Introduction
You have been inducted into the Agency of Success. As an agent, you are responsible for ensuring all new teachers are informed about student-centered differientiated lessons. In this webquest you will be responsible for researching and designing a student-centered lesson and presentation that will inform new teachers about effective ways to reach students with different learning needs so that their future may be as successful as yours.
How do you develop student-centered lessons to meet student learning needs?
This webquest is designed to help learn about how to develop student-centered differentiated lessons.
“One of the best ways to address learning styles while establishing a brain friendly learning environment is to differentiate instruction and to use authentic and integrated teaching strategies. Incorporating them into your lessons assists in developing student-centered learning and project based activities”, (NCU Syllabus, 2015).
Task
As an agent, you will be responsible for completing the following tasks:
- Watch a video on different learning styles – to gain an understanding for each style of learning.
- Analyze your own learning style using a learning styles inventory and create a lesson plan that would meet a student's need that has the same learning style as you.
- Analyze teaching strategies that best meet all student learning styles
- Create a way to explain the concepts of each learning style using a product which suits your learning needs.
- Understand differentiate instruction and how to perfect it within the classroom
- Determine what are authentic and integrated teaching strategies
The completion of these tasks will help you better understand different learning styles of students and be able to explain the process to new teachers to enhance their learning and cater to the specific needs of their students
Process
In order to complete this mission, each agent is required to follow the procedures listed below:
Watch a video on different learning styles – to gain an understanding for each style of learning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoEee9l9nCw
Analyze your own learning style using a learning styles inventory, the Myers-Briggs Personality Test. After completing, reflect upon which types of activities, assessments, and instructional strategies you prefer and why. Next begin to reflect on situations in your past learning environments.
After reviewing all personality types on the Myers-Briggs Personality Test, create five students in which new teachers will see as real scenarios in any classroom. Include the following in your descriptions:learning styles, developmental stage, likes, dislikes, aptitudes, past learning experiences, personal feelings towards education, home life, a list of preferred learning opportunities. Make sure at least one has your learning style.
Based on demographics, write a reflection discussing what makes them diverse compared to their classmates.
Please conclude your reflection with a summary of the influence your learning style may have on the challenges you face creating lessons for a diverse group of students.
Also, Create a way to explain the concepts of each learning style using a product which suits your learning needs.
Product Choices Chart
|
Auditory |
Visual |
Tactile-Kinesthetic |
|
Audio recording Book Debate or panel talk Essay Journal or diary Newspaper Oral report Position paper Press conference Scavenger hunt Simulation game Speech Story or poem Survey Teaching a lesson Written report
|
Advertisement Art gallery Brochure Collage Comic book or strip Diagram Diorama Filmstrip Flannel board Flow chart Graphic organizer HyperStudio or other multimedia presentation Magazine Pamphlet with pictures or icons Poster Scrapbook Slide show Transparency talk TV program Video Web site |
Animated movie Diorama Flip book Flip chart Game Game show How-to book Learning centers with hands-on tasks Mobile Model Pop-up book Project cube Simulation game Survey TV broadcast |
Use these websites to compare and contrast teacher centered learning and student centered learning.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/teacher-centered-vs-student-centered-pedagogy/22714
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/goalsmethods/learncentpop.html
Understand differentiate instruction and how to perfect it within the classroom
Use these websites to also help identify what the learning environment looks like in the DI classroom
http://kms.sdcoe.net/differ/49-DSY.html
https://suite.io/tammy-andrew/3aw721q
Create a sample lesson by using all that has been learned. The lesson should include the needs and suggested activities from your hypothetical students. Your lesson should be student-centered and incorporate differentiated instructional strategies. For ideas on project based or problem based learning strategies that can be extremely helpful when trying to accomplish a student-centered learning environment, follow the link.
Evaluation
This is how your work will be evaluated.
| Beginning 1 | Developing 2 | Qualified 3 | Exemplary 4 | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adapting Instruction for Individual Needs | Throughout your tasks you did not adapt instruction for individual learning needs. | Throughout your tasks you did adapt instruction for individual learning needs slightly. | Throughout your tasks you did adapt instruction for individual learning needs at a student level of quality. | Throughout your tasks you did adapt instruction for individual learning needs at a professional level of quality. | |
| Multiple Instructional Strategies | Multiple Instructional Strategies were not used through out your tasks. | Multiple Instructional Strategies were used through out your tasks very little. | Multiple Instructional Strategies were used through out your tasks at a student level of understanding. | Multiple Instructional Strategies were used through out your tasks at a professional level of understanding. | |
| Hypothetical future students | Complete, thorough, and accurate descriptions of hypothetical future students were not given. | Complete, thorough, and accurate descriptions of hypothetical future students were given at a basic level of understanding. | Complete, thorough, and accurate descriptions of hypothetical future students were given at an average level of understanding. | Complete, thorough, and accurate descriptions of hypothetical future students were given at a professional level of understanding. | |
| Lesson plan | A lesson plan following the template was not created. | A lesson plan following the template was created with multiple pieces lacking. | A lesson plan following the template was created with very little lacking. | A lesson plan as created following the template at a professional level. | |
| Overall understanding of student centered classrooms and differentiated lessons. | An overall understanding of student centered classrooms and differentiated lessons was not clear. | An overall understanding of student centered classrooms and differentiated lessons was present but not strong. | An overall understanding of student centered classrooms and differentiated lessons present and strong. | An overall understanding of student centered classrooms and differentiated lessons was present, clear, and at a professional level. |
Conclusion
Congratulations Agent! You have completed your tasks and have successfully prepared methods of instruction for new teachers to bring differentiation into the classroom.
