One of the many great practices I observed at the American School of Bombay during ASB Unplugged 2010, was differentiation in action. \u00a0One method of differentiating was allowing students to choose how they shared their learning. \u00a0Sometimes they had to choose from a number of different tools (e.g. a presentation, a poster or a written report.) Other times they could choose any tool they wanted. \u00a0In one class different students choose a skit, a flash animation, and a clay model to explain what they knew about cell structures.<\/p>\n
I’ve been thinking about how to help my staff do more of that. At this time, based on how our curriculum was previously developed, units tend \u00a0to have a single type of product to show learning, such as a rainforest Powerpoint or a biography research paper.<\/p>\n
Opening up the end product has a number of challenges. Some products take longer than others, so it may be even more difficult to have students finish within the same amount of time. \u00a0It is challenging to create a rubric that allows for many different types of end products so it could lead to lower quality products. There are management issues when some students require technology to work on the project and others need paint and others are needing places to move around for a skit. There is also the teacher’s comfort level with having children doing different products.<\/p>\n
This video on the Edutopia<\/a> website doesn’t address all of those issues, but it does show powerful differentiation in practice.<\/p>\n