Differentiation

Differentiation is giving all students the best chance of learning so that they can learn and grow. That might look differently for each student. Think about the Goldilocks principle, we want learning to be just right for each student. 

Low performing students need additional support to fill in the gaps they have in their knowledge. They tend to benefit from hands-on learning,  multi-sensory activities, and guided modeling. It is important to support and guide them because they need to Lower students can lack self esteem so be sure to praise the little things. Accommodate the students during the assessments. It doesn’t always matter how the students show they understand something only that they understand it. Allow students to compete tests orally or with pictures.

Middle performing students need reinforcements of strategies. These students are often overlooked because they need less support than the low students but they are not able to complete the same tasks as the advanced students. Don’t forget to meet their needs as well. These students need to be supported and challenged. Give them projects and activities that allow them to showcase their strengths and creativity. 

High students need to be challenged further. These are the students who tend to get bored in a traditional class because they understand the content and the activities are not challenging them. One thing that can really benefit these students is giving them open ended activities. Give them time to ask questions and explore. Don’t just have the higher students be peer tutors, let them collaborate with other high students to research a topic and create. 

Creating a classroom community with all the students is important because all students need to know that their voice is being heard. One way to ensure this is by giving students ‘chips’ at the beginning of a class discussion.  Each time a student makes a comment or gives an answer they put one of their chips back in the bucket. This gives all students a chance to talk because once a student has used all of their ‘chips’ they have to be the listeners. This management technique stops the higher more talkative students from dominating the discussion and gives the middle and lower students a chance to share their thoughts. 

Student Led Conferences and Digital Portfolios

Student led conferences are a way for students to take responsibility for their learning and showcase their work. The students are getting to lead the conference and share their academic progress with their people. Student led conferences are different from teacher lead conferences because the teacher is the facilitator and the student leads the parents through the analysis of their work. The teacher needs to aid the student through choosing the information to share during the conference. The students get a chance to reflect on their work and process through how they did on the assessments. Before going into a student led conference it is important for everyone to understand the expectations. The teacher needs to make sure the student is prepared by giving them prompts and sentence starters so they will be able to lead the conference and be confident while doing it. 

As a mediator it is not our job to jump in and take over if the student forgets something. The teacher is there to support and guide the student and give them clear expectations to both the students and parents. Give the students prompts and guidelines to help the student move through the conference. 

The parents need to listen and engage with the student. It is important for the parents to be asking questions and encouraging the students through the process. If English is not a parents primary language use google translate or have the student become the translator to connect the parent to the conference. 

Digital portfolios are a collection of assessments over time on a digital platforms. They should be related to the standards and show engagement. When putting things on a platform for others to be able to see it creates a sense of accountability. The students will be aware that friends and families are going to be looking at their work so they will want to do their best. Another benefit of digital portfolios is that they can be used throughout the students’ academic career and they will be able to reflect on their growth. Students can use their digital portfolio in their conference and can show their parents how much they have grown from one conference to the next. One app to try using in your classroom to help your students start building their digital portfolio is seesaw. This app is a great way for students of all ages to begin sharing their learning.

Autism and the iPad

By giving an autistic child an iPad you are giving them more than a tool you are giving them a chance to participate and communicate with their peers. Some students who are autistic have a difficult time expressing their thoughts and feelings the same way that neurotypicals do. The iPad breaks down the barrier that autistic students have and gives them a chance to learn and practice social skills. 

For non-verbal students there are several apps that can be downloaded to give these students a voice. Upcard is one of the apps that autistic students can use to help them communicate. This app has been helping parents communicate and set schedules with their children to make their lives easier. The application costs $8.99 which is a great price for all of the things that it can do. Especially, if it makes the child feel a part of their family or a classroom community. 

Another great app for parents and teachers to use to aid students on the Autism Spectrum is tippy talk. Their mission is to “create platforms that encourage social communication independence for people living with verbal disabilities.” The child is able to select pictures to communicate with someone. When the child is ready to share the message the person they are communicating with receives a text message. Tippy talk converted the pictures the child selected into words and sent it as a message. The application itself is free and has in app upgrades that you can purchase depending on what you need.

Other Applications to check out!

• Touch and learn -Emotions
• First Then Visual Schedule 
• Shadow Puppets
• Proloquo 2

After learning about all the benefits an iPad can have for a student on the Autism Spectrum, I am thinking about how easy it is to help these students. While some of the applications might be quite expensive others are low cost or even free. If your school cannot afford the apps to help the students there are plenty of places that offer grants to support your school in acquiring the right tools for all students to feel welcome in the classroom.