EC Resource for Differentiation

I picked out an article from the LearnNC website that I thought was really helpful for management in the classroom that also helps teachers prepare for all student's learning needs. "Managing a classroom with brain food" gives ideas as to how to make the management of the classroom easier so that the teacher can focus more time on watching students and interacting with parents.

Ideas it suggests:
- Community building activities from the beginning of the year: making the classroom as a community of trusting and responsible students, helps keep the students accountable to one another, so they are more likely to work hard to keep the classroom atmosphere positive.
- help the students learn to manage the work they have to do: work with them on keeping their agenda up-to-date. Give them options of what work they should do first. Help them learn to prioritize. A lot of learning has to do with organization.
- pay attention to how you group the students together: make sure to put students together who will help each other learn not detract from the learning process

How to differentiate:
- get to know each student individually
- constantly talk to them to find out what they know to learn what they can do next
- be in touch with their parents to help them work at home and to see what the parents feel like they need to grow in
- keep a notebook with student work, surveys, etc. for each student to follow their progress and to keep in mind what they have to do to be successful learners.

Another article that seemed to fit with these ideas was from an website about differentiation. The website talks about the different steps to teaching in a differentiated manner. One of the major steps is Motivation.

Important ideas for motivating students:
- Challenge them: all students need to be pushed to do as much as they can, and we need to keep pushing them to do more
- Play to their strengths: even students who need differentiated instruction have strengths they can share; they will often improve in other areas when they get to feel like an expert in another
- behavior management

The article gives more ideas to motivate students...


Casson, Kathleen. "Managing a Classroom with Brain Food." LearnNC Web. 8 Nov. 2009. .

Theroux, Priscilla Intrinsic Motivation. Enhance Learning, 1994. Web. 8 Nov. 2009 .