Differentiation for the Adolescent Learner

Accommodating Brain Development, Language, Literacy, and Special Needs

Glenda Beamon Crawford

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781452294124
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

Activate learning with practical techniques that put brain research and technology into practice!

Translating brain research into practical classroom strategies, this valuable resource for adolescent-centered teaching provides keys to curriculum design, instruction, and assessment within the context of a developmentally appropriate, differentiated approach. This book focuses on learners’ intellectual, social, and emotional needs and equips teachers with:

• A six-point differentiation model
• Tactics tailored to English Language Learners, gifted learners, and students with special needs
• Ways to capitalize on technology
• Brain-friendly instructional practices grounded in universal design for learning (UDL)
• Techniques to create environments aligned with adolescents’ specific developmental needs

1

Differentiation and the Learning Brain

Welcome to Ms. Rickard’s eighth-grade classroom. The thirty students range from accelerated gifted, to those on grade level, to those with special learning needs, and to those who are English language learners. She has the choice: teach to the middle and hope not to bore the advanced learner or frustrate those struggling with information processing or attention, or vary instruction in ways to meet the range of adolescent learners. She chooses the latter. Not wanting to compromise essential content for anyone, she works with the media specialist to find materials with varied reading levels. Knowing her students differ in how they receive and process information, she uses varied and multiple ways to present subject matter, including auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Not wanting to make any of her students feel categorized as “slow” or “disabled,” she designs tasks that vary in complexity but not in challenge, meaningfulness, or relevance. Wanting to create and maintain sense of community, she groups the adolescents in multiple ways, depending on abilities and personal preferences. Wanting to tap into her students’ talents and interests, she gives them choices in how to show their learning. Wanting to motivate, she takes time to assess each student’s learning style and preferences, interests, and readiness levels. In Ms. Rickard’s classroom, one size does not fit all. Differentiation is apparent.

Differentiation in the adolescent classroom is a commonsense approach that takes into account the learning and development needs inherent in a range of academically diverse students. Adolescent learners differ in cognitive ability, social and economic status, literacy and language proficiency, race, ethnicity and culture, background, prior knowledge, quality of family support and degree of opportunity, motivation, learning preferences, and interests. Who adolescents are, the complex composite of biology and experience, determines the learning strengths and academic challenges they bring to the classroom. Neuroscience further reveals distinct variations in the way adolescents’ brains receive, strategically process, and emotionally relate to content, instructional delivery, and assessment (Rose & Meyer, 2002).

IT’S ALL ABOUT GOOD TEACHING PRACTICE

Many of the instructional practices suggested for differentiation are familiar ones. Best-practice teaching (Brandt, 1998) has shown that students learn best when what they learn is personally meaningful, challenging, and appropriate to their developmental level. They learn best when they have choices and learn in their preferred way, when they have opportunities to interact socially, use what they know to construct new knowledge, acquire strategies for learning, and receive helpful feedback. They also learn best in an emotionally positive and supportive environment where they are valued and respected as worthy individuals.

As a matter of necessity, the majority of teachers already make adjustments in curriculum and instruction to allow for student differences in the classroom. They may give students choices of books to read, vary journal prompts, incorporate discussion groups based on interest or ability, ask multiple levels of questions, or arrange for reading buddies. These are examples of good teaching practices that value student choice, student talk, and student differences. Other practices that take more preparation time include tiered activities and products, literature circles, interest centers, learning contracts, compacting, simulations, group investigation, and problem-based learning, to name a few (Tomlinson, 2001).

Tomlinson suggests that teachers begin to differentiate with the more time-consuming strategies at a comfortable pace. She encourages teachers to start small and build on what is familiar. A teacher might collaborate with the media specialist to find varied reading sources or multilevel supplementary materials for a social studies unit already developed or previously taught. Another might incorporate small literature circles based on interest or ability. A math teacher might tier a word problem based on complexity; a science teacher might tier a task. Still another might give students choice on the format for culminating products. Teachers who teach multiple subjects are advised to begin with the one they enjoy the most. By working in a cumulative manner from semester to semester and year to year, differentiation is more manageable.

Adolescent-Centered Differentiation

A strategic approach to curriculum design and instruction that builds meaningfully and responsively on adolescents’ unique developmental needs and learning strengths.

Chapter 1 explores innovative research associated with the adolescent learning brain, describes the differentiation philosophy of UDL, and introduces key terminology related to classroom differentiation. It defines differentiation as a strategic approach to curriculum design and instruction that builds meaningfully and responsively on adolescents’ unique developmental needs and learning strengths. The chapter identifies and illustrates six key design principles that characterize adolescent-centered differentiation.

THE LEARNING BRAIN

Although human brains share the general characteristics of intake and sense making, individual brains “differ substantially” in the way they recognize, internally process, and assign emotional significance to new information, teaching strategies, and materials within the learning environment (Rose & Meyer 2002, p. 13). Brain imaging of neural activity during learning discloses an astonishing multifaceted communication network that is comprised of three smaller networks, each functioning distinctively and collectively as students learn. These smaller brain systems are (1) the recognition network, which enables students to identify clues and patterns and to associate meaning with information, ideas, and concepts as they attempt to understand (the “what” of learning); (2) the strategic network, which specializes in executive functioning and allows students to plan, carry out, and monitor actions and movement (the “how” of learning); and (3) the affective network, which evaluates and assigns emotional value to incoming information and impacts students’ level of engagement (the “why” of learning). These networks parallel Vygotsky’s (1962) three prerequisites for learning: information recognition, strategic processing, and learning engagement.

