Differentiating Instruction in the Elementary School Classroom

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This is a collaborative forum for teachers who want to improve their lessons by catering to the needs of their students.

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Latest Activity: Apr 2, 2018

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Welcome to a serious discussion that I hope will improve our skills as educators.

I recently created this group because I want to build a resource for educators to reflect and share how they they are differentiating their instruction for their students. This is a link to a page of my website that includes a menu of accomidations that I made as a reference based on many different exceptional needs of students.

Please respond and share your experiences in modifying your lessons for your students.

Discussion Forum

Adapting content v.s. remediating skills

Started by Mr. Alex Apr 13, 2010. 0 Replies 0 Likes

How can teachers make accommodations for students in their lessons and still spend time on remediation for skills the students lack?

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Comment by Daniel Baker on October 4, 2011 at 12:35am: IEP4U.COM has over 4000 Goals and Objectives (IEP-ITP) each with changeable benchmarks. The Idea Statements are spread out over seven subjects (Domains) an... Teachers, parents and students can now access objectives directly from this Web Site. Input key words, phrases, or test names in the search engine to find just the correct objectives for your students needs. Copy and paste any information you want, then modify the objectives (examples) to exactly describe the needs of your students. The kid section will give your students personal input to write their own objectives (with your help) and to play some interesting games as well.

This information is is designed to help you with the daunting task of writing proper IEP's The data within this web site was written to correlate with the unique characteristics of various formal assessments. Since assessment is essential for the development of the IEP, specific questions were evaluated and idea statements written based upon those questions. Searching the data for idea statements by assessment will enable teachers to plan lessons or web quests based upon how the student scored on the assessment.

Username: iepdemo
Password: iepdemo
Students can pick their own IEP using Pictures!

Comment by Mr. Alex on May 15, 2010 at 11:33am: First of all, I just want to formally thank Lori Jurjovec for your involvement in this group. Your feedback and discussion points are insightful and meaningful and I personally appreciate it.

Secondly, I wanted to discuss concerns about tier activities. While I agree with the objective of tiering activities, I do not use them with my students. The reason is that I am concerned about limiting my expectations for students who I would choose for the lower tier.

While this is an effective way to make the content more attainable for your struggling student, it also makes a visible division among students in the class.
My fear is that the student will then identify their self as naturally less capable and my lowered expectations for the activity translate to the student's lowered self worth as a student/person.

If I was going to use tiered activities, I would do it in a way that would be less overt. I am a believer in assessing student portfolios, (containing class projects and independent performance assessments). I am also a believer in student choice when applicable. Tiered activites would be perfect for the students' portfolios. Let them choose to challenge themselves (w/ of course extrinsic motivation [more points or something of your choosing] for them to challenge themself to their greatest potential.)

Also, I advocate for higher order thinking of bloom's taxonomy for all of my students. Even those who would be labeled as lower tier. I just don't think that the lower level thinking of bloom's taxonomy such as memorization and fact recall are not as effective as higher level conceptional thinking. And I think that attaining the concept is way more important and meaningful than low level bloom's. Concept maps can be a fun, easy, and useful tool for developing core understanding.

I'm with you on the compacting strategy and think that pretests and surveys for identifying students' background knowlege is super helpful.

Please respond and continue being a valued asset to our group. Thanks again.

Comment by Danette Grossnickle on April 13, 2010 at 4:35pm: I enjoy poetry and have found it a refreshing way to engage students in writing without the hassel of a "set" way of sharing their ideas. At the beginning of the year, in August, I refresh the students with the different kinds of poetry. Then throughout the year, I bring the class back to the poetry through differentiation. This way, all the students know their options and can choose how they want to present their reflection.

Comment by Rich Kiker on April 10, 2010 at 10:52am: I believe DI in elementary schools is critical in nurturing creative mind. I hope this group can develop this integral component of elementary education.