Tier One of RTI requires the use of best practice, research-based teaching methods. Research- based strategies, as discussed in Robert Marzano’s Dimensions of Learning, are implemented in the differentiated classroom to provide the best teaching practices for Tier One, thereby reducing the need for interventions.

Given my experience teaching at the high school level as both a special education teacher and a co-teacher who worked within the inclusion model, as well as my experience coaching in middle schools and high schools around the country, I have become convinced that every secondary classroom needs to begin at Tier One: differentiating instruction so that all students can learn.  When teachers differentiate instruction, 80-90% of students are successful in meeting achievement benchmarks. (Hanson 2009)

1. The verbal linguistic, auditory delivery of information where students are expected to passively sit in their seats and take in information while trying to copy notes at rapid speed does not work for all students.
2. The students it does not work for are the students who are not responding to education and are doing poorly in the classroom as well as on their state tests. While this method may work for some teachers and some students, it does not work for the majority of our struggling student population.
3. A consequence of the lack of differentiation at the secondary level is that students who move on to college, whether to engineering coursework or technical school, primarily learned only one mode of studying. When they become college students and are met with challenging coursework, they often lack the study skills to support them in the more rigorous academic environment. This is why we often find that our most successful high school students don’t meet expectations at the college level.

The reality is that until we differentiate instruction at the secondary level, a basic requirement of Tier One RTI, we are shortchanging all our students: English-language learners, students with special needs, trade bound students, or students heading off to college.

Excerpted from RTI Strategies for Secondary Teachers by Susan Gingras Fitzell.

There are too many factors involved in learning and too many ways of approaching the question of how learning happens to think that any one theory can answer those questions definitively. But one person whose work has proven really fruitful for me is psychologist Howard Gardner, who has distinguished eight or nine distinct types of intelligence (he’s still adding to his list), each of which benefits from different approaches to learning and communication in the classroom. Gardner’s types have proved tremendously helpful to my own work developing teaching strategies for working with the special needs of all children in the classroom (e.g., Special Needs in the General Classroom: Strategies that Make it Work, 2nd edition. 2010).

The two most familiar types of intelligence–the linguistic learner and the logical-mathematical learner–fit in well with our dominant models of teaching and recognizing achievement. The odds are good that many teachers, themselves, are examples of these types of intelligence.

On the other hand, some of the other intelligence types may be familiar primarily as classroom problems. There are the “bodily kinesthetic” learners who are physically hyper-active and potentially disruptive; the spatial thinkers who are likely to sit and daydream; the musical kids who are continually humming or drumming; the interpersonal learners who may be chatterboxes; the introverted intrapersonal ones who keep to themselves; the naturalists who are more tuned into the world outside the classroom than to what’s on the board or in the book; or the existentialist, who is inclined to ask annoyingly fundamental questions that have no place in the world of the three R’s, questions like “For what purpose are we here?” or “How do we fit into the world?”

As long as classroom instruction is primarily geared to reach only one or two of these different intelligences, a lot of kids will struggle to process the information being offered them and experience a serious disadvantage in achieving success.

Fortunately, though each person may have a dominant style, most of us actually possess some combination of these intelligences and the learning preferences that go with them. A lesson or project geared toward one learning style is not going to be inaccessible or unhelpful to the rest of the classroom. In fact, by including different kinds of lessons for different kinds of intelligences, teachers will be helping all students develop their multiple potentials, while making sure that no one falls behind or gets lost because they don’t learn well from one type of teaching.

This offers great opportunities for the development of new and varied teaching techniques. For each type of intelligence and learning, there is a corresponding new type of teaching.

Too many classrooms still rely solely on verbal linguistic teaching methods — lectures and verbal instructions delivered by one person standing in front of a roomful of more or less attentive children. Many kids can and will learn  in this type of classroom, but too many others will lose their joy of learning and start to dread going to school.

Differentiated instruction involves a flexible, dynamic, and interactive teaching model that doesn’t expect all children to learn the same way, at the same pace, with cookie-cutter results. Students learn the same content and standards based curricula, but the path to learning is much more varied and responsive to the different learning styles and levels of the students in the classroom. Students who learn best through words or who think in more logical-mathematical ways, or those who respond to visual cues as well as the more physically and mechanically gifted students can all be engaged effectively in learning when we differentiate instruction. We reach the listeners, the talkers, and the introspective thinkers.

Once the basic concepts are understood, though, there are many simple and effective techniques for implementing differentiated instruction in the classroom. Introducing pictures and images, movement-based exercises, cooperative projects, and color-coded instruction aids are four teaching strategies that target the special needs of diverse learning styles, while still benefiting all the students in the classroom.

In the weeks to come, I hope to talk some more about the background issues and practical methods I have explored in depth in the second edition of my book, “Special Needs in the General Classroom: Strategies that Make it Work  2nd Edition (2010).”*

Though it may be challenging at first for teachers to learn these new strategies, differentiated instruction has the potential to bring much greater satisfaction, and fun, back into the classroom for the teacher who embraces it as well as the children who will benefit from it.

Pat Murray, from Greater Latrose High School in Latrose, PA uses power writing as a technique to help transfer information from short term to long term memory. She suggests that students power write about what they’ve learned for 3 minutes immediately following a 15 minute lecture. Visual learners could also add stick-figure drawings to provide memory cues and enhance what they write.

Power writing can also be used as a way to improve writing skill. Mr. Smiddy, of Staunton Elementary, defines power writing as “a method of writing designed to improve students’ writing through a three step process.

