Differentiation
Essentials Grid for Lindsay Booze’s Unit on Urban, Suburban, and Rural Communities
This Unit fulfills California Department of Education (Grade 2) Standard 2.2: Students demonstrate map skills by describing the absolute and relative locations of people, places, and environments.
What Students Should Know |
Vocabulary: urban, suburban, rural, community, environment, dense, population Facts and Information:
|
What Students Should Understand |
|
What Students Should Be Able to Do |
|
Strategies for Various Learning Needs |
These students will be assessed prior to beginning of unit via method of an online multiple choice test to determine his/her level of knowledge on the material to be studied and determine what he/she still needs to master. Once knowledge of material has been assessed, create alternative plans for what the student needs to know, and excuse the student from studying what he/she already knows. Examples could include excluding the students from vocabulary tests, or portions of writing assignments. Create plans for freed-up time to be spent in enriched or accelerated study. Plans could include assigning a more difficult writing assignment which falls under the subject of city, suburban, rural. In addition, a more-detailed map assignment could be given.
These students are assessed via initial assessment methods to test previous knowledge. This will be provided via online multiple question, fill-in-blank assessments. Assessments will also be based upon previous writing assignments and samples, projects, etc. Students will be instructed on essential skills that are provided at different levels of complexity, abstractness, and open-endedness. The curricular content and Objectives are the same, but the process and/or product are varied according to the student's level of readiness. The corresponding lessons would: Focus task on a key concept such as verbalizing the differences between the communities. Use a variety of resource materials at different levels of complexity and associated with different learning modalities, such as online interactive games, videos with simpler details and vocabulary Adjust task by complexity, abstractness, number of steps, concreteness, and independence to ensure challenge and not frustration. This will include allowing the students to write smaller writing assignments, simpler sentence structure, paying attention to “big ideas” versus picking apart grammar and spelling, allowing more basic drawings of their communities.
The student and teacher identify a topic of interest to the student, which will fulfill the stated standard. If the topic is an alternate topic, together they plan a method of investigating the topic and decide upon the outcome of the independent study. The result of the project will be based on the needs of the student and the curricular content. Guided by the teacher and structured by timelines, process logs and/or journals, the student documents the process and completes his or her own research on the topic and develops a product to share with classmates. This student will relate their topic to the topic presented in class, in order to create a cohesive unit within the classroom.
A learning center is a classroom area that contains a collection of activities and/or materials designed to teach, reinforce or extend a particular skill. These centers will include enrichment in vocabulary and sentence structure, which will in-turn help these students construct their writing assignments. This can include online learning activities, activity books, and assistance in working on their assignments (a classroom aid or volunteer will help with this). Focus on important learning goals such as being able to describe the three areas, in simple sentence structures if necessary, visually represent the areas in their own “communities.” Include activities that vary from simple to complex Provide clear directions Have a record keeping system Address a wide range of reading levels, learning profiles, and student interests Include activities that vary from simple to complex Provide clear directions Have a record keeping system Adjusting questions Flexible Grouping |
Adjusting questions- sample question structures for multiple learners |
|
Resources:
Brainpop Educators. (2017). Rural, Suburban and Rural. Retrieved from https://educators.brainpop.com/bp-jr-topic/rural-suburban-and-urban/
California Department of Education. (2000). History-social science content standards for California public schools: kindergarten through twelth grade. Retrieved from http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf
Tomlinson, C.A. (2003). Fulfilling the purpose of the differentiated classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.