learning styles & differentiation in instruction
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Staff Development Presentation
Learning Styles & Differentiation in Instruction
J. Walsh-Davis M.Ed.
Learning begins with attention: That’s what the experts say. Let’s see if we agree with them.
Learning Styles
What do you see?
What did you see? What did you pay most attention to? Did anyone use their imagination to
extend the picture? Did the picture spark some kind of
emotion inside you?
Sharing
Everyone learns but not in the same way. The differences in how people learn are called learning styles.
Realistic, practical and matter-of-fact. They are efficient, results-oriented, prefers actions to words, and are hands-on learners. They tend to be neat, precise and require immediate feed-back to an assignment.
Mastery Learner (sensing & thinking)
Theoretical, Intellectual and knowledge-oriented.
They are curious about ideas, loves to solve complex problems and are highly tolerant of theory.
These learners plan ahead before beginning an assignment and need little feedback while they work.
Understanding learners are avid readers, and loves using technology, formulas and abstract symbols.
Understanding Learner(Intuition & thinking)
Curious, insightful and imaginative Self-expressive learners are
dreamers and are always searching for new ways to express themselves.
They are turned-off by rote learning and look more for open-ended questions such as ‘What would happen if….?’
Self-Expressive Learner(intuition & feeling)
Social, experiential and community-oriented.
Inter-personal learners take a personal approach to their learning. They love activities that involve real-world situations, personal interactions or solving others problems.
Interpersonal Learners (sensing & feeling)
Used at the beginning of a class; excellent for feedback for presenting new concepts.
- as an anticipatory set – to find out how much the students know.
- as a behavior management tool asking questions such as ‘what did I do wrong?’ ‘ How may I correct it?’
It may also be used to explain graphics at the beginning of a lesson.
Differentiated StrategiesAdmit Slip
Examples of Admit Slips
Strategy: Window PanesDescription: This strategy uses a lot of color which is brain
compatible and lends interest to the student.It has at least 4 cells with each cell containing a
picture or icon and very few words.Window panes assists students to bring clarity to
their thoughts through the use of visuals. It is a respectful, challenging task that engages ALL students as active participants.
Window Panes
MnemonicsMnemonics is a strategy that is incooperated into differentiated instructions. The most common use of this strategy is acronyms. This allows for quick and easy memorization of information and is excellent for use with Blooms’ Taxonomy at the lower level – recall; remember.
Presentation of Mnemonics
Think – Pair - ShareIntroducing concepts, students think about
concept, pair up with another student and share their understanding of concept with each other.
Concept may be modified to Think – Write – Share. Pupils write their thoughts on the concept assigned and then share information with class instead of with a partner.
Pupils volunteering to share information with whole class.
JIGSAWMay use leading questions to begin strategy.
It begins with a home-group numbered 1 – 4. They split into expert groups to talk about their area of learning. They then return to home group and each numbered person share their concept ; forming the ‘big picture’ as all home-group members will now have covered the content.
A product may be created at the end of the discussion such as a flip-book or flow-chart to show understanding.
Illustrations
TASK ROTATIONIs an assessment strategy to show mastery of
the intelligences. The activities involved caters to individual students strengths and weaknesses as they get the opportunity to work on a style of learning in which they are strong
The areas are: Mastery, Interpersonal, Understanding and Self-Expressive.
Results of Task RotationStudents will see it as a different way
of learning and each intelligence was catered to. It allows the students a chance to excel in their strongest intelligence and provide them with a sense of achievement .
They can work on several tasks at once and it can prove very productive for both teacher and students.
GRAFFITTIThis is a strategy that involves the
creativity of students. It may be used to explore concepts in a creative way using words and pictures.
How Does it Work?Students use words and pictures to
convey their understanding of the concept. Graffiti is the hand-made version of ‘wordle’ using graphics as well as words.
Example of Graffiti
EXIT SLIPSExit slips may be used as final
product or closure for a class. They may be a statement to be written, a question to be answered based on a concept taught in lesson. Students leave the class upon presentation of this information. This is a good way of checking for understanding.
ClosureChoose the strategy that appeals the most to
you and produce an example of it.Exit Slip - Complete the questionnaire
provided and leave with the presenter. Thank You!