Selected online resources on addressing diverse student-learning needs and styles.
This site outlines various social, mental, physical, and behavioral conditions that can hinder effective classroom learning, with the goal of enabling parents and educators to identify and address such obstacles. Resources include games and activities designed to help students understand their own kinds of intelligences, lesson plans, articles, and case studies that present management strategies for accommodating learning differences.
Distinguished Mississippi educator Renee Moore shares personal classroom practices and culturally-engaged approaches to teaching English to African-American students. The site shares her methods for assessing student work, creating writing workshops, teaching grammar lessons, and creating classroom standards. Additionally, Moore offers details about classroom organization and disciplinary practices. Recommended books, articles, and studies supplement her suggestions.
From conceptualization to implementation, this Canadian Web site offers a how-to guide for presenting a lesson to a group of mixed learners, including tips on classroom arrangement and lighting. Lesson goals help teachers gauge whether lessons cater to every learner. A section on differentiated participation suggests methods for engaging students, while curriculum suggestions serve as models for implementing such lessons.
This site includes a variety of educator-created, layered lesson plans designed to build on students’ core knowledge through application and problem-solving and to challenge students to think critically and analytically. Additional resources advise educators how to implement layered curricula, and address nonacademic aspects of the differentiated classroom. How-to articles explore classroom-management methods and disciplinary systems, while teacher tips suggest best practices for creating harmonious classroom environments and elevating student esteem. A discussion forum is also available to registered users.
A training and consulting company, Performance Learning Systems features the “Kaleidoscope Profile,” an assessment product designed to give information to educators about students’, colleagues’, and their own learning styles. The company also offers workshops and courses based on the profile.
A tech-help resource for educators, Teacher Tap includes suggestions on ways to use technology to engage students’ diverse learning styles. The site also outlines in detail how students of various intelligences learn, including examples of instructional practices to engage different learning styles.
The myriad of facts on this site devoted to the human brain are designed to teach educators about the brain’s function and enable them to tap into and stimulate various parts of the brain for student learning. Resources address how movement increases learning, how emotions increase memory, and how certain mental tricks improve recall. The site also includes student-friendly resources and quizzes to challenge educators’ instruction methods.
A three-part classroom management curriculum from Teaching Tolerance focuses on building school communities, influencing positive classroom behavior, and differentiating instruction. The third installment includes grade-specific lesson plans, games, and activities that address cultural instruction and differentiation in mixed-ability classrooms. Videos from National Board-certified veteran teachers and instructional coaches demonstrate scaffolding, whole-group models, cubing, and interactive reading. Resources such as teacher tips on implementing differentiated instruction, activity worksheets, and lesson templates accompany each video. Most resources integrate a variety of subjects, including history, civics, and politics.
A version of this article appeared in the September 10, 2008 edition of Teacher PD Sourcebook