One size fits...

I am always hesitant to purchase any item that says, "One Size Fits All". I smirked recently when I saw a tag that read, "One Size Fits Most". Well, at least we are getting somewhere. In reality, one size will never fit all or most for that matter.

Apply the sizing scenario to your classroom instruction. You students' learning style is not one size fits all, even though subject standards are grade level and content specific. Creating learning experiences for students requires educators to understand how to sequence instruction to provide the best blueprint to implement variety in instruction, materials, and learning products.

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"We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development."

-- Jerome Bruner

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Learning: All Sizes Available!

Understanding how your students learn is the first step! Learning style inventories and observations will help you identify each students' learning needs. Creating a plan to address the learning needs requires a sound foundation to sequence your instruction and scaffold instruction to meet the needs of each learner (Greene, n.d.).

Evaluating the Instructional Sequence

Stage 1

Jerome Bruner presses teachers to be mindful of how students learn best. Allowing students to have ample opportunity to practice concepts in real practice, discussions, or experiences not only creates interest, but provides real world context to the learning objective (Sprouts, 2020). When a teacher is building lessons to provide opportunities in practice, considerations for learning styles must in in consideration.

Example in practice - Implementing Instruction: Anticipatory Activity

In an English Language Arts (ELA) Earth Day lesson, a Power Point presentation can be given to provoke thought through Rainforest images and asking the students, "What do you see?" Students can interpret images as they see them, accessing prior knowledge. As the Power Point progresses, students are introduced to content vocabulary used to explore the topic, Earth Day. Reading a short passage or article generates interest while previewing key vocabulary in context, provoking the use of context clues to define meaning. The informational passage can be differentiated to each learning need, understanding that students have visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learning preferences:

• Passages may be projected for students to reference while the teacher is reading or the class is chorally reading (for students who are visual and to accommodate students who are auditory learners).

• Hard copies are provided for students to read, take notes, highlight, and refer back to for group and class discussion (for visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners).

• Pre-highlighted content vocabulary can be useful for English language learners and would also be helpful for students with special needs (visual tools for reference).

Example in practice - Implementing Instruction: Representation

As students continue to acquire subject knowledge, they need to have a firm grasp on content vocabulary before they are expected to advance in skill. As students acquire vocabulary, pairing words and definitions with sentence examples furthers the students understanding of each word. Teachers need to prepare materials that will support students through the acquisition of sophisticated key vocabulary in support of all learners:

• Master vocabulary cards are created with pictures, definitions, and example sentences (for students who are visual and to accommodate students who are auditory learners).

• Students who are English language learners will receive additional pictures to give multiple examples of the word and the definition. Students will write the word and the definition. Students will chorally read the definition aloud (for students who are visual and to accommodate students who are auditory learners).

• Students who have gifted abilities will use a dictionary to locate the definition of a word. This can be done as an independent study or small group work (for kinesthetic learners).

• Students who are early finishers can advance their word study with the use of Chromebooks to research words and images for definitions (for kinesthetic learners) for the terms use in a variety of contexts.

Stage 2

Bruner's process advances through the use or creation of visual aids (Greene, n.d. & Sprouts, 2020).

Example in practice - Implementing Instruction: Engagement

In the same ELA lesson, students can begin to make connections to visual aids to further their understanding by drawing illustrations that represents key vocabulary. This learning outcome can be differentiated to support all learners...

• Students that are English language learners will receive additional pictures to give multiple examples of the word and the definition. Students will chorally read the definition aloud (for students who are visual and auditory learners).

• Students with special needs will use a pre-typed definition sheet. Students will illustrate an image that represents the definition. Students will chorally read the definition aloud (for students who are visual and auditory learners).

• Students with gifted abilities will add one or two synonyms for each vocabulary word discussed.

• Students will choose a book from the Earth Day class library to look for key words in print.

Stage 3

Students are now ready to pair learning experiences with learning modules to create products from their own thoughts, experiences, discussions, or applications (Smidt, 2011 &

Sprout, 2020). Once students have experienced and explored content through discussion, visual representation, and movement, students are ready to put their skills into practice.

