Week+7

**Differentiation Station Assignment**
This week, take this final opportunity to review the Differentiation Station social network your group developed. Think about how you will use the resources, strategies, tools, and ideas in your classroom. In your group's Differentiation Station Wiki, post a summary of how you will use the resources in the Differentiation Station social network to help you implement the principles of Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction. Describe three ways you will use technology to provide your students with instruction that meets their diverse learning needs based on your learning as you developed the Differentiation Station. Suggested assignment length: 2-3 paragraphs


 * __Missy's Response, Week 7__**

The beauty of embracing an online network such as our Differentiation Station is that it is a micro-representation of the global learning that is available to us as consumers and producers of information. In order to create an enriched differentiated classroom, it takes detailed planning, and an expert knowledge of students’ interests, readiness and learning profiles. Additionally, this process entails integrating technology, possessing expert knowledge of your content area, and dedication to flexible classroom management (Laureate Education, 2009a). In order to accomplish all of this, it takes resources, knowledge sharing and collegial support; such as what we have found on this wiki throughout this course. To implement the principles of UDL and DI within my classroom, I must invest time and energy into planning/reworking my content lessons into lessons which are accessible to all types of learners; this type of professional work takes endless hours and a solid base of knowledge. That being noted, it is next to impossible for one teacher to do it alone – collaboration and the sharing of newfound resources is the most efficient way lesson plan for the 21st century. For myself, this means using the resources found on our wiki to expand on the resources I had time to collect; my Walden colleagues shared valuable other resources, as well as their insight into these sources and evaluative feedback. As a struggle to manage my differentiated classroom, I embrace any resource that allows me more time to take my students from where they are at this point in time and deliver them to the next level of their academic journey (Laureate Education, 2009).

Based on what I have learned through our Differentiation Station, I will use the various survey options that my colleagues shared; I’ll use these to enhance, modify, or replace some of the data collecting assignments I’ve used in the past. It appears to me that not any one list is comprehensive in regards to gathering students’ interests and learning profiles, so it may take time for me to either synthesize the list or train students to look through multiple survey options and choose the one that “speaks” to them the most. By collecting this data, I will be better equipped to help my students find success, while also being more efficient; there is no need to “reinvent the wheel “ when planning time is a valuable resource. Another use of technology that I will embrace is using Krista’s videos to develop and maintain a strong understanding of Universal Design for Learning; her compilation stands alone as a powerful document, and her format of thirteen separate mini-videos means I am able to grab and show a smaller selection of videos that directly relates to providing for my differentiated classroom. Using Krista’s movies as a resource of ideas and research-based facts, lends itself perfectly to supporting UDL in my classroom because she stated the principles of UDL in a way that was easy for me to understand; when I need a refresher, reminder or a nudge to invest more time in my curriculum planning, her movies really speak to me!

A third way I will use technology to differentiate instruction is through the use of a wiki itself. The format of a wiki, where we all add in our ideas and resources, creates a blended knowledge share. Within my classroom, I can use a wiki for students to post their thoughts related to class time, questions about their homework, or share links and videos relating to our content area. Using a wiki platform and enabling students to edit content helps me transition into my role as “guide on the side” instead of a “sage on stage” lecturing instruction (Laureate Education, 2009). My students can have ownership in a wiki while I offer them new ways of demonstrating knowledge; in the end, seeing me as a learner is a powerful model for my students.

This Differentiation Station wiki has been a supportive atmosphere of collegial sharing; by utilizing some of its’ elements within my own 7th grade English/language arts class, I take on the role of teacher, student, collaborator and technology integrator.

Missy Provost

References: Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009b). Tomlinson, C., Smith, G., & Throne, S. (Speakers). Putting it all together. [DVD]. //Reaching and engaging all learners through technology.// Baltimore, MD. _

__** Randy’s Week Seven Response **__

This overall experience and practice using the Wiki in a group learning exercise has been particularly useful in providing different resources for implementing and explaining classroom differentiation and the Universal Design for learning. The main benefit of source we have created is the sheer amount of information available in a single place that can be utilized again and again by teaching professionals everywhere. Personally, after this course has ended, I will continue to utilize this social networking site to assist with my construction of a classroom environment that brings differentiation fully into my instruction with the hopes of benefiting all of my students. When researching any topic, specifically when looking at the information analytically and at a deeper level, it often takes a large amount of time to find useful resources. However, this collaborative work has many different resources laid out for use with a variety of flexible options and strategies for the professional looking to make a difference in their instruction.

Essentially the construction of the Wiki has helped me to understand the power of a global learning community as we have constructed and analyzed an amazing amount of information on the topic of differentiated instruction over the course of seven weeks without ever meeting face to face to discuss the material. Using our resource I am able to choose the various resources as needed with the understanding that they have already been reviewed and even used by my peers to augment and change their own instruction, making their value immensely greater than if I had simply found the information on my own. The personal explanations provide insight to how to best use the information located and often offer a simple explanation of the source itself allowing a quick glance to explain the usefulness of the resource to my instruction is seconds. Overall I found the format of the Wiki user friendly and loved the idea that each professional teacher could make changes, corrections and comments to anthers work in order to strengthen the overall meaning of the information and expand the understanding of the topic.

