Differentiated instruction
An introduction to LEARN NC's resources for differentiating instruction for a variety of student populations.
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Related pages
- The power of nonfiction: Using informational text to support literacy in special populations: This article presents the idea that informational texts, rather than fictional literature, may better help students develop literacy skills -- particularly in students with special needs.
- Inclusion in the 21st-century classroom: Differentiating with technology: While most teachers recognize the need to differentiate instruction, many face barriers in implementation. These barriers include lack of time to prepare lessons, the need to cover a wide range of content in a small amount of time, and extensive classroom management needs. This article advocates for using technology as a means to overcome some of these barriers.
- Funds of knowledge: Teachers can use "funds of knowledge," the knowledge students gain from their family and cultural backgrounds, to make their classrooms more inclusive.
Related topics
- Learn more about English language learners, academically gifted, at-risk students, autism spectrum disorders, culturally relevant teaching, differentiated instruction, learning disabilities, learning styles, multiple intelligences, and physical disabilities.
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It’s a safe bet that your students aren’t all dancing to the same beat. Today’s classroom contains an astounding diversity among students on a variety of spectra, including linguistic background, physical ability, predominant learning style, and more. The need to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all of these students has never been more pressing. The resources on this page include best practice articles, lesson plans, and websites to help you reach a wide variety of learners.
Key resources
- Reaching every learner: Differentiating instruction in theory and practice
- This series of articles, which balance theory, research, and practice, address a variety of topics within differentiation through text, graphics, and video.
- Math for multiple intelligences
- How a middle-school math teacher realized she was boring and jump-started her career — and her students — by using thematic planning, emphasizing problem solving, and teaching to multiple intelligences.
- Bridging Spanish language barriers in Southern schools
- These articles from faculty and graduate students of UNC’s School of Education provide background on Latino immigrants in North Carolina, administrative challenges in binational education, and strategies through which teachers can build on what Latino students bring to their classrooms to create a learning environment that meets the needs of all students.
- Reading comprehension and English language learners
- Teaching reading comprehension and helping English language learners are the responsibility of every teacher, but they are also within the abilities of every teacher. These articles provide strategies for building content-area reading comprehension before, during, and after reading that can help English language learners — and all learners.
- A series of three articles by Ellen Douglas.
Additional resources
- Academically gifted
- At-risk students
- Autism spectrum disorders
- Culturally relevant teaching
- English language learners
- General differentiation
- Learning disabilities
- Learning styles
- Physical disabilities