Specialized tissues within each of the three neural networks perform certain tasks (Rose & Meyer, 2002). Different tissues in the recognition network, for example, respond to visual stimuli, and other tissues recognize auditory patterns. Different parts of the strategic network control goal setting, and other parts direct people to execute these. Similarly, specialized areas in the affective network may associate positive or negative emotions with subject matter, instructional strategy, teacher style and presentation, learning conditions, and assessment method. During the learning process, students’ brains make rapid and simultaneous associations as incoming information is distributed and processed. The recognition network takes in information through multiple sensory avenues (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile). The strategic network identifies a learning goal, selects and executes a strategy, and evaluates the outcome. Negative or positive emotional responses in the affective network influence students’ motivation and ability to engage and progress.

The Learning Brain

The multifaceted communication network comprised of the smaller networks—recognition, strategic, and affective—which function distinctively and collectively as adolescents learn.

These pertinent findings in neuroscience reveal that adolescents’ learning brains specialize in complex and varied ways. “Learners cannot be reduced to simple categories such as ‘disabled’ or ‘bright.’ They differ within and across all three brain networks, showing shades of strength and weakness that make each of them unique” (Rose & Meyer, 2002, p. 11). To maximize the chance for more students to succeed academically, teachers are challenged to rethink how they present new information, the opportunities they give students to process and express learning, and the ways they engage and motivate. They need to have multiple and varied methods of presentation, offer more flexible ways for students to make sense of and represent learning, and seek to accommodate their varying interests and learning preferences. Building on individual learning strengths through multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement is the underlying premise of UDL.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

A differentiation approach to curriculum design and instruction that responds to the learning brain. It encompasses flexibility in information representation, strategic learning and demonstration of competence, and emotional engagement.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING (UDL)

UDL is a differentiation approach to curriculum design and instruction that responds to the learning brain (Rose & Meyer, 2002). UDL interjects variety and flexibility into the way information is represented (in support of the recognition network); the skills and strategies students employ to learn and demonstrate competence (in support of the strategic network); and the emotional engagement and enjoyment in the process (in support of the affective network). When teachers provide multiple and flexible representations of a concept and multiple ways for students to participate and engage, they accommodate students with learning challenges and create a more flexible and cognitively stimulating learning context for other students in the class.

UDL in Practice

Ms. Dixon, an eighth-grade math teacher, plans to teach students the numerical phenomenon of the Fibonacci number. Some of the students will process the concept readily if she shows pictures of nautilus sea shells or arrangements of seeds on flowering plants. For a student who is visually impaired or has difficulty discerning spatial relationships, however, the use of visuals as a representation strategy would be limiting. Acknowledging the ranges of learning strengths and challenges among students in the class, Ms. Dixon offers multiple and flexible ways for them to learn the concept. She accompanies visuals with verbal descriptions; brings in example specimens from nature for students to touch and examine; has students work in pairs to construct the Fibonacci sequence tactilely with simple manipulatives, such as dominos; instructs them how to plot the ratio points on a graph to determine the golden number; and allows them to explore the concept interactively through Web games. She also activates an e-text reader for students who need assistance in reading and processing information.

By offering flexible and varying opportunities that accommodate differing patterns of learning strengths, Ms. Dixon additionally provides a more stimulating environment for all students in the class. She more cohesively activates the recognition network, for example, through multisensory stimulation. She prompts associations across the strategic network by stating learning goals and directions clearly and by giving students instructive feedback. She presents and allows students to process information through varied and multiple learning tools: examples, illustrations, models, and games. She motivates the affective network offering by accommodating student’s interests and learning preferences and by allowing them choices in how they process the new content and how they express what they have learned.

COGNITIVE ACCESS FOR LEARNING

Universal Design for Learning has its origins in an architectural movement called universal design (UD). Rather than “adding on” unattractive ramps to buildings for handicapped users, architects anticipate the needs of special populations and “build in” accommodations in the design stage (Curry 2003; Rose & Meyer, 2002). Universally-designed architecture and commercial products, critical for persons with disabilities, provide better access for all. Decoder chips in television design, for example, benefit people with hearing impairments and any viewer in a noisy restaurant, airport, or health facility. The curb cut in airport parking lots makes navigation possible for those in wheelchairs, mothers with strollers, people on crutches, and travelers pulling wheeled luggage.

Applied in the mainstreamed, regular classroom, universal design provides critical cognitive access to curriculum, materials...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Dedication
• Introduction and Overview
• 1. Differentiation and the Learning Brain
• 2. Differentiation and Adolescent Development
• 3. Adolescent-Centered Differentiation: Evaluation, Expectation, Engagement, and Exploration
• 4. Metacognitive Extension in Adolescent-Centered Differentiation
• 5. A Differentiated Learning Environment: The Affective, Social-Emotional, and Physical Dimensions
• 6. The Intellectual Dimension in the Differentiated Learning Environment
• 7. Learning Patterns and Profiles
• Epilogue: A Shared Commitment to Equity
• Glossary of Adolescent-Centered Differentiation Terminology
• References
• Index