Example in practice: Implementing Instruction - Expression

Offering a variety of ways for students to demonstrate knowledge is key. Assessment can be offered through games, oral answers, quizzes, illustrations, short answers, and stories (Murawski & Scott, 2019).

• Students can choose to demonstrate understanding by matching a word to a definition, orally give the answer for vocabulary use in context, or draw a picture to represent the vocabulary word (to support all learning style preferences).

• Students may choose to demonstrate their understanding orally by using Flipgrid to record ideas, explain illustrations, or increase their speaking skills by delivering short answers or stories.

• Students with special needs can choose to demonstrate understanding by matching a word to a definition, orally give the answer for vocabulary use in context, or draw a picture to represent the vocabulary word (to support all learning style preferences while building in accommodations for demonstrating knowledge of information).

• Students with gifted abilities will create a paragraph with a topic sentence and closing sentence, using the nine vocabulary words in context.

• Students who are early finishers will choose a book from the Earth Day class library to identify key terms in print.

Incorporating Technology

Technology is a valuable tool, when used appropriately. In the examples given, students are given a preview to the lesson with the use of a Power Point presentation. The Power Point was evaluated as a tool to use to provide a visual aid for visual learners, the backdrop for class discussion for auditory learners, and a template to be added to for kinesthetic learners.

Students may choose to use Google Slides to create their own definitions and sentences, research the topic further, or to explore extension activities.

In an ELA lesson like this, looking to sites like Flipgrid or Nearpod will provide options for students to explore units as a class, in small groups, or independently. For this lesson, I looked for an extension activity that would provide students a variety of ways to engage throughout the lesson. Nearpod includes polls, informational text, multiple choice answers, videos, bulletin boards to add information, pictures, and creative spaces for illustrations, which meets the needs of all learners.

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Whether you are using technology or adding onto your lesson, it is important to remember

Bruner's learning style puts the emphasis on scaffolding instruction as you go (Smidt, 2011). Always begin the next lesson reviewing what was previously learned to ensure you are beginning every lesson addressing the needs of every learning style and size!

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References

Greene, K. (n.d.) Best practices for math teaching: What you need to know. Understood. https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/for-educators/teaching-strategies/evidence-based-math-instruction-for-struggling-studentss

Murawski, W., & Scott, K. (2019). What really works with universal design for learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. ISBN: 9781544338675

Sprouts. (2020). Bruner’s 3 steps of learning in a spiral curriculum. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZfAsbhfL_Y

Smidt, S. (2011). Introducing Bruner : A guide for practitioners and students in early years education. ProQuest Ebook Central. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.lopes.idm.oclc.org

Learning from Miss Bindergarten

Supporting the Needs of All Learning Styles

The kindergarten staple Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten , by Joseph Slate and illustrated by Ashely Wolff (1996), recognizes the emphasis teachers put on making their classrooms inviting for all students. As educators, we can relate to Miss Bindergarten as she busily prepares her room for her students by organizing manipulatives, adding the finishing touches in the dramatic play area, and hanging posters, calendars, and measurement charts. Her room is full of activities for students to explore, create, reference, and imagine. Educators, just like Miss Bindergarten, understand the importance of setting the stage for an inviting place to support every learner in the class. So how can we better understand our students learning needs to support the best learning outcomes for all learners?

Learning Style Inventory

To support every student in a class, teachers need to evaluate how each of their students learns best, whether the student is visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. Each learning style requires varied forms of presentations, demonstration, and application to promote the development of social-emotional skills, physical needs, and cognitive skills. Not only does well rounded instruction elevate student engagement, it allows students to choose the way they demonstrate what has been learned which enhances a student’s ability to commit learning to memory (Cudney, 2017). Thankfully, there are many different Learning Style Inventories available to identify the best way to facilitate instruction. The Georgia Board of Education (2014) provides a Learning Style Inventory as well as suggested learning strategies for each style. The inventory is adapted from the Learning to Study Through Critical Thinking by J.A. Beatrice.

Putting an Inventory into Action

A learning style inventory should not be something that given and then filed away. I would even encourage you to give the students an inventory one on one. You would be surprised by how much additional information you get from your students. They enjoy telling you how they like to learn! Taking this extra time makes instruction individualized, but more importantly, personalized! Let’s put this into practice by demonstrating how to meet the needs of a class.

