Friday, January 4, 2019

Effective Differentiated Instruction Strategies And Tips For Teachers

By Jessica Wright


Every teacher is required to handle students with varying learning styles. If the outcomes are to be achieved, instructions must also be delivered differently. This calls for adoption of differentiated instruction strategies. The tactics require modification of content delivered, the process of delivery and product being delivered. Since a single strategy cannot work on all topics and subjects, you have to identify the most appropriate for each case.

Create learning stations where students will stop-by and later move on. The aim is to provide stop-overs addressing different topics or the same topic in different styles and perspectives. The stations could involve videos, creating artworks, reading loudly, completing a puzzle and active listening, among others. Such stations should cater for the learning styles of each student.

Engage your students to identify their preferred style of delivery. You will know by interviewing them. Each will give a different opinion. Their suggestions can be collected by inquiring about the most proud project, memorable exercise, favorite class activity and such other questions. The suggestions give you a clue of majority preferences. You will need to find a way of accommodating the minority group.

Prepare to deliver the lesson in a way that appeals to as many senses as possible. It should not always be about listening. Engage them in drawing, watching videos, acting, and even listening to audio materials. Different senses help to engrave the idea and ignite their imagination. Your content will be easier to understand.

Think-pair and share strategy has also been proven to work. One activity is experienced through three different approaches. You ask the students to think about a particular concept. You then pair students with similar ideas to discuss their understanding. They will then share their conclusions with other members of the class. It is during the plenary discussion that you affirm conclusions or shape them in the appropriate manner.

Engage the pupils in creating a journal. The journal helps the class to set expectations or goals at the beginning of the lesson. A few minutes are provided at the end to review whether these expectations were met. The review can also focus on what creating a short form of what was learnt. This helps to monitor progress, identify areas of difficulty and identify the best way to handle the challenging areas.

Create free lessons to allow students to be expressive and explorative. During the free lessons, individual students will fall back to their desired learning methods. Some will choose audio books as another group settles for discussions. You will also identify some who love artistic expression. This freedom allows each student to embrace his or her methodology. You will understand them better and also have time to offer assistance at the comfort area of each student.

Monitor the effectiveness of each strategy used in the process of learning. You will also identify the strategy that most students are comfortable with. This helps you develop a plan for accommodating those who prefer alternative learning methods. Even when you have identified the best strategy, you should not overuse it because it will lead to boredom.




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