Several things stood out to me with this topic. First of all, I think I already do a relatively decent job of presenting in different styles to help ensure that all students are learning in our classroom. I put a great deal of time into ensuring that all learning styles and modalities are addressed at some point during each unit and I try to spiral these throughout a course.
The thing that stands out to me is the statement about not using one style all the time and that "no single teaching methodology for pattern recognition will be satisfactory for every learner". I find this interesting because my district is currently pushing univeral methods and strategies that they want every teacher to use k-12 to help ensure that methods are more transparent and transportable. I personally don't agree with this stance and I keep having research shoved at me to show why its effective. I, in return, push research back at my leaders that using a variety of methods is central to helping every child learn.
I personally believe that the flexibility in differentation is the key to it being successful. Giving a variety of opportunities to demonstrate learning that applies best to the individual is ideal. Over my 11 year career, I have certainly become more flexible in how I allow a student to demonstrate their learning. For instance, most projects in my class are open-ended now, ie. the task can be completed however the student wishes as long as the objectives are met.
No comments:
Post a Comment