Differentiation in High School / Middle School

Scenario #1: High School / Middle School (grades 7-12) classroom: 25 students
=== '''1 IEP: Student is hearing impaired. Written copy of notes/information will be provided to him. Captioning for videos should be used if possible. ''' === Content: 7th grade Social Studies - If a child is hearing impaired, the most important thing will be to have visual aids and cues handy. For a Social Studies class this will come in the form of images from history. Depending on the Unit, we could have drawings readily available which would depict the people or locations which are being discussed. More than just that, videos could also be used in order to help the students have a visual representation of the content which is being discussed. (Thomas)

Content: 6th Grade Latin - Make sure there are plenty of interesting and eye-catching visual materials available to illustrate the objective and content of he learning. In a language class, for example, illustrate the words you are using with image based vocabulary cards and wall decorations (Adrian).

Process: 6th Grade Latin - Whenever possible, this student should be placed in a position to be able to lip read me. I will let the student tell me from which position he/she can best do this. If possible, I will wear a microphone attached to a hearing amplification device. As hearing impaired students are often visual learners, I will make sure that I have a range of rich images with labels and annotation to support my teaching. The walls of my classroom will be covered in colorfully illustrated vocabulary cards and grammar rule posters (Adrian).

Process: 7th grade Social Studies - For student’s who are hearing impaired I feel that “Think-Pair-Share” small groups would these children the most. It would allow them the opportunity to be closer to the people who they were sharing with and hopefully they would better be able to hear what was being discussed. Another method would be for them to use Graphic Organizer to organize their thoughts on the content being discussed. Either in the class as a whole, or in their “Think-Pair-Share” groups. (Thomas)

Process: High School Theatre - Copies of notes/information/videos will be provided ahead of time to allow the student time to become familiar with the material or have it interpreted (Shanda).

Product: 6th Grade Latin - If the student's hearing impairment also impairs his or her speaking ability, I will find alternatives to oral assessments (whether formative or summative). At 6th Grade, Latin is written far more than it is spoken and so it will not be too difficult to consider written or drawn assessments as alternatives. This might be good time to have students work in pairs (one as a writer and one as a checker) using small white boards to answer questions written onto or projected on to the whiteboard. Many students like this activity and this differentiates well for the hearing impaired whilst, at the same time, providing a benefit to all (Adrian).

Product: 7th grade Social Studies - Student’s with hearing impairments would still have the same opportunity to select their assignment as the rest of the class, the assignments will mostly be visual anyway such as power points or posters. I would not require students with a hearing impairment to necessarily have a spoken component to their presentation, in the event that the hearing impairment also affects their speech. Rather in that case, they would still be required to participate in the group project aspect. Writing the paper and/or making the Power Point/Poster presentation. (Thomas)

Affect: High School French - The class as a whole should be instructed that side chatter when the teacher is conducting a lesson is not only inappropriate, obviously, but will negatively impact this particular student's ability to learn. Background noise makes it very difficult for the hearing impaired to focus on the speaker even if s/he has a hearing aid. And there should be ground rules for class discussions so that students aren't all talking at once, which would disorient the hearing impaired student (Shanda).

=== '''1 IEP: Student has ADHD. Student should have preferential seating and opportunities to move.''' === Content: 6th Grade Latin - like the assessment deliverables, the course content needs to be chunked into small pieces. At this level, learning is however always chunked as we play "word detective" with each word, breaking it down into endings, roots and other components. The graphic organisers that I use for this process are given to everybody and students use them to the extent that they feel is necessary. This chunked translation process is however ideal for the ADHD student (Adrian).

Content: 7th Grade Social Studies -  One simple thing to keep in mind when helping students who have ADHD, is to keep the directions/instructions for the class clear and concise. This holds true for any student really, however it is especially helpful for student’s with ADHD. Having clear and precise directions or instructions for the class let’s the student know precisely what is expected of them. Additionally, you may give the student with ADHD their own copy of the directions/instructions which have been highlighted for them to show the important aspects. (Thomas)

Process: 6th Grade Latin - Latin can be difficult, alien and difficult to relate to a student's every day life. It can then pose a particular challenge to a student with ADHD. I will then consider pairing this student with a "strong student" whose own self direction and organization can help to keep a student with ADHD on task (Adrian).

