Designing a Differentiated Lesson Plan Reflection

Reflection 

Instruction Strategies 

    When creating this lesson, one of my main goals was being able to incorporate different learning styles. The kinesthetic learning style is incorporated in the anticipatory step and in the graphic organizers. Kinesthetic learning focuses on tactile learning and being able to physically move things around or organize materials (Houghton University, n.d.). In the anticipatory step, students will be able to manipulate and move the objects around. For visual learners, they are able to use graphic organizers and take notes. For auditory learners, they will be able to participate in discussions and listen to the reading.          For readiness, I know that this is a standard that students are continuing to work on by finding the main idea. It also is an activity that they have been working on with my mentor teacher. They have been analyzing different informational text, but may need some supports with main idea. This is why the lesson starts with taking notes that they can continue to look at as they work with main idea. A way that I incorporated interests is in the means of expression where they have options of how they would like to display their knowledge. Also, as an extension lesson, they could pick a topic that they are interested in and know a lot of information about. 

Assessment 

    In this lesson, I scaffolded to use a variety of formative and summative assessments. I started by finding the main idea of an article as a class. Students then had to select sentences from the text that directly supported the main idea that we had chosen. Then, this continued into seeing if they could find the main idea on their own. In the summative assessment, I gave them three options for what they could choose from. This brings universal design for learning (UDL) into planning and assessing students (Barack, 2021). It will allow for flexible learning where student can choose the format that they are most comfortable in displaying their knowledge. This will be especially helpful for ELL students and students with special needs. They will be able to choose the format that best fits them. If they enjoy art, they can choose the drawing option. If they want to verbally explain their answer, they could use Flipgrid. If they would rather write their answer, they could use the graphic organizer. 

Technology 

    There were two different technology resources used in the lesson and those included Readworks (readworks.org) and Flipgrid (flipgrid.com). Readworks is a great resource to use because you can pick articles from any grade level and topic. For this lesson, students were given the article in the topic. However, there were some tools incorporated to help individual learners. These tools included vocabulary and the ability to have the article read to them. These articles help enhance the lesson and curriculum because it exposes students to topics that they might be interested in. They also are shorter articles that make it easy for students to find the main idea and the details that support it. As they get more comfortable, Readworks has different articles that will be more complex for them. The other technology included was Flipgrid. This is a site where students can create a video where they record themselves. In this lesson, students could use it for their summative assessment. Instead of writing their main idea and details, they could choose to verbally explain them, just like they were talking to another student or a teacher. 

References 

Barack, L. (2021). Choice in school assessments can relieve student stress. K-12 Dive.                                     https://www.k12dive.com/news/choice-in-school-assessments-can-relieve-student-stress/596704/ Fletcher, J. (2019). 10 great activities to teach main idea and details. Education to the Core.                             https://educationtothecore.com/2019/11/10-great-activities-to-teach-main-idea-and-details/ 

Houghton University. (n.d.). Kinesthetic learning style. Houghton University.                                                     https://www.houghton.edu/current-students/center-for-student-success/academic-support-and-                     accessibility-services/study-advisement/general-study-information/kinesthetic-learning-style/