Creating a student centered curriculum can be overwhelming because of the differentiated instruction strategies and other teaching strategies that must be implemented. We are all so different from one another. Embracing the diversity in your classrooms as a learner and as a teacher gives you the power to learn more about those around you whether they be different than you or similar. The need for future educators and current educators to find the importance in student centered learning is overwhelming.
As Wilson (2009) noted when one looks at differintiated instruction it is "about making space, making space for meeting the individual needs of students to become even more powerful readers, making space for varied ways of demonstrating learning and achievement,..." (para. 3). With this notion, one can clearly see that if objectives are written with student centered lessons, with the require products for expressing learning, then a conducive and active learning environment can be created. This lessons allow students to translate learninng using their own style of learning that allows them to convey what they have learned. This can be done acccording to Wilson (2009) through brain-based learning, usingMultiple Intelligences as well as the many product based assessments that allow students to express their learning which is unique to them.
Credits
Wilson, S. (2009). Differentiated instruction: How are design, essential questions in learning, assessment, and instruction part of it? New England Reading Association Journal, 44(2), 68-75. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/206037551?accountid=35812
Cathy Balick, Woodland Middle School, creator
Kayla Higgins, New England College, creator
Donna Rice, Northcentral University, modifier of original by Lyn Steed, University Of West Georgia, creator
Author Biography
Kateah Plummer
I am a fifth grade teacher at Shadow Rock Elementary. My passion in life is to become the best teacher I can so that I may help produce the best students available to one day lead this great country. I have worked continuously with students who face may barriers in education, but have enjoyed seeing them grow into great young men and women. I love working with and learning from students who reach out for a helping hand to learn skills necessary for a successful future. I am a firm believer in maintaining a positive classroom community and making learning fun so that every learner can excel and become whatever their heart desires.
Permissions We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is granted for others to use and modify this WebQuest for educational, non-commercial purposes as long as the original authorship is credited. The modified WebQuest may be shared only under the same conditions. See the Creative Commons Attribution • Non-Commercial• Share-Alike license for details.
This WebQuest was created in Create Webquest.com
Teacher Page
Introduction:
Creating student centered differentiated lessons can seem overwhelming for any educator, but even more so for a begiining teacher. There is much to take in to consideration, like learning styles, developmental stages, likes, dislikes, aptitudes, past learning experiences, personal feelings towards education, and even home life. This webquest is a way to give novice teachers the opportunity to create a lesson that can be used in their future classrooms. They begin this quest by demonstrating their knowledge of the diverse students they will one day have the pleasure of teaching with their hypothetical future students. Multiple links are included to provide a wealth of reliable information to guide students in beginning their student centered and differentiated instruction knowledge base.
Learners:
New students whose interest is in becoming effective educators. Education is a passion and is looked at as a work in progress through reflection for the learners.
Standards:
Standards One – Knowledge of Human Development and Learning
The teacher understands how children learn and develop and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social, and personal development.
Standard Two – Adapting Instruction for Individual Needs
The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.
Standard Three – Multiple Instructional Strategies
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students’ development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.
Process:
The students will begin their journey by learning their own personality type through the Myers-Briggs test. They will take time to assess other types as well to get a broad base of information surrounding all types.
The students will need time to reflect upon what is needed to create an effective student-centered differentiated learning environment.
Actual tasks they will see evaluated on the rubric will be
- a description of five students including learning styles, likes, developmental stage, etc.
- a reflection based on their students and their personal learning styles
- learning styles presentation
- a lesson plan
Resources:
Nothing will be needed in addition to the web pages already linked in the student process page unless students choose a method of presentation other than paper-pencil.
Credits:
Cathy Balick, Woodland Middle School
Kayla Higgins, New England College
Donna Rice, Northcentral University
New England College. (2013). Academic calendar. Retrieved from http://questgarden.com/161/05/0/130710065920/t-standards.htm