Evaluate

The example below looks at 5 students' use of the Learning Style Inventory

from the Georgia Department of Education (2014).

At face value, the students in this representation tend to prefer a visual style to learning. That does not mean that students cannot benefit from additional learning styles. For example, Student C and Student E's data represents the preference to multiple learning styles, depending on a task.

Raw data along with student comments help teachers understand the variety of presentation styles, manipulatives, or media required to engage all learners. This is also a time to add informal observations and assessments of social-emotional, organizational, and physical developmental skills that may require additional support or enrichment. Areas to consider are: ability to ovoid distraction, stamina, organization (to include physical organization and following multiple step instruction), notetaking, fine motor skills, and/or the support system in place through Individual Education Plans (IEP's ).

Plan Differentiated Instruction

What if I told you teachers can use the same lesson plan to support all learning styles? One lesson plan?! YES! However, the lesson planning will be different. In the video, Differentiating Instruction: How to Plan Your Lessons, Ferlazzo and Hull Syniski (2019) give tips on how to rethink differentiation. During the planning process, teachers will think about the tools, talking points, or systematic redirections that will support student understanding as well as recognizing areas during instruction where there can be flexibility to address student choice or challenges within lessons as they arise (Ferlazzo & Hull Synieski, 2019).

Examples for Differentiating Math Instruction

Class Objective: Express a fraction as an improper fraction and a mixed number.

Facilitating Instruction:

Visual Learner - whiteboard participation to copy teacher visual models

Auditory Learner - recite and explain steps being modeled

Kinesthetic Learner - magnetic fraction pieces to follow along with teacher models

Student tools for participation:

Visual Learner - graphic organizer, colored pencils and crayons to illustrate and/or take notes

Auditory Learner – check list with order of operations or steps to review aloud

Kinesthetic Learner - centimeter cubes, attribute blocks, magnetic shapes, or construction paper to manipulate tasks

* Remember Students C and E? Offer students choice! A visual learner might prefer the magnetic shapes, while the kinesthetic learner may want to use a whiteboard. Flexibility is key!

Differentiating Assessments

Assessment can be creative and fun! When planning assessment, choice is key. Not only will students be engaged, but the assessed product will also be more authentic to the learner, therefore, making the content relevant while enhancing the mastery of the skill (Dabrowski, & Marshall, 2019).

Examples for Differentiating Math Assessments

Class Question: Alison needs to order cakes to serve at a party for 17 people. Each cake serves 6 people. How many cakes will she need to buy to serve everyone at the party. Choose a way to demonstrate understanding:

Visual Learner - Create an illustration modeling the cakes that Alison buys. Record the answer that your illustration represents as an improper fraction and a mixed number.

Auditory - Record yourself pretending to place an order at a bakery for the cakes Alison needs to order. Explain to the baker the amount of guests that you will have, how many cakes you will need and the amount of slices. Be sure to confirm your order by explain the amount of slices you will need as an improper fraction and a mixed number.

Kinesthetic Learner - Using playdough, cubes, or an object of your choice, build a model to represent the amount of cakes that Alison buys. Record the answer that supports your model as both an improper fraction and a mixed number.

Are you a Miss., Mrs., or Mr. Bindergarten?

Implementing differentiation takes time, but the reward is big! As you think of ideas, or need ideas, remember what Miss Bindergarten taught us and offer your students a place to create, explore, and imagine!

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References

Cherry, K. (2020). Learning style inventory types and their uses. Very Well Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-learning-style-inventory-2795159

Cudney, E. A. (2017). Listening to the voice of the student in course design. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 40(2), 35-38. https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/scholarly-journals/listening-voice-student-course-design/docview/1924521930/se-2?accountid=7374

Dabrowski, J., & Marshall, T. R. (2019). Choice & Relevancy: Autonomy and personalization in assignments help motivate and engage students. Principal, 98(3), 10–13.