The beginning step teaches word power, sentence power (structure) and basic paragraph structure.

The middle step focuses on stronger paragraphs with elaboration.

The advanced step combines what students have learned into a multiple paragraph essay” For more power writing tips and techniques from Mr. Smiddy, check out his website.

Visual Demonstration

1. The Brain – the intro: like the brain, the intro “controls” the body of the essay (especially point out ‘thesis’)

2. The Heart – body paragraph: at the “heart” of the essay are the body paragraphs.

3. The Feet – conclusion: like your feet,the conclusion leads you to somewhere new (i.e. new idea, insight). Also students should be able to answer the question “so what?” (Why is this information important?) by the time the essay has reached the feet. –

Visual

Quack! SAT Vocab Success!
This educational video set has earned high praise for it’s ability to blend an irreverent sense of humor with an “educational assisting program designed to beef up students’ language skills before taking the SAT test.” ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Auditory

Who hasn’t had a song stuck in their head, at one time or another? Using the naturally catchy nature of tunes to have your students leaving your classes humming the answers to next weeks test seems to sell itself. The following are a couple of links that offer educational songs for download. There are songs for all grade levels as well as subjects.

SongsForTeaching.com

HaveFunTeaching.com

KidsKnowIt.com

Kinesthetic

The following was an idea suggested to me by Megan Taylor of Ozark, MO, as a method for getting physical learners to take hold of abstract ideas. kinesthetic spelling: Use your body as the letters on the line. For example: “Political” – P-stand, o-sit, l-stand, i-sit, t-stand, i-sit, c-sit, a-sit, l-stand. When an entire class spells out a word and performs this, it also adds a visual and auditory dimension to the idea.

Last Friday, I did my “Differentiated Instruction Strategy Blast” seminar at Gilmanton  School. Not only was a treated to breathtaking foliage on the way to this New Hampshire town, I spent the day with a motivated, positive staff who truly care about helping their students succeed.

Here’s the first indicator: The front tables filled up first! When I saw that happen I knew that I was in for a great day! Ok, it’s true, we presenters are partial to people who are willing to brave the front row.

• For students to build vocabulary skills at home, suggest to parents that they turn on the closed captioning on tv.

• Use the sign language alphabet to have students practice spelling words. We used it very successfully with special education students in grades 4-8. One first grade teacher plans to use it as a center. Idea contributed by Amy Small

• A great website for building vocabulary and doing a good deed is www.freerice.com – grammar, foreign languages, multiplication, vocab, science elements. Idea contributed by Erika Langlais

• For pictures to connect to vocabulary for visual vocabulary review cards, try  http://www.makebeliefscomix.com  –  This site is a wonderful tool for teachers and students alike!

• Lastly, here is a a free online tool that has the potential to meet the needs of more than just the students with learning disabilities for whom it was intended. Read the Words — http://readthewords.com “Originally designed for students with disabilities, ReadTheWords accepts multiple input formats such as MS Word, PDF, or html for users to create readings. Output is a synthesized speech file in one of fifteen voices that can be heard online, downloaded, saved, and shared. If you download the toolbar, you can convert text in a web page to speech without having to go to ReadTheWord.com”

Behavior Management Cue Card Approach!

Here’s a way to quietly cue students to choose positive behavior. Use a cue card! 

Behavior management cue card instructions:

     1.     Print out this card or your own version of the card.

2.     Choose your method:

a.     Tape a card on the upper right corner of each student desk.

  i.      Laminate the card

  ii.      Use clear shipping tape to secure it to the desk

b.     Hang it from a lanyard around your neck or keep it in your pocket

  i.      Laminate the card

  ii.      Punch a hole in the top of the card to hang from a lanyard

3.     Explain the card to the students:

a.     You might explain, “I want to use a system to help students stay on track without embarrassing students by saying something out loud. I also want a way to praise students and let them know that I’m pleased with good behavior and choices without causing embarrassment. So, I’m going to use this card to let you know my expectations or give kudos – quietly. Here is an example of the card and what the pictures mean.”

b.     Explain what each picture means.

c.      Explain that you do not expect students to say anything in response.

d.     Explain how you will use the card.

e.     When a student needs to be redirected, simply walk quietly up to the student.

 i.       Make eye contact – and preferably smile. The point is to minimize the possibility that a power struggle will ensue.

 ii.      After eye contact is made with the student, point to the picture that sends the message that you need to deliver.

iii.      Do not wait for a response.

iv.      Turn around and walk away.

v.      If a student chooses to say something in response to a redirection, they are inviting a power struggle.

vi.      Avoid taking the bait if at all possible. Turn and walk away and wait to see if the student complies.

f.       When a student earns praise, simply walk up to the student, make eye-contact, smile and point to the ‘praise’ picture.

i.      Do not wait for a response.

ii.      Turn around and walk away.

Be generous with your praise. Students should receive 5-7 positive statements from the teacher in ratio to each negative comment.

Teachers, do you have a website? Start a blog or better yet, use Edublogs.orgto BE your blog Using Edublogs also allows you to involve your students in the blogging process. Having students blog is an excellent way to improve their writing skills, and showcase their work and ideas. It’s also a wonderful forum for teachers to share best practice strategies on a “website” with other teachers. Do you have strategies for Inclusion, Co-teaching, Differentiated Instruction that can help other teachers? Be a blog author and share. Who knows what doors that may open up for you and your students. It’s a wonderful way to pay it forward.
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