Meeting+the+Academic+Needs+of+ALL+Learners

Meeting the Academic Needs of All Learners: Elementary Level

This workshop will focus on meeting the needs of academically diverse learners within the heterogeneously mixed classroom setting.
=Topics:=
 * Identifying the characteristics of diverse learners
 * Building student and parent relationships- understanding how culture influences education
 * Using PVAAS to look specifically at CYSD data to identify needs and group students
 * Using Performance PLUS data to identify needs and group students
 * Classroom Differentiation

Links/Information to use during workshop:
[|Performance Plus] [|Socrative room number: 13301822]

Tools/Resources for Classroom Differentiation

**Principles of Differentiation:**

**Best Practices for Differentiated Instruction**
[|Differentiation for Readers through Flexible Grouping] Reading General
 * **Flexible Grouping**

[|Differentiated Instruction Learner Profile] [|An online tutorial for developing your class profile] [|Ability and Instructional Grouping Information]
 * **Developing Learning Profiles for Students**

Rick Wormeli: Formative and Summative Assessment [|DI Requires Continuous Assessments]
 * **Continual Assessment**
 * **Technology tools for continual assessment:**
 * 1) [|__Socrative__]- (technology) is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets.
 * 2) __[|Stick Pick]-__ (iphone app) tool to integrate Bloom’s Taxonomy and higher order thinking skills into daily lesson plans
 * 3) [|__One Minute Reader__]- (ipad) uses the same research-based strategy as other successful Read Naturally intervention programs such as Read Live and Read Naturally Encore.

**Instructional Design:**
In Problem-Based Learning, the teacher presents students with an unclear, complex problem and then coaches students to plan, research and solve the problem using materials and resources of varying levels of difficulty.
 * Problem-Based Learning

Unit planning model developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay CTighe.
 * Understanding by Design

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) UDL is a framework that can help you turn the challenges posed by high standards and increasing learner diversity into opportunities to maximize learning for every student. Drawing upon new knowledge of how the brain works and new technologies and media now available for teaching and learning, UDL frames a systematic approach to setting goals, choosing or creating flexible materials and media, and assessing students accurately.

**Instructional Strategies:**
Short term (3-6 weeks) independent investigations that relate to a particular part of the course curriculum. Student choice is a key element of the studies. The student chooses the topic, designs a work plan, defines the final product and negotiates a grading rubric with the teacher. Students are usually required to present results to class. Orbital Studies can be individual or group investigations and hence, provide much flexibility.
 * **[|Orbital Studies]**

Assignments, activities, products, etc. are designed to instruct and assess students on essential skills that are provided at different levels of complexity, abstractness, and open-endedness. The curricular content and objective(s) are the same, but the process and/or product are varied according to the student's level of readiness. Learn more about Tiering at the following sites:
 * [|Tiered Assignments]

A strategy to help students think about a topic or idea from many different angles. Use the sample I created below as a tool to help students think differently in a fun way (or use the blank version to create your own cube activity):
 * Cubing and Think Dots

sample cube

The teacher designs a tic-tac-toe board of options from which students can select.
 * [[file:daretodifferentiate/tictactoe.pdf|Think-Tac-Toe]]

4MAT focuses teachers on identifying and teaching to four learning preferences. 4MAT lessons take several days and focus on: mastery, understanding, personal involvement and/or synthesis.
 * 4MAT

Often used for students to do guided explorations, but independently. Interest centers should be self-explanatory and allow students opportunities to learn more about a topic or play around with a concept. Learning experiences are usually directed toward a specific learner interest. Allowing students to choose a topic can be motivating to them.
 * **Learning/Interest Centers**

**Technology to use when differentiating:**
Discovery Education is committed to improving teaching and learning by transforming traditional classrooms into engaging digital learning environments. Discovery Education Techbook™, a series of dynamic all-digital textbooks in science, social studies, and math, brings learning
 * [|Discover Education]

With a library of over [|4,200 videos] on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and hundreds of skills to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.
 * [|Khan Academy]

iphone apps
 * __[|Stick Pick]-__ tool to integrate Bloom’s Taxonomy and higher order thinking skills into daily lesson plans
 * available for Kindle Fire
 * ipad version- not recommended as of July 2013
 * __Apps for Common Core__- lists math and ELA Common Core standards by grade level and educational apps aligned to the standard

ipad apps
 * [|__Socrative__-] is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets.
 * __Common Core Concept Bank-__ gives you a simple way to view each Common Core Standard, review the supporting concepts and find sample assessment & practice questions.
 * [|__One Minute Reader__]- uses the same research-based strategy as other successful Read Naturally intervention programs such as Read Live and Read Naturally Encore.

Links from the inservice on "Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners" 