Georgia Department of Education. (2014, May 9). Learning style inventory. https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Special-Education-Services/Documents/IDEAS%202014%20Handouts/LearningStyleInventory.pdf

Ferlazzo, L. & Hull Synieski, H. (2019). Differentiating instruction: How to plan your lessons. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/video-differentiating-instruction-how-to-plan-your-lessons/2019/02

Slate, J. & Wolff, A. (1996). Miss Bindergarten gets ready for kindergarten. New York, NY: Puffin Books.

Technology with Intention

Advances in the way technology was used in the classroom played an instrumental role over the 2020-2021 school year and has changed how many educators use technology in today's classroom. Experts recognize that technology has become more custom to the consumer, to include the classroom consumer (Birch & Sparangis, 2018). As educators continue support their instruction with technology, a strategic implementation of sites and platforms should enhance all levels of learning to promote differentiated instruction (DI) (Birch & Sparangis, 2018). These platforms, paired with best pedagogical practices, provide variance in presentation, engagement, and expression (Murawski & Scott, 2019). By analyzing the sites and applications in this lens, technology becomes a tool that builds autonomy of skill and offers students a choice in the ability to demonstrate knowledge (Murawski & Scott, 2019).

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“Technology will never replace great teachers, but in the

hands of great teachers, it’s transformational.”

George Couros

(Keodara, 2019)

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Learning Tools and Websites to Promote Differentiation

Zearn

Is your school is teaching K-5 math through the Eureka Math / Engage NY Curriculum? If so, Zearn follows Eureka Math lessons as the lesson content is being explored in the classroom. This free tool allows educators create classrooms with individual student profiles. Teachers assign specific lessons that assist the students' ability to revisit lessons and master the progression of skills. Lessons are supported with notes, lesson practice, and exit tickets that teachers can print form the curriculum materials section found in each lesson. Zearn is designed to give instruction that assists students across learning styles while teachers conduct small group mini lessons that further each student's success proregression of math skills.

Differentiation

Zearn Math is a digital tool that serves all levels of learning from fluency drills, anticipatory sets/"warm up," direct instruction/"math chat," and independent practice "tower of power." The direct instruction component models lessons and incorporates interactive lessons which allow students to practice the content in real time. Lessons provide the opportunity for students' independent practice with direct feedback. This approach allows students to correct misunderstandings in real time. An additional bonus to the platform is Zearn's home resources/"parent packs" for parents to understand the steps behind the lessons in common core math. Access to Zearn and its resources heightens the parents' ability to assist their child's academic application and understanding.

Learning Experiences and Ownership

The learning experiences offer both learning through games, direct instruction, optional additional problem sets, and assessment. The varied engagement opportunities allow assigned work to be an individualized learning experience. Each lesson states the lesson's objective and provides a series of experiences in support of the objective. Students can work through the lesson's segments while teachers are able to track the students' progress by specific assignment, pace, progress, or alert. Alerts are provided for students who need further support for skills and/ or fluency.

Nearpod

Nearpod is a tool that offers K-12 Common Core State Standards (CCSS) learning activities for English Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Health, Social Emotional Development, Art and Music, and Spanish. Nearpod's content is easy to navigate by searching by subject, theme, content, or by standard. Searching by standard is even further finetuned by allowing the educator to select their state. This for instance is helpful when navigating state specific content or strand.

While Nearpod's library of lessons, activities, and videos are robust, Nearpod also has templates and tools allowing educators to create their own interactive lessons and quizzes. The Teacher "Resources" tab provides Nearpod trainings and "How To" videos to help each educator create lessons that support all learners.

Nearpod does offer serval membership levels making it a resource for every educator. There is an option for a free membership that allows for the exploration and use of the Nearpod content. The downside to the free membership is the limited ability to save multiple lessons that educators may want to have on the "My Lessons" home page. Another downside of the free membership is the limited ability to save the educator created lessons. To upgrade, a $159 membership level allows for 75 students to access the lesson content as well as the ability to save up to 1 GB of either Nearpod or educator created lessons. The next level membership climbs to $397 with the ability for 90 students to access the account and 5 GB of storage.

Differentiation

Once students are logged in, lessons offer activities that are conducive to many learning styles. Auditory learners may choose to have the text read as the student follows along with directions or informational text. Visual learners are offered videos, models, flash cards, and pictures to enhance and support learning. Lessons offer kinesthetic learners, or hands-on learners, the opportunity to collaborate with peers for group work and projects. Additionally, all Nearpod activities allow for students to complete tasks at their individual rate of learning.

