Below are a few things that I do that I believe speak to differentiated instruction.
- Constant communication with ELL teacher on how to tackle and teach certain material and modify when necessary.
- Giving multiple examples to students.
- Showing how to do a problem then giving students a similar problem to do on their own or with a partner. Then walk around to room to see their work and if the answer is wrong, I have them find their mistake.
- Gathering information from students through questioning or through them working in groups to see what they might already know about the content I will be teaching.
- Using formula sheets and notecards they created to assist them with quizzes and tests
- A willingness to listen and accept when students find an alternative way to solve problems that works for their understanding.
- When students work in groups there are times when they get to choose their group mates.
- Allowing students to use their cell phone's calculator verses a in-classroom calculator.
- Providing visuals for just about every definition, theorem, postulate and example in class.
- Placing every student's name on a notecard and using those cards as my way of calling upon them to answer questions. That way I avoid calling upon the same students all the time. (Thank you KB for this one)
- Giving students options of emailing their written projects to me verses printing them out. And with the time limit of midnight that I give them it allows my procrastinators get in their work as well.
- Providing highlighters to all students and guiding them to what they should highlight in their notes.
- Modify what I teach for each hour depending on how the class learns even if I have back to back hours of the same class.
- Providing type written notes with blanks spaces for writing in formulas, some key words and room to solve examples.
- Letting students come to the board (oddly they love to write on a whiteboard) to either work out problems or help explain a topic. They are also given the opportunity to bring a friend to help them in solving a problem that's difficult.
2. After looking at the tech tip areas I particularly like the Audio, Visual and the Curricular Supports (math portion). I recognize that not all students I teach are going to understand immediately the concepts discussed in class. Graphic organizers (Thinking Maps in my district ) have been used to help students break down the components of formulas in math to helping organize ideas in writing an essay in English to historic events in History. I know students have found it helpful in learning math formulas because they understand why it is used and what parts compose the formula.
Under Curricular Supports it was good to see online resources that could help reinforce and provide a different delivery of math topics. This gives students the option of how they want to receive the extra help they may need.
With using audio and visual resources, students have another way of recapturing and understanding what was taught in class. This is especially helpful for ELL students that are not only learning math but a second language (English) as well. Below, are two examples of where the same topic is taught in English as well as Spanish. The site phschool.com is the site that is tied into the math books that are used in my classes.
3. I took a look at Math Support under the UDL Strategies and found several of the resources to be informational, fun and what I could use with my students. These resources are what students would find interesting, fun and helpful all at the same time. I tried my hand at math playground.com and took a look at one of the multiplication games. And I discovered I'm not that good with using a space bar and arrow key as a joystick. :) However, practicing basic multiplication this way would keep students more engaged verses using old school flashcards. I also took a look at thatquiz.org which allows the user to create his/hers own quiz on a variety of topics in various subject areas. I like the practice it provides and allows the user to use a timer or not.
4. I used Vozme to do my text to audio. Although I found the female voice to be robotic sounding , I was pleased to hear that some of the words that my students have pronounced incorrectly were pronounced correctly here. This site would be helpful for students (ELL, regular ed, special ed) who are having trouble with reading and pronouncing mathematical terms.
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