Through this course I have found a handful of ways that I will use technology in the to differentiate my classroom instruction both in the immediate future as well as next year. A first way that I can utilize technology in my classroom is through the use of the collaborative Wiki itself and the Blog features that it offers. I could foresee the construction of a group Wiki in class on any number of topics in history and the group work and conversation being easy monitor and guide by the teacher. I have already used a Blog with my students earlier in the year and feel this is the next step when using the technology. I’m really glad I was able to practice with this tool myself again as this better prepared me for teaching and guiding my own students when we use a Wiki in class.

Another way I can use technology to expand differentiation in the classroom through the use of Glogster, and the postcard creator, online sources that allow the user to create an interactive poster or a postcard on any topic of their choice. Previous to this course I had never even heard of these resources yet I find it to be engaging and easy to use in my own classroom and feel it could be something my students will find engaging and fun to use in global studies. As such I am in the process of planning multiple lessons for both this year and next that use the resource as I feel my students will be able to create and personalize their own Glogs or create and send a postcard from a distant land fairly easily in the classroom with the guidance of the teacher. I can’t wait to use this tool and see the results firsthand and feel it will spark creativity and engage students regardless of the learning needs or styles.

The third way I will utilize technology is to simple provide more choice through the presentation of my content. All too often I fall into the trap of doing the same lessons over and over again without regard to the individual learner. By using technology in my lessons I have the opportunity to bring content in the form of video and audio clips to my students as well as pictures and first hand sources to augment my global studies classroom. I can even plan a virtual field trip with my students allowing them to visit the region of China or the Time period of the middle ages. With the assistance of technology I can bring a wide variety of material into my classroom with the click of a button, thus transporting my students anywhere in the world, all from the security of the classroom.

A final way I will utilize technology to help differentiate my lessons in through the use of online surveys, both of my creation and also those that are already available online. I have never really done any formal survey taking to learn about my students, rather I often listened to them or talked with the students individually to gain insight into their lives. Online surveys greatly simplify my work and allow a large amount of information to be collected quickly and painlessly. This resource can help me to understand my students as individuals then create lessons and strategies that meet their needs helping them to understand my content. I found surveymonkey.com to be incredible easy to use and plan on bringing this tool into my classroom at the beginning of next semester to learn about my students and guide my instruction. I could also use the surveys as pretests before we study a topic as the results of the survey will quickly tell me what my students already know and where my instruction should begin.

**__Krista's Response-Week 7__**

When I began courses at Walden, I had never heard of a wiki. When I talk to family and colleagues about my class wiki they look at me stare as if I'm from another planet. I have done a lot of educating of adults the last two years! The wiki has been an incredible resource and support for me. I can post questions and get responses, we can bounce ideas off each other, and build on each other's information. It is an incredible learning tool. We have gathered an abundance of information on this particular wiki that I will continue to visit even though classes at Walden are finished.

Because I have set a goal to implement differentiation and universal design for learning, the resources provided on this wiki will be invaluable. On the wiki's page for UDL resources, Missy provided a short video of adults that I think would help teachers understand the importance of technology and help in moving them in the direction of overcoming their own technology fears. Another resource, [], provides a checklist for inclusive teaching and details about UDL which I think is very helpful in the planning process.

During week 5, James posted a link to Read, Write, Think. This website has proven to be awesome. I first used it for its postcard maker in which students wrote about their animal's habitat and drew a picture of the animal in its habitat. Then I found that it had numerous capabilities, such as on-line venn diagrams. Once students understood what was meant by the word "concept" they completed the diagram with ease and had a printed copy to refer to. During my animal unit in science, I created a tic-tac-toe board with nine activities based on multiple intelligences. These activities require technology to complete. Read, Write, Think found its way into at least two spots!

In week 6, my colleague, Randy, posted this link, 12) [|www.lankutis.com/documents/TechDiffInstruction.doc] which has proven to be very helpful in helping teachers to locate technology tools to implement differentiated instruction. There are so many tools out there and it is helpful when a colleague shares! This site will help me locate resources for text-to-speech, it explains how to highlight text, and where to find e-books. With the inclusion team having so many students with learning disabilities, these tools will be helpful in meeting the needs of these diverse learners.

This week, Randy mentioned Glogster. This is a concept that I just learned about recently but am very excited about. Students can showcase their research, or any learning, by creating a colorful display with pictures and words that is interactive. I think this would be a very motivating tool.

All of these tools, and the others posted on this wiki, will help me to either organize, plan, or implement UDL in a DI classroom.

Krista

I created a brochure about differentiated instruction for educators. It has basic information. Feel free to change the contact information on the back to personalize it. I originally made it in Publisher, figured out how to make it a PDF file (woohoo) and posted it on a new page on my blog called Differentiated Instruction Resources. My blog address is www.whittleman.wordpress.com.

http://whittleman.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/di-teacher-brochure.pdf (I was having problems making the link so you may need to copy/paste it)