Process: 7th Grade Social Studies  Show students, not only those with ADHD, how to create a “checklist” for their assignments. In this way, as they complete each aspect or component the students are able to “check-off” that they have completed an aspect and can know how much more they have to do in order to fully complete the assignment. (Thomas)

Process: High School French - When students will be using an app on the internet for a lesson (such as Yabla https://www.yabla.com/classroom.php), I will get the student set up on the app myself. It is too tempting to surf the internet instead of going straight to the app, not to mention visually overwhelming with all the light and color and the many steps it often takes to get into an app and get started (Shanda).

Product: 6th Grade Latin - assessment deliverables need to be broken down into manageable chunks with a checklist element so that the student can monitor his or her progress in completion. I will then make sure to do this on the translation worksheets that are part of the school-required assessment process. Where content has to be remembered e.g. for a quiz or test, this student will benefit from having a chart or list of key information to learn from. This can take the form of vocabulary sheets and grammar points. this sort of sheet is though useful for all members of the class and is something that I produce ahead of a quiz in any event. This is helpful because the strategy does not single out the ADHD student. Where tests or quizzes are to be given, they too should be broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks in order to reduce the amount of memorisation needed at any time (Adrian).

Product: 7th Grade Social Studies  -For students with ADHD specifically, the option to have alternative assignments can be extremely beneficial. Instead of just turning in a paper, the student could be asked to act out a little scene-let which describes whatever the topic was. If they are learning about life in ancient Egypt, the student could act out what life was like for someone in that time period. In this way it could allow them to channel some of their extra energy into a positive thing rather than it ending up coming out in a negative way which impacts the rest of the class. (Thomas)

Environment: HIgh School French - The student will have a daily job that allows him/her to move around, such as handing out worksheets or handing back graded assignments. This will allow for purposeful, directed movement. A cue card with the daily classroom routine will be on the student's desk to help him/her stay on task (Shanda).

=== '''1 IEP: Student has a reading disability. Modified text should be provided for all reading assignments''' === Content: 6th Grade Latin - It will be essential to find out more about this student's reading disability and the strategies that have been found to be successful in dealing with it. Although 6th Grade Latin is text based, the amount of text used is very small. The content is however fixed. There are grammar rules to master and vocabulary to learn. It is likely then that the focus of differentiation will be on the Process and Product rather than the Content of the learning (Adrian).

Content: 7th Grade Social Studies - Since the content is the most important thing, the delivery method can be altered for a student with a reading disability. If they are not on the same reading level as the textbook, other books which they are more comfortable can be substituted, so long as the same general material is covered. If a unit is being taught on the American Revolution, it wouldn’t matter if the student was reading out of the textbook or another more appropriately leveled reading book, so long as the material conveyed to the student was the same. (Thomas)

Process: 6th Grade Latin - the presentation of material will be the key. I will need to find out whether this student is assisted by having text on coloured paper, in large type, in a dyslexic-friendly font or in capital letters (the latter presenting no problem as the Romans wrote only in capital letters). As I produce all the class materials, it will not be difficult to build in their production in a modified medium that is responsive to this student's needs (Adrian).

Process: 7th Grade Social Studies - For students with reading disabilities as well, making special note of important material through highlighting or other means can be very helpful. If the student is given a handout, highlight the important words they need to learn. This could include names of person’s or the places where the events occurred in a Social Studies class. This way, the student will know precisely what information they need to pay the closest attention to. Finally, graphical organizers and visual aids can also be very assistive for students with reading disabilities as they offer an alternative means to reading, in order to obtain new knowledge. (Thomas)

Process: High School Theatre - For theatre history units, which are text-based, text will be presented in an alternate format such as bullet points and outlines so that the material is presented in more easily digestible bits without changing the content. And the student will read and discuss the material with the teacher, aide or a fellow student to aid with pronunciation and comprehension. For scene studies, in which students have to memorize lines and act out a scene, this student's scene partner can use an app like Scene Partner (https://www.scenepartnerapp.com/index.php?lang=en-us&page=howActor) to record this student's lines so s/he can learn them by listening to them while looking at the script. The tool should not replace reading the script, but rather accompany the student's reading of it, in order to improve his/her fluency. (Shanda).

Product: 6th Grade Latin - almost all assessments in Latin involve reading of some sort. The accommodations referred to in the Process section will therefore need to be applied to the Product required of the student. I can though reduce the amount of reading by having some of the pure vocabulary quiz questions represented by an image rather than a word, although the answer will need to be given in writing so as to evaluate the all important spelling (Adrian).

