Reflection on Learning through Differentiation Groups

This course has meant so much learning in so short a time! I feel I have become a lifelong groupie of expert Carol Ann Tomlinson from the course videos and readings! Beyond that, I have learned so much about Universal Design for Learning, meaningful technology implementation, and differentiated instruction from and through my differentiation group. Our group was a talented bunch of individuals. We learned by example, through collaboration, and by doing. We set up a Ning to join and follow; advised each other and shared tips on our search for ways to implement technology in a differentiated classroom; and created a Voice thread each to share and comment about the overlap between Universal Design for Learning, Differentiation, and seamless classroom technology integration. As a group, we shared the great resources we found online. (Reading through discussions is easy at educ-6714-group1.ning.com )
Beginning with Universal Design for Learning, we agreed the all students CAN learn and deserve to be understood, instructed, and evaluated in ways that help them be the most successful. Everything you ever needed to know about UDL can be found on a wiki set up by a dedicated group of collaborative teachers at http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/. Many of the resources are elementary school related so, although I am a secondary school teacher, they work in my group collaborators’ classrooms. Who knows, someday our ning could evolve into a well-organized up-to -date resource for any teacher surfing the web like this one.
What are the best ways to use technology to gather information on and about our students? Once again, answering this question is easier through collaboration with colleagues on our differentiation Ning. We shared the online survey tools we had tried as well as the places on the web where we found terrific questions to ask our students in the beginning of the year as we are getting to know them both as people and as learners. The most flexible online survey site we found was survey pirate found at www.surveypirate.com
Next, we worked from the premise that one-size fits all education is outdated. As every classroom is likely to be populated by students with various levels of skill, readiness, and understanding, not to mention the various learning styles present in any student population, a clear case for differentiation of instruction exists. There are many web resources addressing differentiation in every type of classroom. At www.differentiationcentral.com everything from videos of differentiation in action to lesson plans on tiered instruction and more are available to the public. Planning curriculum around what students should know, understand, and do will logically lead to places where differences in instruction, assessment, and products students produce make sense.
Beyond even all this, our collaboration gave me access to free online graphing calculator as well as a cool art lesson from the Getty museum in Los Angeles to show my chemistry students in our very next unit!