Customizing Student Learning Activities

EIM 504Matt Glover

Differentiation Instruction

• purposefully designing instruction to accommodate the known needs of one’s students and providing them with different content, strategies, and means of demonstrating the desired learning

• It has become more popular due to the growing diversity of the student population in the general education.

• Differentiated instruction is personalized and customized learning.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

• an approach to instruction in which teachers remove barriers to learning by providing flexibility in materials, methods, and assessments.

Learning Profile

• a description of a student’s abilities, interests, learning preferences, and other relevant information that can impact learning

• Teachers need to know the what, how, and why for each learner

Neural Networks

• Recognition Networks = neural networks in the brain that help to identify sensory data, such as objects, facts, and patterns.

• Strategic Networks = neural networks that control processes for planning, executing, and monitoring your action

• Affective Networks = neural networks that relate to feelings and emotions, and which influence motivation for and engagement with a particular goal, method, medium, or assessment.

Setting Goals• As a teacher, you develop learning goals for your students

that allow them to obtain the skills and knowledge required by curricula and standards. When incorporating the UDL guidelines, learning goals should

1. allow students to clearly understand the outcomes (recognize “what” should be learned);

2. be achievable through a variety of media (provide multiple opportunities for “how” the lesson can be learned); and

3. communicate the importance of the goal to students (emphasize “why” the learning is important).

RTI

• Response-To-Intervention (RTI) = framework that uses diagnostic and progress monitoring assessments to help group students for instructional interventions of varied intensity and types

Assistive Technology

• any item, piece of equipment, or product system used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disability

• Also known as the Tech Act

Meeting needs of Diverse Learners

• IDEA requires that states “ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for employment and independent living.

• Individualized Education Program (IEP) = an individualized plan for a student with disabilities that describes the measures teachers must take to accommodate the learning needs of the student.

Available Software

• word-processing applications software that allows users to create, edit, and revise written documents

• word-prediction software software that suggests words based on common usage patterns, arrangement of letters, or rules of grammar

• communication tools numerous technologies used to communicate synchronously or asynchronously, such as phones, e-mail, texting, and others

8 Examples of Assistive Technology and Adaptive Tools

1. Audio Players and Recorders2. Timers3. Reading Guides4. Seat Cushions5. FM Listening Systems6. Calculators7. Writing Supports8. Graphic Organizers

References

• Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (2nd ed.). Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth.

• Morin, A. (2014, July 7). Assistive technology basics. Retrieved September 26, 2015.