Thing #6 Differentiated learning

Assignment requirements are numbered according to Thing 6 assignment; quoted material is from the lesson reading. 
1.) "Access to the content is seen as key." I think having an online presence is one way of making sure kids can access content when and where they will best be able to focus on their learning. I think our school day time frame is one of the reasons kids don't interact with the material--I don't think this is what's meant by differentiated learning, but I think it does impact student learning.

I posted mp3s of short stories from Libravox to my Moodle course this year--something I NEVER thought I'd do. I have more ELL than ever, as well as 'non-readers' in the sense that reading is not something they are practiced at and so it is slow going. My impression, however, is that not a lot of kids used the recordings.

"The instructional concepts should be broad-based, not focused on minute details or unlimited facts." Common Core makes this much more possible with it's focus on driving questions and PBL. My department began to realign our instruction using the CCS and I love the focus. Kids are a bit wary--"When's the test? What do I need to know? Are there any study questions?"


"Flexible grouping is consistently used."  My teaching colleague at the same grade level didn't want to do our unit assessment in groups, and I capitulated. I really think it would have been a better for the kids if we had--and, truth be told, I fudged and told kids if they wanted to do one of the parts of the assessments with a partner, they could.

2. I was really surprised that there were some software features in Word to support text-to-voice. But when I tried finding it on my 2007 version, there was no option listed as described in the 2003 version. Some of the features described--showing comments, highlighting text--are also doable on Google docs, so I'll stick with that.  The digital books site is a wonder. I've "caught" kids doing their reading  that I've posted on Moodle on their Smart Phones  and I just give them the go-ahead. I suppose I'm breaking the rules, but they're reading, for goshsakes! I am going to check to see if our district has paid for any text-to mp3 converters. If not, I think I might as for a grant from our Ed Foundation to pay for one.

3. I chose to browse the UDL Strategies wikki. Never in a million years would I have suspected I'd use some of the multiple means of representation like I have started to--I was a pretty conventional teacher, known for having high standards and making kids work. The funny thing is, even using multiple means of representation and expression, I can still have the high standards and make kids work ... but the focus is different. I love the ideas of incorporating some of the comic creators (http://www.printradar.com/2009/12/09/19-places-to-make-comic-books-and-strips-online/) and did offer kids the opportunity to use one for their class intro. I chose makebeliefscomix and did have a couple students try it out--now to incorporate a comic as an assignment. A couple kids also shared with me comic creators they liked better.  Another idea that just  came to my mind is to somehow incorporate Wordl into vocab. I started doing self-selected vocab this year and I'm pretty wobbly on how to manage it--I'm thinking because Wordl is so cool, it might be an interesting way to incorporated multiple means of expression.

4. Text-to-audio--quite frankly, after I opened vozMe and played with it, I wanted to scrap the rest of the thing 6 assignment and focus on this! I hate the voices, I must admit, but I find the idea intriguing. I'm guessing it would be really difficult for ELL kids to understand the reading, right? Is there a limit to the size of the mp3s? Like could I cut and paste a whole short story? I think maybe a paid recorder would be better, but this was fun to explore and think about. I cut and pasted part of one of our Articles of the Week to vozMe to get the recording.