Differentiation for my IDP

A Great resource to keep supporting DI within your classroom:
Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn: Using language to enhance learning and behavior in the inclusive classroom. A book by Noel Janis-Norton

Would you say your life is perfect if your students :

— acted in a polite, positive and considerate manner, listening, helping others and not laughing at other people's mistakes?

— followed instructions the first time they are given and without even moaning or complaining about the why of things?

— remembered and followed rules and routines with little repetition?

— kept doing their work without bothering their neighbors and probably you?

— paid attention to EVERY detail of EVERY instruction given out for EVERY task?

As incredible as it may sound, this book offered me tons of ideas and practical insight into how to achieve some of these bulleted "dreams" by giving me a wider perspective on the incidence of language in learning, and also enhancing the differentiated environment I am trying to build in my Primero B community of learners. The author shares her experience on the research developed in neurosciences that has provided a lot more of understanding into the reason and causes of many behavioral and learning problems and disabilities in our heterogeneous learning environments.

Mrs. Janis-Norton bases her views on basic principles such as:

Learning does not have to be a painful experience.
All human beings are good in essence. (talking about labeling... and other issues)
All children want to love, be appreciated, give their best and cooperate.
Teaching can be an exciting thing to do every single day.
everything we try to resist, persists. Everything we are afraid of or everything we don't like to face becomes a problem, sooner or later.
We see things the way they are, but the way we are.
Children know what they want, the adults know what the children need.
There is a source of strength in every difficult moment.

These may seem to be taken from a book to boost your self-esteem, but according to the author, they are as a whole, aspects that because of their complex simplicity, become clichés in our profession, rather than realities.

The incidence of language and the power of listening as a powerful tool for learning are the core of this compendium of best practices that aim to give you strategies and techniques to better support those students who lack the necessary processing skills that are required in order to feel successful in our more listening-based classrooms. As part of my own path of study and application of different strategies for DI, I can testify of the effectiveness of these strategies, I've witnessed stunning growth in some of my own kids just by following some of these techniques regularly as part of my teaching.

“In the majority of the cases, the biggest difficulties in terms of learning and behavior occur due to the fact that children have difficulties with their auditory processing channel. This is something really unfortunate because most of the information in our classrooms is given orally" p.25

Some common behaviors: Reaching out for these kids can be quite a challenge, fiding ways to differentiate within the context of so many things going on at the same time will totally make a difference, and guess what? It will impact those around that kid as well, they'll become more aware of a style that will make them even better listeners.

They have difficulty to follow instructions given orally.
They want to start working before the instructions are given out.
It is easier for them to follow an instruction once they are shown how to do somethinginstead of simply telling them what to do
They usually have trouble making connections between what has been taught and what is being heard.
They have problems with abstract thinking or manipulating concepts. They tend to be more literal and concrete.
They forget what they listen very easily.
They read without intonation or expression.
They are always trying to call your attention or his/her peers' because of his/her fear for failure.

Some of the strategies you'll find:

1. A tone of voice that is firm, no yelling or screaming.

2. Eye contact: teach these students to gain focus by giving eye contact at all times, by asking them to look at your neck, your nose, etc.

3. Eliminate visual stimuli from around boards, or working areas.

4. Write the instructions or have them ready on a poster before the task is presented.

5. Show how it's done at the same time you are giving the instruction.

6. Use a wide variety of sentence lengths. Avoid wordy sentences, and pause when necessary. Divide information in chunks rather than giving a lecture.

7. Legitimate all of the questions asked, no matter how foolish they may sound.

8. Responding properly to "I don't get it... I don't understand..." (Contact me for more details!!)

9. Use connective words as you talk.

10. Establishing clear criteria for success by explicitely telling the outcome of every single lesson.

11. Think before speaking.

12. Use gestures, facial expressions, proximity in order to minimize misbehavior or lack of attention.

13. Wait for silence if interrupted.

14. Give out an instruction and ask someone why we are doing what we are doing.

Use Descriptive Praise as a powerful tool!

We are very used to praise students by stating simple phrases like "good job!" or "Keep up the good work!", which have become meaningless clichés in the minds of many of our students. A revolutionary concept of praising is introduced by Dr. Janis in this book when she refers to descriptive praising as a powerful tool to send a clear message of your expectations to all of the kids.

Instead of the typical "Great work!" you may try to say something like "I really love to see how you used these sentences in your introductory paragrpah, they give a lot more detail and they catch the reader since they start reading, keep using this strategy!" or "I can see you are trying to use a visual method in order to tackle this math problem and it seems to work well, you got the right answer by also exploring other ways different than just calculating directly!"

— Our culture values the evaluative praise the most, but it is widely known that this tactic does not encourage change or stimulates students to "do better".

— The descriptive praise establishes expected behavior clearly and reinforces positve behavior that helps the whole group create a stimulating and inviting atmosphere, an organized and cooperative environment conducive to learning.

— Describing instead of judging the actions of others can positively influence behavior. It states and sends a clear message of what you want them to do instead of what you don't want them to do.

— Descriptively praising your students develops and stimulates self-esteem of individuals and groups.

— Children learn to CHANGE their behavior, without being forced to do so!!