understanding the characteristics are important, or create a product using another Web 2.0 tool just to name a few examples. Offering students flexible opportunities for creating a final product also allows for independent work or collaborative work on the product. Creating lessons using the UDL framework and supports differentiation by addressing the learning brain networks recognition, strategic, and affective. When the what of learning, the how of learning, and the why of learning are attended to differentiation is a natural aspect of the lesson.

References Hall, T., Strangman, N., & Meyer, A. (2011). //Differentiated instruction and implications for UDL implementation.// Retrieved from [] Smith, G., & Throne, S. (2007). //Differentiating instruction with technology in K-5 classrooms//. Belmont, CA: International society for technology in education. Retrieved from the Walden University Library using the Education Research Complete database [publication search].

=**UDL Presentation**= I created a presentation using Prezi. http://prezi.com/77yzem0ht9eg/universal-design-for-learning/

Todd to Joanne - Your use of Prezi is pretty impressive. It really breaks out of the normal PowerPoint-type slides. Although it can be a little disorienting, especially with the twisting and turning, it surely does grab the audience attention - it did for me! I liked the cartoon where the assortment of animals has to take the same exam. It is a quick way to make a point about UDL. The cartoon really brought a lot of individual ideas about UDL and DI together to a make an effective statement. Some of the pages/slides/stopping points show such large pages that it is not really clear about the message. If your intent is to show that the CAST.org website has a boatload of information, then your point comes through clearly. I took it as you were trying to show examples of the various tools that CAST.org has, and that you might go through these slides more quickly and refer the audience to explore the website at a later time. I think it is well done, showing that there are so many resources to use and help our students that we teachers are the ones at fault if we refuse to at least try to incorporate the UDL strategies into our classrooms. Nice presentation! Todd Deschaine

=Getting to Know Students=

@http://go.solution-tree.com/behavior/Reproducibles_BY.html
====I chose Things my Teacher Should Know About Me: Interest Inventory for High School Students (Panico, A. B., n.d.). This survey is well suited for high school students. The questions do not have choices for students to choose from rather the questions require students to fill-in the blank.====

====This survey is comprised of 20 questions with 3 choices for students. I chose this learning style inventory because students will be able to print out the results at the end of the survey and students are provided with a list of things they can do to learn better.====

====The multiple intelligences survey has students choose yes or no from a list of questions under each subheading of Gardner’s intelligences. At the end of the survey students will receive the results providing the percentage for each type of intelligence as well a graphical representation. Printing out these results would be valuable information to have for both students as well as myself.====

====Determining each student’s learning profile will provide me with information about how students learn best. The knowledge gained from this survey is necessary for developing differentiated lessons. There are 16 open-ended questions I believe this is the best of those I found on line another survey although good required much more work on the part of the student.====

====I chose to create a survey using Kwik Survey because of the ability to create more than ten questions. Although there are many questions in my survey they can be quickly answered. I believe these questions are necessary for me to gain insight into students in my class.====