Academic and Cognitive Skills

Academic and cognitive skills vary from student to student. In the past, teachers often just taught to the group and usually aimed at the abilities of the middle of the class. Faster students finished their work early and had free time. Slower students struggled to keep up and their grades reflected this. Very little thought was given to what each needed or what they already knew. It was assumed that if they were in a certain grade, then they knew the content and skills from the years before. This put many students at a disadvantage from the beginning.

What if advanced students could begin learning new content, without repeating previous work, and could proceed to the next subject area or level when one level was mastered? What if slower students did not have to compete with others and could work at their own pace, starting from where their learning left off? What if the previous learning of all students could be assessed and teachers could use this information to design appropriate lessons for each student or group? It is possible!

Teachers can pre-assess prior knowledge and experiences through a variety of methods. Personal conversations along with traditional paper and pen pre-assessments, discussions with parents or previous teachers, and educational records reveal much of the story. Before each unit of study, teachers can pre-assess for that topic through review games such as 4 corners and gallery walk to get an idea of the overall knowledge of the group. Other methods, such as KWL charts, give more personal data and provide direction.

The following educational sites also provide fun ways to collect data by using technology:

Kahoot - https://kahoot.com (learning games to create, play and share)
Quizizz - https://quizizz.com/ (free self-paced quizzes)
Formative - https://goformative.com/ (produces feedback data from live responses)
Socrative - https://www.socrative.com/ (learning games that provide instant feedback for teacher)
Quizalize - https://www.quizalize.com/ (pre-made or own quizzes to use especially with groups)

All of these sites are great. For an introduction to one of them, watch the following video from Kahoot!

To meet the differentiated needs in a classroom, Sandra Berger (1991) states that teachers must do the following:

Developing An Effective Curriculum
Modifying Content
Modifying Process
Modifying Environment
Modifying Product Expectation and Student Response
Assessing Curriculum Effectiveness

For advanced students, allow them choice of assessment types, assignments or projects, and allow them to work at their own pace. When they finish an assignment, they can continue moving forward in their work, instead of waiting for others and being given additional work to keep them busy.

For slower students, allow them choice in their type of assessments, also. Give them up to 3 choices of assignments or projects. Allow them to work with partners or small groups. Sometimes, they could be partnered with others at their level and at other times, with partners from other levels. Allow them to work at their own pace, with guidance and encouragement from the teacher.

CDL students can benefit from these same types of strategies. CDL students can often benefit from partnering with English speakers, which allows them to hear and communicate with others in a language they are learning. At other times, it might be best to allow them to work with others who speak their own heart language, because learning another language can be frustrating, especially in the early stages of acquisition. We don't want early learners to become overwhelmed and give up if they can't understand.

Students with ADD or ADHD may not be able to completely focus on new learning immediately, or settle in to a learning mindset, but we can give them time. We can help them learn to block out incoming stimuli and focus on their work. At times, it takes them longer to get started, but once they are engaged, they many not want to stop. Again, we can give them the time they need. At times, they can work with a partner or in a small group, but giving them a safe place to work alone is also important. They may be extremely intelligent, but may need more time to get focused and more time to work away from the crowd, especially if they are very active.

There are many accommodations we can make to help all students be at their best for learning, but especially students with disabilities. For example, when students are new to English, or are slower readers, or very shy, they many not want to talk in front of the group or read aloud. According to Friend (2005) in the NASET LD Report #3, students with weakness in this area often dread being asked to read in class. We can be sensitive and allow them to gradually be comfortable reading aloud, instead of forcing them. If students have difficulty seeing, allow them to use a computer with a larger screen, and offer magnifying glass for reading. For students with difficulty limiting distractions, maintain “one speaker at a time” rule especially when all students are sharing their thoughts or during a review game. All examples are taken from: Instructional Accommodations for a Student with a Disability (2018). Retrieved from: https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/Accommodations

The key is to be aware, to care, and to adapt learning so that each child learns best, whether they are advanced, an average learner, slower learner, English or non-English speaker, attentive or inattentive. Our job is to teach the child, not the classroom.

References

Friend, (2005). Characteristics of children with learning disabilities. National Association of Special Education Teachers. Retrieved from: https://www.naset.org/fileadmin/user_upload/LD_Report/

Issue__3_LD_Report_Characteristic_of_LD.pdf

Instructional accommodations for a student with a disability, (2018). Retrieved from: https://

www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/Accommodations

Berger, S. (n.d.) Differentiating curriculum for gifted learners. ERIC Digest (#E510). Retrieved from:

http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10342