Designing a Differentiated Lesson Plan

This week, I would like to share one of my art lessons that I am currently doing with my 4th grade students.  The students have just started their art unit for the year which will focus on different time periods in art history, starting at the beginning of time with prehistoric cave art.  A little background on what the students will be doing, they will be creating their own cave art drawings by drawing animals and symbols using chalk pastels and charcoal.  Students will be learning about the mystery of cave art drawings and how they came to be created.  I always enjoy doing this art lesson with students and I like to create an immersive experience that makes them feel like we are going back in time to prehistoric times.  

For this lesson, I am incorporating different types of instruction to try and cater to my students with different learning styles.  By creating an immersive learning experience, I am able to get student interest in the project.  I also start off the project by doing an introduction where we look at images of cave art and watch several videos on cave paintings.  The first day, we will begin doing the first step of the project which will be hands-on.  I try to incorporate hands-on activities in everyday art activities to entice my kinesthetic learners.  I have even played around with the possible idea of having students draw underneath the tables to give them even more of an immersive experience.  The drawing component of this lesson will also be good for all of my visual learners in class as well.  For this particular grade level, we do not have any SPED students.  I do have gifted and talented students in these classes.  

When creating my lessons, I try to visualize where my students are and what art skills were taught in the past.  I create my curriculum considering the supporting goals and skills I want my students to reach by the end of a unit (Nieves, 2018).  I feel it also helps to break down skills to help students that may need more guidance.  I think it is a good idea to show students what skills we will be working on so that they are aware of the skills I am looking for in a lesson or unit (Nieves, 2018).  I feel this helps lead to more student success.  I try to have a variety of techniques and approaches that can cater to students of all different learning styles.  Differentiation can be done in a whole group setting, which as an art teacher whole group instruction is mostly what is implemented and students work independently on their own projects (McCarthy, 2015).  

As we are going through any lesson, I like to stop and assess what the students are learning.  Usually my summative assessments are verbal while formative tend to be more written.  I’m constantly asking my students questions to gauge their understanding of the content being presented to them.  For my SPED students, gifted students, and early finishers, I try to accommodate them accordingly.  In my 4th grade level classes, I do not have any SPED students, but in my other classes the way I assess them may be different.  The standards and skills may be different than that of the other students.  For SPED I could be assessing that students are able to complete their work of art on their own or with minimal help.  It really depends on the students and what their needs are and I accommodate based on their set of skills.  For my gifted and talented students, I would assess what skills could perhaps move on to and what standards are they already addressing without being taught.  

In this lesson, I try to utilize technology wherever I can.  Most of the activities are hands-on and require the students to work independently.  However, when doing assessments and in class presentations I try to use technology as a way of helping with differentiation in the classroom (Richards, 2019).  I love to show videos to make the students feel like they are inside an actual cave getting to see the art. There are several different resources for kids that show engaging content on cave art. National Geographic kids is a wonderful resource that has so much history content that I can tie into any lesson.  For this cave art lesson, they have great sources that students can explore as a class or individually on their own personal chromebooks.  

References

McCarthy, J. (2015, August 28). 3 ways to plan for diverse learners: What teachers do. Retrieved September 22, 2021, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-ways-to-plan-john-mccarthy

Nieves, K. (2018, November 02). Differentiation in a rigid curriculum. Retrieved September 22, 2021, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/differentiation-rigid-curriculum 

Richards, K. (2019, November 17). How to use technology to differentiate instruction. Retrieved September 22, 2021, from https://www.hmhco.com/blog/how-to-use-technology-to-differentiate-instruction-in-the-classroom 

Learning Style Analysis

 I am currently taking a graduate course on differentiated learning for my master’s program.  We are currently focusing on analyzing learning styles and how they connect with differentiated instruction in the classroom.  I gave one of my 4^th grade classes a learning style inventory assessment to determine what each students learning style may be.  After completing the assessment, I randomly chose three students to be my subjects to analyze further. 

