A+ Solutions and Parentingsimply.com are working together to bring Title 1 teachers a great training webinar. Last night, I had the privilege of listening to Favi Becker, as she facilitated the second class of her seriesDifferentiated Learning.
We discussed the Essential Principles of Differentiation:
- Good Curriculum comes first
- All tasks should be respectful of each learner
- When in doubt, teach up!
- Use flexible grouping
- Become an assessment junkie
- Grade for growth
I love this quote by Don Deshler that Favia mentioned:
Academic and social diversity among your students is not a problem, it is a given.
Failing to plan for diversity is a problem.
Some important points that were mentioned were:
- We know that learning happens best when a learning experience pushes the learner a bit beyond his or her independence level.
- When a student continues to work on understanding and skills already mastered, little if any new learning takes place.
- On the other hand, if tasks are far ahead of a student’s current point of mastery, frustration results and learning does not.(Vygotsky, 1962)
We covered so much information. This is the second of 3 classes on Differentiated Instruction given by Favi Becker. I am looking forward to the last one….