Thing 6: Differentiated Instruction and UDL

1. Pre-Assessment:
Not to be completed

2. Differentiated Learning Assignment

Meeting the needs of students does not necessarily mean it has to be 3 different lessons in
1. Find a common interest among students, and the rest will take care of itself

D.L. (Differentiated Learning) is not just assistive technology to individual students - it
benefits EVERYONE within the classroom. Giving a student a technology that benefits
their learning can impact the entire class and how they learn as well.

The learners must construct their own meaning, and make connections across similar
materials (same subject) to gain understanding. Making connections is critical towards
mastery of content in the various subject areas.

Information should recruit the interest of learners - get them excited about the lesson!
Lessons that start with unique hook activities or discussions have a better chance of
being understood and retained.

Ensure motivation for sustained effort and persistence. Students may enjoy initial
hooks that get their attention, but the lesson should have some relation to their personal
experiences. If students can apply knowledge in their own terms, they will master the
content much more efficiently.

Students should not only learn content, but understand why they need the information.
Having a valid, real-world application to lesson plans is another critical component to
reaching the diverse learning group.

Give a variety of learning methods, because no 2 learners are the same. Whether it be
kinesthetic, visual, or verbal, students need different outlets to gain understanding and
show how they have interpreted the material.

Perception is reality. Allow students to perceive information in a way that makes sense to
them. Again, connecting the information perceived to previous knowledge helps the
students make sense of content.

Build a curriculum that accounts for ALL learners. No group should be alienated when
considering approaches to units or lesson plans. Careful planning can ensure no group of
learners are left to struggle with information during a unit/lesson.

Give students choices. Leaving some classroom options for students allows them to take
charge of their own education. Students can find ways to express or interpret information
for mastery of necessary content or skills.

3. Diverse Learning Assignment

Finding useful electronic resources should not limit teachers to the technologies specifically
for education. Other websites and programs exist that are not as well-known. Although this
technology was created after the publication of this article, the Quizlet website is a fantastic
educational technology. In the field of Language Arts, it can sometimes be difficult for students
to have a way to study without large amounts of time being dedicated to preparing the necessary
items. Writing out each word is a great way to learn, but can be transformed into an applicable
activity on a computer/tablet device. Through Quizlet, students become more engaged, directed
in their homework/study time, and can enjoy games to help them make sense of the information.

Quizlet makes use of the flash card system, where students may have words with their
definitions on the opposite sides of the cards. Quizlet, in this regard, is practice because the
students must type out the words and meanings, thus helping them with spelling. Once the cards
are created, students may test themselves using a variety of options available. There are a few
games that can be used with matching and association as well as options to quiz/test themselves
on the weeks vocabulary. This website includes text-to-speech, and helps highlight the pieces of
words that student may have misspelled or incorrectly associated. Many students have been
introduced to Quizlet, but I feel introducing Elementary students to this technology can make it a
valuable learning resource later in their educational careers.















4. Universal Design for Learning Assignment

The wiki page contains information about digital text resources/ reading support. The page
defines the overall goal of reading, perfectly I may add, as making meaning from text (udl
strategies). Digital text provides a unique form of reading that students can experience. By
listening to text (and following along in some instances), students can focus more on the
visualization component of reading. Especially in the later Elementary grades, this is a very
important aspect of reading that needs mastery. When students have difficulty reading
independently, audio files are a great solution. They provide the student opportunities to listen to
pronunciation, pauses with grammar markings, and changes in voice for different characters. All
of these things are necessary in order to make sense of text.
Audio technology can be combined with other outlets to benefit all types of learners. While
following along in their own books, students can begin forming understanding about the English
language, such as subject-verb agreements, ensuring the tenses of verbs match the context, or
using the correct versions of their/there/theyre and your/youre for different sentences. The
kinesthetic and visual learners can benefit from following the audio, as well as provide mental
representations of books for learners that need to form their own understandings of text.
































5. Text-to-Audio Conversion Assignment.

Using the text-to-audio conversion tool is a beneficial resource for Elementary students.
Students are all in different stages of development, therefore some may need help with spelling,
while others may require work on pronunciation. Regardless of the developmental stage, all
students can benefit from the use of text-to-speech technology. ELL students may also find this
beneficial, because this technology allows for publication of the mp3 in different languages.
The major advantage to using vozMe, compared to other audio files, is the control of content.
Some lessons may have additional content that a teacher may want to save for later. VozMe
allows the teacher to create their own files that can be downloaded and stored on mp3 players
and other media devices. Thus, students may pause and replay sections as needed for them to
formulate their own understanding of the lesson. An additional feature of vozMe allows for
installation of text-to-speech in the web browsers on computers. This is a helpful tool if a student
has a question while the teacher is assisting someone else. Text-to-speech can clarify on
grammar, pronunciation, or instructions that may have accidentally been missed.
Although the control of content and free use are highly appealing factors, vozMe is not a
technology I would use. The pace of this text-to-speech engine is much to quick for students to
understand the subtleties of the English language, especially for ELL students. I would also use a
text-to-speech engine that has a higher quality voice output. The voice is very difficult to
understand, regardless of speaking speed. This is something expected of a free service to not
have the absolute best quality, but I feel there are other free services like vozMe that may have
higher quality text-to-speech capabilities.