Product: 7th Grade Social Studies - The most important thing for products of student’s with reading disability is to have alternative methods from reading. Especially when speaking about taking quizzes or tests. Visual aids or cues once again become the name of the game in the situation. This way students aren’t spending too much time struggling with reading instead of demonstrating the knowledge they should have been gaining from the lesson itself. (Thomas).

Product: High School Theatre - For multiple choice quizzes, the teacher or an aide will read the questions and answer choices. For short essay questions, writing prompts will be provided and read to the student (Shanda).

=== 5 ELLs: 1 at the  Speech Emergent Stage, 2 at the Intermediate Fluency Stage, and 2 at the Advanced Fluency Stage. === Content: 6th Grade Latin - Whatever the content, simplified materials will be needed for the Speech Emergent and Intermediate Fluency Stage ELL students. (In fact, in my school, Latin would be a subject from which such ELL students would usually be pulled for one-to-one additional English language instruction.) Where the ELLs have Spanish as their mother tongue, these materials will be easier to produce because so much of the Spanish language has its roots in Latin. I can emphasise this in the materials. This should help these ELL students to feel more easily confident in the Latin classroom. If the mother tongue in Mandarin, this will be a lot more challenging (although I will see what help I can get from the school's Mandarin program teachers) (Adrian).

Content: 7th Grade Social Studies - At Emergent Stage and Intermediate Stage, visual aids and graphic organizers will go a long way to help the student learn both the topic and the language. Additionally, more time can be given for these students by pairing them up with one another so that there is less pressure to perform at the fluency level of native English speakers. For Advanced Fluency stage, some time will be given for their understanding, though not as much will be needed as for the Emergent and Intermediate Stage. (Thomas).

Process: 6th Grade Latin - Ideally students at the Speech Emergent Stage and Intermediate Fluency Stage will be supported with a key vocabulary words sheet for each activity which contains a translation into their native language. Any activity prompts should be carefully broken down and any text chunked. It will be helpful to accompany the text with pictures or other other visual images that help to explain the text. For these students, it will, additionally be important to very regularly check student understanding by means of quick informal formative assessment techniques so as to ensure that they are keeping abreast of the content. Whenever possible, students at the Advanced Fluency Stage can be paired with a native speaking partner in order to bolster their language understanding and use (Adrian).

Process: 7th Grade Social Studies - Along with Graphic Organizers, A “Word Wall” will be created on one side of the room. This will essentially be a piece of construction paper, where all students, not just ELL’s, can place word’s they had trouble with in the reading. Then at a set time, these word’s will be turned into a game or activity so that student’s can have practice using the vocabulary of the class. This will greatly benefit all of the students, but will also help out the ELL’s as they move from Emergent, to Intermediate, and finally Advanced Fluency stage. (Thomas)

Product: 6th Grade Latin - ELL students of course need practice in reading and writing in English. Especially for the speech Emergent Stage and Intermediate Fluency Stage students. Luckily, at this level however, there is very little text. Latin is learned and taught using relatively short sentences and phrases. I will, nonetheless, need to consider how to incorporate alternative assignment deliverables which reduce the amount of written text required but which still allow students to demonstrate their understanding. These students could, for example, be asked to produce a labelled diagram or a simple stick person cartoon. The Advanced Fluency Stage students could be assisted in any writing project of length with some writing prompts given by means of a graphic organizer to help direct their thoughts. (Adrian)

Product: 7th Grade Social Studies - What I’ve found from all level of ELL students is that they tend to do better when given the chance to Draw or otherwise use visual cues to explain what they have learned. I would take this and allow the ELL students to complete Posters, PPT, or Drawings which show what they have learned. If we are doing a lesson on the Pilgrims for instance, the students could diagram or draw what the ships that carried the Pilgrims from England to the New World looked like and contained within them. The idea is to give the students some choice in what the assignment is, so that it is within their reach to be able to accomplish. (Thomas)

Product: High School Theatre - Differentiation is easiest when it comes to scene study, because the roles and number of lines assigned to ELLs can be determined by their level of fluency. For example, I would not assign an emergent level ELL a large role from a Restoration drama. I would, instead, assign a short scene with short lines written in contemporary American English. And then I would work one-on-one with the student to assist them with pronunciation and comprehension. I want to give this student something s/he can reasonably be expected to memorize and present in front of the student audience. The material should also aid him/her in language aquisition (Shanda).