Being an art teacher, I teach multiple grade levels and knew I wanted to narrow it down to one class from one of my grade levels.  This class in particular is one of the lower performing classes in 4th grade.  These students were all grouped together in a smaller class to help assist them with more one-on-one differentiated instruction.  The three students that I am working with are Amy, Carmen, and Karter (For this study, I have changed the students’ names to protect their identities). The results revealed that both Amy and Carmen are visual learners while Karter is a kinesthetic learner.  I have known and worked with these students for many years now (about four years) and so coming into this I know their skill levels and strengths when it comes to art.  As I am planning my future lesson for these students, I am considering the learning style inventory and taking into consideration what will work best for each of these students.  I know I am already differentiating learning in my classroom, but I want to take it a step further and see what more I can do. 

I have been researching learning styles to better understand how I can cater to my students’ learning needs. Students develop learning habits that will follow them throughout their educational careers (Parish, 2019).  We know not all of our students will retain information the same way.  As educators it is our job to work with our students and see what best resources will help in creating differentiated instruction.   I have also found that interconnections can be found with social and emotional development.  Brain development plays such an important role in helping students retain information as well as recalling information they have learned.  By better understanding the brain and how it functions, we can better help our students reach their academic learning goals.  We need to consider our diverse learners.  Often teachers can feel overwhelmed trying to figure out the best curriculum for all students.  One thing that may be helpful when creating curriculum is to consider the universal design for learning, this is a flexible model that gives teachers an overarching theme to start with that will help teachers when designing curriculum (Parish, 2019).  By following the universal design for learning, teachers can teach content in many different ways to provide variety for students with different learning styles (Parish, 2019).  For example, a teacher could create a lesson that shows visuals such as videos or drawings, could have students listen to an audio or recording, and could have students get up and move for an extended activity or exercise. 

With my three students, I am in the process of coming up with instructional strategies that will cater to their visual and kinesthetic learning styles.  I could see the benefits in grouping students together that have similar learning styles, such as my two visual learners (Dean, 2019).  But, instead I would like to try a different approach.  For my visual two visual learners, Amy and Carmen, I feel using visual images and drawings will be helpful to them in the lesson.  I can create visual presentations with pictures (which is something I already implement in my lesson) as well using color to emphasize important concepts and main ideas in the lesson. I like to make my students visualize pictures and ideas in their head, so saying something like “Picture this….” And then having them close their eyes to visualize what they see in their mind (Somji, 2018).  Also, having them write and draw pictures or doing a step-by-step demo where I draw and then they draw with me could also be helpful for them.  For my kinesthetic learner, Karter, he needs hands on activities and can easily lose focus on a task.  I could try to incorporate more movement in the lessons by including songs or dances that will get him up and moving around a little more.  Maybe even allowing for him to stand while he works or give him a flexible sitting option to help with his hyper activity.  I also like the idea of giving him a puzzle to solve or an object to interact with (Somji, 2018). 

I’m hoping by implementing some new changes and accommodating the students learning styles more will help them in completing their art assignments for me.  I’m also hoping that it will help to engage these students more in the content and help them retain the information even better.  In the assessment process, I can use different forms of assessments for my visual learners and for my kinesthetic learner.  An assessment doesn’t have to be in written form, it could be drawing a picture or creating an object or 3D sculpture.  I can use their strengths and skills to assess their progress in the classroom. 

 

References

Dean, M. (2019, October 31). 7 Creative Ways to Teach Diverse Learners - Classcraft Blog. Retrieved September 15, 2021, from https://www.classcraft.com/blog/creative-ways-to-teach-diverse-learners/

Parrish, N. (2019, May 15). Ensuring that Instruction is Inclusive for Diverse Learners. Retrieved September 15, 2021, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/ensuring-instruction-inclusive-diverse-learners

Somji, R. (2018, April 17). Teaching strategies for the 8 different learning styles. Retrieved September 15, 2021, from https://virtualspeech.com/blog/teaching-strategies-different-learning-styles

Integrating Technology with Differentiated Learning

 

By: Abbey Vidal

Today the classroom looks very differently than it did ten years ago.  I know that when I was back in Elementary schools, we didn’t have the technology and resources that my students have available at their fingertips today.  With technology comes advantages as well as disadvantages.  But when it comes to differentiated learning, technology can be a helpful tool that can help teachers and students.  An arrayment of resources is available for teachers to use with students, which is great for differentiating learning. 

