Running head: BEGINNING DIFFERENTIATION 1

Beginning Differentiation

Julie Lansing

National University
BEGINNING DIFFERENTIATION 2

Beginning Differentiation

There are many ways to differentiate instruction for every learning type in a classroom

including; English language learners, special needs students, and advanced or gifted students.

For this lesson, the students will be reading an article about ways the government can assist you

if there is a natural disaster and then they will be coming up with a narrative journal entry as if

they were a government employee helping with a natural disaster that has just occurred.

For students who are English language learners, there are some resources that can help

differentiate the lesson, so they are able to understand it and comprehend the content with their

peers. Some of the ways that differentiation can help students that are ELL is if they have the

vocabulary that is going to be used in the article in advance and there is pictures and

explanations that go along with the words. This helps ELL students understand the vocabulary,

some of which they might not have heard before. This goes along with the students making a

connection to their background knowledge that they already have of natural disasters. If a student

is new to speaking and reading English, “be sure that the student has access to information in his

first language, or a strong support system for translating.” (Tomlinson, 2001, pg.91).

Students that are English language learners also do well when they are able to work in a

group of peers. They might be nervous to speak out in the classroom, but they will be more

confident in a group of peers. ELL students will gain confidence while working in a group, they

also might feel more comfortable asking their peers for assistance in understanding the natural

disaster and how the government can help. Another way to differentiate for ELL students is to

give them sentence frames when they are writing their narrative journal entry. Sentence frames

helps students understand the correct order that words should be placed in and gives them help in

writing their journal.

BEGINNING DIFFERENTIATION 3

For students with special needs, there are also ways to differentiate the lesson for them.

There are many different types of students with special needs and multiple ways to differentiate

the lesson based on their needs. Some of the ways that the article and narrative journal entry can

be differentiated is having an article with similar information and concepts be used so the article

is at their reading level. “If the student is reading significantly below grade level, differentiation

may include providing reading materials at the appropriate level or designating study guides to

help the student read and comprehend the text.” (Heacox, 2012, pg. 136). Students with special

needs can also use sentence frames to help them complete the narrative journal entry. The

students can use study guides to assist them in learning the concepts and filling out information

that goes along with the article.

Some students with special needs should have directions presented to them orally and

then also show them what is expected of them. They are able to follow along with the

information that is given easier when they hear or see it in multiple ways. This differentiation

goes for both reading of the article and how to complete the narrative journal entry. “For learners

with auditory difficulties, provide maps, charts, lists, or icons to move them through the task.

Provide them work samples to help them see the quality of work you expect.” (Heacox, pg. 139).

By providing samples of what the work should look like, the students with special needs have a

better understand of what they need to do. Another way to differentiate the lesson for students

with special needs is to have them move to a spot in the classroom where they feel comfortable.

Some students need to stand and do their work, others need to move to a space where they can

have some space away from other students. With these differentiations, the students are able to

work on the narrative journal entry and complete the work with their peers.
BEGINNING DIFFERENTIATION 4

For differentiation with advanced or gifted learners, you could have them do a critical

evaluation of the work that the government has done with natural disasters. They could go

through the article and look for additional ways that the government could help. The students

could also come up with ways to prevent further damage to houses during a hurricane or tornado.

The students can use their complex thinking skills to help them come up with a plan to help the

cities that are affected by natural disasters. One thing to think of is “How can I modify learning

to provide greater depth and complexity.” (Heacox, pg. 141). To provide a greater depth and

complexity to the narrative journal entry, the advanced and gifted students could research the

ways that the government assists and what ways they can come up with that could help with

assisting people devastated by disasters quicker.

Another way that gifted and advanced students could have differentiated instruction

would be for them to write to government agencies asking what the steps are to help during a

natural disaster. The students might want to make a creation of a natural disaster and then discuss

with the class the ways that the disaster occurs and then the steps that are taken to help those

affected by disasters. The article could be adjusted to their reading level and they could be given

additional articles to further their understanding of natural disasters.

To conclude, there are many ways that differentiation can occur for the same content and

learning activity. Most students in a classroom need some form of differentiation to assist in their

learning and understanding of the concepts and information that is being given to them.
BEGINNING DIFFERENTIATION 5

References

Heacox, D. (2012). Differentiating instruction in the regular classroom. minneapplois: Free

Spirit Publishing, Inc.

Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms (2nd

edition). Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.