Learning Experiences and Ownership

Since Nearpod is a K-12 learning program, teachers can access all grade level standards to assign lessons for students to master skills. Whether a student is working on skill development, extension activities or preparing for application through Project-Based Learning (PBL), Nearpod offers a variety of ways for students to choose how they would like to demonstrate their knowledge. Teachers can evaluate student progress with the submission of assignments, group work, and assessments.

Happy Numbers

Are you looking for a way to assess gaps in your K-5 students’ math CCSS? Happy Numbers may be the right place for you. Free access is currently available until June 30, 2021. Otherwise, memberships are $14.50 per year, per student. The platform allows teachers to build their K-5 classrooms with a user-friendly classroom set up for class rosters, user names, and passwords. Introductory letters to parents are also available in both English and Spanish.

Differentiation

Happy Numbers crates a customized learning plan for each student that allows for student self-paced learning. Happy Numbers builds concept fluency and autonomy by requiring a set time to correctly answer questions. Unlike programs that may have students try a problem again or state an incorrect response, Happy Numbers' interactive dinosaur provides one on one support as students attempt exercises. As the lessons progress, Happy Numbers allows for further differentiated learning as the dinosaur returns to model lessons, works step by step through new math concepts, or allows students to solve problems independently.

Visual models, concrete and abstract representation, application games, read aloud features, and Spanish voice over features are also available in support its learners.

As teachers track their students’ progress, they can fine tune individual lessons by customizing areas that students need additional practice and support. Teachers also have the ability to activate Mid-Year and End of Year Assessments to collect additional data for math growth.

Storybird

Storybird is a global writing platform and interactive library of stories that have been created by scholars of all ages. Educators provide a digital workspace for students to create their own stories or poems while offering images, illustrations, and characters to bring stories to life. This platform does have a cost for its use. Access to Storybird starts as low as $8.99 per month or $59.88 per year.

Differentiation

Full access to Storybird allows teachers to access lessons and quizzes for students to identify the literary skills needed to be proficient and effective writers. As teachers guide students through learning, differentiation is a click away as teachers fine-tune the added support in skill development through the access of differentiated lessons. Once students are ready to practice their skills, students have access to creating their own literary works such as poetry, short stories, comics, or long stories. Students can choose a genre, theme, or setting that fits their idea with the image gallery.

Learning Experiences and Ownership

Students, now becoming authors, and teachers collaborate to fine tune skills in creating a hook to capture the reader’s attention, articulate events in time order, use sophisticated word choice, conclusions, and editing. Upon completion, the student-author's books and poems are available in the class virtual library for classmates to read and enjoy.

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References

Birch, P., & Sparangis, T. (Academics). (2018). Patricia Burch and Themistocles Sparangis discuss the importance of education technology as a tool for improvement in the k-12 ed tech space [Video]. SAGE Knowledge. https://www-doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.4135/9781526444066

Cross, T. (2017, November 7). What is Zearn math [Video File]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWOCozNqpDQ

Happy Numbers. (2022, February 23). What is Happy Numbers? [Video File]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x85XV_yiueA

Happy Numbers. (2021, March 28). Happy Numbers. https://happynumbers.com/

Keodara, K. (2019, November 12). Collection of the 10 best edtech quotes. Visuon. https://visuon.com/s/collection-of-the-10-best-edtech-quotes/#:~:text=%20Collection%20of%20the%2010%20best%20Edtech%20quotes,in%20another%20time.%E2%80%9D%20%E2%80%93%20Chinese%20Proverb%20More%20

Murawski, W., & Scott, K. (2019). What really works with universal design for learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. ISBN: 9781544338675

Nearpod. (2022). Nearpod. https://nearpod.com/

Nearpod. (2021, October 20). What is Nearpod? [Video File]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anTtMRaQLsM

Storybird. (2021, March 29). Storybird. https://storybird.com/

Storybird. (2015, August 28). Storybird for educators [Video File]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ9ycfrCR44

Zearn. (2022). Zearn. https://about.zearn.org/