Before we dive into how technology can integrate with differentiated learning, it’s important for one to know the purpose of differentiated learning and why it is important.  Differentiated learning essentially takes into account that all students approach learning in different ways and it is up to the teacher to accommodate their needs as best as possible.  Students can speak different languages, can have different cultural and socio backgrounds, and overall be on different learning levels (gifted or special needs) can effect how students learn and process information (Ferlazzo, 2018).  With the use of technology it can help to alleviate some of the obstacles that students may face during instruction (Felazzo, 2018). 

I would like to provide a list of technology resources that can be used to utilize differentiated learning in the classroom.  I will also break down each resource so that you can see how they can be deemed helpful. 

SeeSaw

Description: Seesaw is a online resource that can be used by students and teachers that encourages creativity and provides a space for students to share feedback with one another.  Teachers and students can create and post videos to engage with one another. It can be used for any subject varying from Math to Art. It is very easy to use and navigate for students as well as teachers. 

How it can be used with Differentiated Learning:  SeeSaw offers a different approach to learning that is more interactive and visual that can help grab students’ attention.  It also allows for the students to be in charge of creating their own videos and content to share with their classmates.  It can be used for learners on all different skill levels and scaffolds learning to cater each individual student (Fortin, 2018).  It can be used for students to work independently or in a group. 

How it creates ownership: This resource does help students in creating their own engaging content and being more involved in the learning process.  It requires more a little more work, but in the end will lead to a more meaningful learning experience. 

Price: The price to use the Basic Seesaw app is free to teachers and students.  However, there is a SeeSaw Plus subscription that can be bought that provides more options to teachers and students.  

Newsela

Description: Newsela is an online resource that allows students to look up current event articles and helps students to work on reading skills as well as learning about what is going on in the world.  Teachers can assign articles to students or students can pick an article of their choosing.  Students can select between different lexile levels depending on where they are.  It also offers short quizzes with feedback and correlates to reading standards (Stern, 2015). 

How it can be used with Differentiated Learning: This resource can help students to build upon their current reading skills as well as practicing their reading skills.  It gives flexibility by allowing the students to choose an article and allowing them to read it and give their opinions on it.  Students could work independently or in groups to collaborate with one another to combine opinions. 

How it creates ownership: Students can choose the reading and are in control of what they read.  This allows for them to take responsibility of their learning content and gives them more power. 

Price:  Newsela is free, but Newsela Pro is a more advanced option for teachers that allows teachers to create content based on the readings provided. 

Prezi

Description: Prezi is an online presentation resource that helps make presentations more engaging and interesting catering to both teachers as well as students.  It is an interactive presentation that helps to engage viewers in a more unique presentation format.  It also allows for students to become like the teachers and practice their presenting skills as well as helping to build up confidence (Raki, 2016)

How it can be used with Differentiated Learning:  This resource helps students create their own unique presentations that cater to their type of learning.  By allowing students to create their presentations, they can approach researching in any way that works best for them. 

How it creates ownership: By allowing students to create their own presentations, it is allowing them to take ownership of their research and show what they have learned.  It also allows for them to share their findings with their peers. 

Price: The basic Prezi for presentations is free, but they also have video and design-based resources that do require a paid subscription. 

 

References:

Ferlazzo, L. (2018, March 05). Response: Ways to Use Tech to Differentiate Instruction. Retrieved September 08, 2021, from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-response-ways-to-use-tech-to-differentiate-instruction/2018/06

Fortin, K. (2018). Using Seesaw to Expand the Walls of the Classroom. Retrieved September 08, 2021, from https://blog.betterlesson.com/using-seesaw-to-expand-the-walls-of-the-classroom

Raki, H. (2016, September 18). 10 ways to Differentiate Instruction with Technology. Retrieved September 08, 2021, from http://blog.whooosreading.org/10-ways-to-differentiate-instruction-with-technology/

Stern, J. (2015, March 30). Enhancing Learning Through Differentiated Technology. Retrieved September 08, 2021, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/enhanced-learning-through-differentiated-technology-julie-stern