To gain insight into how using differentiated instruction and standards-based assessment supported my students’ learning in a detracked, honors geometry classroom, I employed the methodology of practitioner research to examine and reflect on the development and implementation of a standards-based differentiated unit based on the Pythagorean Theorem. Data collected and analyzed included field notes during classroom activities, student artifacts from classroom assessments and activities, verbatim transcripts from audiotaped student interviews, and practitioner researcher journal entries chronicling significant events and actions taken during the development and implementation of the unit. As I reviewed, analyzed, and reflected upon the data, my findings indicated that allowing for both teacher and student choice for differentiation of homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping throughout the unit’s implementation supported my struggling learners and challenged my advanced learners in my detracked Honors Geometry classroom.
Weller, Kristin M.
"Shape Shifting: The Impact of Student and Teacher Choice on Differentiation in a Detracked, Standards-Based High School Geometry Classroom,"
Journal of Practitioner Research: Vol. 2
, Article 4.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/jpr/vol2/iss2/4