Differentiated Instruction in the Classroom

Discover 10 practical Differentiated Instruction strategies, including interest centers, and flexible grouping that will meet the needs of the diverse learners in your class. This course packs real-world examples into every lesson that will help you immediately put these strategies to use in your own classroom.

6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs

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University of Central Florida

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Learning method

Self-Guided

$129

No instructor. Study on your own schedule

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Instructor-Moderated

$129

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Starting March 12 | April 16

Details + Objectives

Course code: 5di

This course explores 10 practical Differentiated Instruction integration strategies. Each strategy is accompanied by at least three sample lessons, as well as tips for applying them to best improve learning outcomes for your students.

In this course, you will discover Differentiated Instruction strategies including interest centers, flexible grouping, cubing, and tiering. Every lesson is packed with real-world examples that will help you put these strategies to use in your own classroom. You will take a look at integration across different subjects, grade levels, and learning profiles as you gain helpful knowledge on bringing Differentiated Instruction to your classroom.

This course is a must for today's teachers who often have to differentiate quickly and with minimal resources. Differentiated Instruction is an excellent launch pad for ramping up your creative classroom, and with the tips in these lessons, you will be meeting the needs of your diverse learners in no time.

What you will learn

Learn what differentiated instruction is and learn practical strategies for implementation in your classroom
Discover tried-and-true techniques to customize your lesson plans
Learn to use integration strategies to extend across grade levels and academic subjects
Learn to create centers based on topics, subjects, or types of activities so you can focus like-minded learners on specific tasks
Discover differentiated instruction strategies for writing and reading
Learn to meet the needs of GATE students through a strategy called curriculum compacting

How you will benefit

Improve the learning and outcome of your students
Learn strategies to keep every student engaged and challenged
Create activities in your classroom that will meet the diverse needs of every student

How the course is taught

Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
6 Weeks or 3 Months access
24 course hours

Outline

This first lesson covers what Differentiated Instruction is, the different avenues for implementing it in the classroom, and the basics of Differentiated Instruction assessment.

In this lesson, you will discover the power of teaching to multiple intelligences in your classroom as you learn tried-and-true techniques to customize your lesson plans.

You may already be adept at providing scaffolding and guided practice in your classroom, but in this lesson, you will learn how to ramp it up a notch with some smart tips on integrating and extending the Differentiated Instruction strategy.

Flexible grouping is already a mainstay in your classroom, but this lesson is packed with great integration strategies that will help you extend its power across different grade levels and academic subjects.

This lesson covers the basics of creating interest centers in your classroom. By grouping students into centers based on topics, subjects, or types of activities, you can focus like-minded learners on specific tasks, enabling you to offer unique learning opportunities for each student in your class.

Cubing is a writing activity that lets students explore topics from six distinct points of view. In this lesson, you will explore the power of the cube in your Differentiated Instruction classroom.

WebQuests have been a powerful classroom tool for some years now. In this lesson you will discover why they're so useful in the Differentiated Instruction classroom. You will examine the components of successful WebQuests and learn the best ways to find quality ones on the web.

An I-Search allows students to pick a topic that interests them and do a combination of traditional and out-in-the-world research to learn more. The products of I-Searches are often amazing, and in this lesson, you will learn how your students can have fun learning more about topics that matter to them.

In this lesson, you will discover another great writing strategy for your Differentiated Instruction classroom: RAFTS. RAFTS is a strategy where students assume different roles to approach reading and writing and then create unique products. You will have fun exploring this strategy with your writers!

Tiering is a Differentiated Instruction strategy where you assign students paralleled tasks at different levels of complexity depending on where they are on the learning curve. This lesson will teach you how to employ this strategy with confidence as you customize assignments.

Curriculum compacting is a Differentiated Instruction strategy that will help you give different work to your advanced learners so that they aren't bored by average or remedial instruction. You will find out everything you need to know in this lesson.

Your final lesson explores anchoring activities that will help you direct students to further productive activities when they're finished with regular classroom work. You will learn how to bring these activities alive with a little creativity and a lot of Differentiated Instruction.

Instructors & Support

Cheryl Dick

Cheryl Dick has more than 25 years of teaching experience and is currently a classroom teacher. She's taught 2nd, 4th, and 5th grade and has previously worked as an instructional coach. She graduated from Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science in elementary education, with a focus on early childhood education. Cheryl also holds a master's degree in elementary education from Texas-Wesleyan University and a second master's degree in educational administration from Lindenwood University.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.

Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.

Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Reviews

Great course! I would definitely take another online course from this instructor, she was very helpful and her course was well written! I will be looking to take another course from Tracy!

Great course! Learned a lot of strategies that blended in with things I have done in the past. Instructor was prompt in answering questions. Learned a lot, Thanks.

I absolutely loved this course! It gave me lots of ideas to add to my classroom, as well as ways to increase the effectiveness of things I already do. Tracey's writing style was almost like having an online conversation with a teaching mentor. There were also plenty of links to keep me working for a long time!

I am a recent retiree now returning to the workforce at my dream job. I had not been in a classroom setting in a long time and the course and the instructor were exciting and informative. I never felt overwhelmed and I felt the teacher understood my challenges.

I felt the course was extremely beneficial to me. This year, I have 29 third graders who will learn at their level as a result of this class. Thank you so much!

I found the suggestions on how to implement DI strategies such as cubing, to be extremely helpful. This course was valuable in helping teachers to not only learn about DI, but to incorporate it into the classroom.

I found this class to be one of the most helpful of all the classes I have taken. The instructor breaks the lessons down and gives examples we can use in the classroom. It was great!

I greatly appreciated all of the practical ideas that I could take into my classroom right away. I also liked that the ideas were broken down by elementary, middle and high school. It was nice to see how strategies developed for higher grades could be modified for younger students. Great class!

I have been out of teaching for several years and I am looking to go back in the fall. This class gave me some good ideas to take into my new classroom.

I have enjoyed this course so much! You have inspired me to further my knowledge on this subject. I have accumulated such a wonderful resource and have suggested your course to many of my colleagues. I will definitely take your "Survival Kit for Teachers" course.