Instructors design differentiated instructions to motivate students with varied learning preferences such as having students work independently, in small groups, and large groups. According to Norlund (2003), instructors must utilize all available resources to support learning experience, as students would learn more effectively if the environment offers learning support.
The post-secondary instructor teaches Business and Technology class and already has a lesson plan for “The Workplace Team” (Rease, 2001). The plan is very clear, however, is not a differentiated instruction, as it does not benefit students who vary in ability levels, learning styles, and cultural/linguistics backgrounds. The instructor decides to modify by including four steps to accompany diverse learners. The lesson summary is to “learn how to work successfully with others. Collaborate on ideas and create a successful project” (Rease, 2001, p. 1), which includes six objectives: 1) Identify workplace teams, 2) Determine characteristics of successful teams, 3) Learn communication strategies, 4) Identify workplace teams, 5) Determine characteristics of successful teams, and 6) Learn communication strategies.
The instructions include three strategies such as first is have students view a 30-minute video regarding workplace teams. Second is students to make notes of techniques they use while participating in teamwork and third is to participate in-group discussions of techniques used in video. The instructor can differentiate this by making a survey to see which students had prior workplace team experience.
There may be a group of students who have years of employment and would find this lesson of watching the video before participating in-group discussions unbeneficial. The instructor may make this more effective by putting the students with more years together and discuss what techniques they see as effective teamwork or team players before watching the video and see if there is a technique or two that they did not include in the recent discussion. The instructor asks them why they did not include the specific technique. Students will offer a rationale of not including and discuss better solutions. This will be beneficial for classmates with fewer years of workplace experience, listening to their fellow learners discuss “live” will help students remember and review effectively. More experienced students would also benefit if they are in a group with similar background of working experience and develop a survey of what makes a good workplace team. This requires more in-depth skills of thinking of what techniques or terms to use, what type of survey they should use, and what type of results would be considered as low, average, or high. This type of activity takes 60-90 minutes of discussion and survey designation. The inexperienced students would watch the video as planned and work with a group with similar experience level to discuss workplace team techniques before creating a PowerPoint of 2-3 slides or poster, listing effective techniques and elaborating each. This activity requires 60-90 minutes: 1) 30-minute video, 2) 15-20 minutes discussion, and 3) 30-minute work on PowerPoint or poster. This instructional plan is currently differentiated because the content has been manipulated to meet both experienced and inexperienced students. However, the undifferentiated lesson plan also includes computer skills, and the instructor would need to know the students’ computing skills before assigning students into groups. The instructor would need to decide if the students should be assigned into groups based on workplace experience or computing skills first.
The instructor may realize it would be irrelevant to assign students based on computing skills as many students regardless of many or few years of workplace experience already have computing skills. To make group work more effective, using a survey to see who has more experience working with a team before categorizing students into four groups, two groups with experience and two groups with little experience will help the instructors recognize which students should be assigned to certain groups.
Students with their assigned groups will brainstorm ideas regarding teamwork. All groups would receive instructions for group project on both workplace team and that computing skills are to be demonstrated. Groups with experienced students are more likely to require less guidance than the groups with less experienced students.
The instructor may discuss and throw in ideas of what techniques to use within working places with the students of less teamwork experiences. This is an example of differentiated instruction of how students may process.
The instructor may want to produce challenges by giving groups to present their work differently, group by group. This would differentiate of how students should present themselves and benefit at the same time based on their working place and team experiences. The experienced students would need to present their work in PowerPoint presentation of 10-15 (8-12 without title or references) slides with notes of 100-200 for each slide. The notes are not required for title and references slides. This activity requires organization and teamwork skills. The groups with less experienced “students will create a 15-20 slide presentation regarding the techniques they have learned regarding workplace teams” (Rease, 2001, p. 2). This part of presentation has not been modified from the original lesson plan for the less experienced students.
Students are more apt to perform favorably if they believe they are competent to achieve the tasks that have been set at their achievement levels. This method ensures that both experienced and less experienced students can achieve in the same class because the practices and principles of differentiated instruction are targeted to benefit students triumphantly.
Each student will submit a summary paper regarding effectiveness of workplace teams. This will not be modified, as each student will be able to define their comprehension of what it requires to create a successful workplace team using he individual’s own experience.
The paper will involve communication strategies, workplace terms, and characteristics of successful team with support of resources from the Internet. The references will be required and therefore will meet all of the lesson’s learning objectives of using the Internet to gather required information of workplace terms and communication strategies for successful teamwork.
Individual students have different learning styles, which require modifications in order to have each of them absorb information effectively. The instructor will need to include balanced learning strategies to enhance students’ learning acquisitions. Providing resources such as textbooks, PowerPoint notes, handouts, alternative materials, and a list of recommended links to visit on the Internet would benefit students of varied learning styles. The students will decide to choose which resource to use to support their learning styles before researching for their presentation and summary paper. Some students may use all whereas others may not and still succeed in the course. The face-to-face class environment needs to be designed to suit to all students. Seating need to be open and comfortable, in a semi-circular setting for everyone to see each other while discussing topics related to workplace team. All videos to be shown in class must be captioned to accompany deaf or hard-of-hearing students. The lights in the classroom need to be bright and the sound system or the instructor’s voice must be clear to keep students motivated. Not only the instructor, but also the college’s administrators must also play an important role by understanding and supporting differentiated instruction as well as incorporating techniques into classrooms to promote students’ learning acquisition.
Manipulating four important parts successfully has differentiated the lesson plan: 1) content, 2) process, 3) product, and 4) environment to accommodate individuals’ varied abilities and backgrounds. The content has been modified to meet experienced and inexperienced students and the instructor has recognized their levels of experience and assigns him or her to groups that would enhance his or her learning experience. Each group processes differently by receiving instructions and guidance from the instructor. That gives an opportunity for students to work and process independently. The product will give students an opportunity to evaluate his or her experience and present at his or her best using new terms or skills that were just acquired into both group presentation and summary paper. Their learning styles and environment are supported by the resources and materials provided to accommodate their preferences, experiences, and abilities. The differentiated lesson plan to meet diverse students is to enhance student achievement and will result in students receiving life lasting learning benefits and experiences.
References
Norlund, M. (2003). Differentiated instruction: meeting the educational needs of all students in
your classroom. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Education.
Rease, T. (2001). NTeQ lesson plan Builder. NTeQ. Retrieved from
Theroux, P. (2004). Enhance learning with technology. Enhance Learning. Retrieved from
http://members.shaw.ca/priscillatheroux/differentiating.html
Tomlinson, C.A. (2003). Classroom teaching skills (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
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