I am taking Harvard's online Computer Science Course CS50x and have been very impressed by how the course facilitator, David J. Malan, differentiates the course materials to suit the varying abilities and needs of students. While CS50x is a University Course I plan to use 2 aspects of David's differentiation language in my primary school classroom.
__1. Students identify themselves, in relation to content, as 'More comfortable', 'Comfortable' or 'Less comfortable.'__
Students who identify themselves as <strong>'Comfortable'</strong> attend a section (group tutorial) with other students who have identified themselves as being 'Comfortable' and so on. Like-ability groupings are formed based on the students' self identification of their own abilities and feedback is given to the teacher from the student. Hattie talks about student to teacher feedback as having a large effect on achievement.
I sometimes ask students to rate their understanding then direct them to different tasks, groupings or resources based on that rating. Mainly I want to find out who needs extra-support and who will require extension tasks. Often this self rating process doesn't work. I think that is mainly because students are reluctant to admit that they don't, or sometimes even do, understand something.
Rating your comfort level signals to the teacher if you need extra-support or if you need to be extended further with an increased level of challenge. I hope that using the language of a comfort rating might assist my students in communication if they need extra-support or extension challenges more efficiently.
###__2. Students set goals in relation to their own unique starting point.__
'What ultimately matters in this course is not so much where you end up relative to your classmates but where you, in Week 12, end up relative to yourself in Week 1.'
David J. Malan.
I have planned that this year I will really work on getting my students to understand where they are currently at with their learning and then to set realistic goals about where they should be by the Terms end themselves.
###__3. Provide extra learning resources and materials than will be needed.__
This way students who prefer certain styles, say a lecture versus a walk-through will all be catered for.
I will report back ASAP about the impact David's differentiation language has on my students.
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