DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES: layered reading comprehension

 

Here is a simple strategy that can be used to differentiate instructions, both in individual learning space - home - and in class. 

What you need is a text and Thinglink, a free tool.

Basically, what Thinglink allows you to do is to choose a picture and make it interactive. 

Here is an example of what you can do.

click on the image to be redirected to the activity

I took a picture of a page from a book – which, by the way, is Goodnight Stories from Rebel Girls 2 –, I uploaded it on Thinglink and just added some links.

The learning goal for this activity was practising reading comprehension and writing skills.

In our Esl mixed ability classes we have students at very different levels and making them work on the same tasks is never the best option.

Starting from the same text, it is possible to meet the students’ different needs by differentiating both the process and the outcome, the final product.

If you roll over the image some icons will pop up. As you can see they have different colours and each colour corresponds to a certain degree of difficulty.

Let’s take the green icons: they are the easiest tasks. Basically it is comprehension questions but they are placed exactly where the answers can be found. Moreover, some hints are given to the students, to help them with grammar or vocabulary.

The blue icons are sort of half-way level and what students have to do is to answer questions but there’s no scaffolding here.

And finally the orange icons. That is the expert level. Here students are asked to analyze  and reflect on some aspects of the story/biography and there are also extension activities for them to go deeper into the content.

This interactive image can be used in many different ways, it just depends on the learning goal, so it could be done as a class activity, or it could be assigned  for homework.

It works as an assessment strategy as well, both formative and summative. In this last case students know that if they work on survival level the maximum score they can get is 7 out of ten, if they choose half-way level the maximum score is 9 or for the expert level the maximum grade is 10.     

Last thing, if you click on the speaker icon in the bottom right-hand corner, you are redirected to the audio version of the biography, read by the teacher, and this can help auditory learners or dyslexic students.

Here is a video with feedback from the students. They seem to appreciate this way of working on reading comprehension. 

 

Click here to open the activity and feel free to use it with our students.

DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES: a layered syllabus

Needs analysis - Starting Point

We strongly believe that giving differentiated instructions and using different strategies in class is the only approach which makes sense. What once was easy and natural, that is making all students work  on the same task at the same time, becomes now really hard. After some years of flipping , we realized we needed a more structured way to work both in the individual and in the group learning space. That's why we decided to create  an organized path through concepts and thematic areas , in such a way avoiding teaching ( or trying to teach ) everything to everyone , the ultimate goal being helping students personalize their learning.

What is the ideal situation in an esl class?

"Collaborative Personalization" could be the anwer.

Students should have the possibility to work at their own space, accordingo to their needs and abilities, but, at the same time, the entire process must be collaborative , as learning a language is essentially learning how to use that language, how to communicate and it can’t take place in isolation. So it’s ok having  students working at their own pace, but they need to be together, to work together as well, and assisted by the teacher. 

What is the big challenge?

To create a learning environment where every student has the opportunity to learn according to their skills and abilities while interacting with each other at the same time

What do students need?

• More space to learn more content, to widen the syllabus
• More time and support to understand and learn the basic concepts, the key elements of the course

WITH MINIMUM STANDARDS ASSURED FOR EVERYONE, BUT NEVER LOWERED.

   So we have to be flexible, to be ready to adapt, to change, to pause, rewind and reflect.

At the beginning we were afraid we would get an out of control class but this isn’t happening as the situation where everyone works at their level is NATURAL, while it is completely UNNATURAL a situation where all the students are on the same topic trying to learn the same things in the same amount of time .

The first question we had to find an answer to was:   

1) What does differentiation mean for us?

Basically it is finding strategies so that

•  Students have always the feeling they are in the right place at the right moment
•  Everyone can learn at their own pace
•  Minimum standards are assured, and never lowered
• The group learning space is productive for everyone and it becomes the starting point towards autonomy

 Then we had to focus on a second question:

2) How can we differentiate in the individual learning space? How can we help students at home?

Our solution, which is still a work in progress, was to create a platform , a wiki, that students can access at home and where the content is divided into levels.

Let’s call it a metastrategy, a sort of frame.

This is what we did, step by step.

First we chose the key elements in our syllabus, we can call them “the essentials”, that is vocabulary related to descriptions  ( for example , physical descriptions or daily routines ) or to narrations ( biographies, stories..) 

Second, we divided the content into three different levels ( both for complexity and number of items )

some examples

Third, we made the videos, one for each level ,  we wrote the texts and we uploaded the downloadable files . This material varies both for complexity and length.

This way students have an example of the expected outcome for each level.

 

Fourth, we invented names and logos .

As you can see we have a basic level, survival level, next half-way level and then  an expert level.

What is most important is that students are not labelled or sorted into categories, it is the other way round, it is the syllabus , or part of it, which has been tiered, divided into steps  

Students can choose the level they want to work on and here we have “CHOICE”, the magic word.

Thay are not stuck to the same level forever, of course

The results have been really encouraging so far.

Finally we published everything on a wiki.

PERSONALIZED LEARNING - WIKI

I'm going to write a new post soon and I'll try and explain how everything works and how students are evaluated.  

Acknowledgements:
* I have the pleasure to work with a dear friend of mine ( who is also a colleague ), Daniela Becchio, and this is the result of our combined efforts 
** The logos were created by a talented, young illustrator, Jack Macagno

DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES: "FOODBALL" CLASS ACTIVITY

We've been flipping our classes for five years and some parts of the course - mainly grammar and vocabulary - have been moved from the group learning space to the individual learning space.

Now we have more time to work in class with the students, to observe them while they are working and we've been noticing more than ever that it's really impossible to avoid differentiation.

So giving differentiated instructions and using a lot of different strategies is the only approach which makes sense for us.

This activity - the "FOODBALL" project - meets the needs of all the learners, makes them work together and has a collaborative product as a final outcome.

What is a Bloom Ball?

A Bloom Ball is a project where students have to complete activities that take them through all the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, from Remembering to Creating. They are great for both collaborative  and  differentiated work. Students work in mixed-ability groups and they choose the activities they want to carry out . Everybody works at their level and the final product - the assembled ball - will be evaluated by the teacher according to grading criteria specified in a rubric.

Here is, step by step, the project carried out by Daniela Becchio's students. She's been so kind to share the results with us and she's even made a video explaining the whole process.

WHAT

Students designed and created a dodecahedron on the topic of "food"

WHEN

They worked in class to complete all the activities and to assemble the ball ( 2 hours )

HOW

Here are the requirements for each side

1) describe your ideal restaurant

2)  invent a menu

3)  write a recipe

4)  write a dialogue at the restaurant

5)  create a crossword with ten difficult food related words

6)  create a wordsearch with food related words

7)  make a Venn Diagram comparing English breakfast and Italian breakfast

8)  write ten commandments for healthy eating

9)  write a short text "My eating habits"

10) draw a world map showing hunger problems

11) invent a slogan promoting healthy eating

12) write a short poem on food or create a survey

Students were given all the instructions through a webquest  https://createwebquest.com/index.php/foodball

 where they could find all the requirements, the online resources to explore in order to complete the tasks and the evaluation criteria.

The Foodballs showed a good use of language, a lof of creativity and were nice to see.

Everybody worked at their own level, while interacting with each other at the same time.
What I like about this activity is that each student gave their contribution to the group and the final result was given by the amount of individual effort.