Summary of Differentiation Strategies
- To differentiate based on interest, our team has decided to allow our students a variety of choices. They will be free to conduct research on depictions of social justice through art in their social science class; they will be free to choose what area of their community they will explore in Spanish; and in English they will be free to choose what visuals they will choose to represent their learning in the art splash. In each lesson, students are presented with choices. All of these choices lead to the same learning objective.
- There are many places in this unit where differentiation based on Learning Profile is built in. In the Spanish lesson, where students will go into their communities to explore ideas of social justice and service learning, students will employ nearly all learning modalities. They will be asked to reflect, both verbally and in written form. They will be kinesthetic in their learning by physically visiting their communities. Students will also be taught vocabulary in each lesson in order to maximize understanding.
- In English and Social Science lessons, students will employ both interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. During the art splash in English, students will tap into spatial and visual learning. Then, they will be asked to reflect on their learning in their writing.
- To differentiate based on the students' learning profile, we have started with a broad enduring understanding. The Human Condition as a topic of study has allowed all the teachers involved to create lessons that have multi-levels of complexity. To make this huge topic more manageable, each lesson is a chunk of what we would like students to know and understand (see our unit calendar to view how we have chunked learning)
- During the English art splash, students will be placed in small groups of differing interests, readiness, and learning profiles.
- We have included multi-sensory activities in all content areas, addressing multiple intelligences.
- As an interest based differentiation strategy, students will use a Think-Tac-Toe to choose reflection questions to answer at the end of the unit.
- Graphic organizers are included in many lessons.
