Curriculum differentiation is a method for teachers to use to help special needs students learn and be successful in the classroom. The goal is for teachers to assess the needs of their students and then adjust accordingly. There are many ways that individual teachers can tailor their curriculum, but it is important for them to keep in mind that their efforts should be focused on the needs of the student and not the teacher’s interests.
One simple way of doing this is to create a chart with each child’s name listed down one side and open-ended questions across the top. Teachers can ask questions such as “What was your favorite part of today’s lesson?” or “What did you think was confusing about our lesson today?” This allows students to express their feelings on what they liked and disliked about their learning experience, as well as any problems they encountered while working on their assignments. This helps teachers find out more information about how well their students understood the lesson material so they can adjust future lessons accordingly.
Another way teachers could make adjustments is by having different activities planned for those who need more time working on basic skills versus those who are ready to move forward with higher levels of thinking tasks such as analysis or synthesis.
Teachers have to make sure their students are getting the information they need, while also ensuring that they do not get bored or lose interest. This is hard enough in a normal classroom, but it is even harder when you have students with special needs. In order to teach these students, teachers must use curriculum differentiation.
Curriculum differentiation involves changing the content of lessons, the manner in which it is taught, and the way in which it is evaluated so that students with special needs can still learn at their own pace and level. The main goal is for all students to be able to reach their full potential and succeed in school despite any limitations or difficulties they might have.
The purpose of curriculum differentiation is to provide all students with the same educational opportunities while taking into account each individual’s individual learning styles and abilities. Teachers can differentiate the curriculum by changing the approach they use to teach a subject, choosing different materials for instruction, or altering the way that they assess student learning.
A teacher can differentiate instruction by changing the approach they take when teaching a subject–for example, instead of having a student read an explanation of a concept in a textbook and then answer questions based on that explanation, a teacher can have them engage in hands-on activities or engage in small group discussions about the concept instead.
In order to differentiate the curriculum in your classroom, you must first identify the needs of your students. Begin by looking at the IEPs (individualized education plans) of any students who have been identified as having special needs, and note which accommodations or modifications they require. If there are no IEPs on file, you may want to consult with each student’s parents and/or other teachers who work with him or her, to see if any accommodations are already in place within other settings.
Next, consider which of those accommodations might be useful for the rest of the class. For example, if one student has an auditory processing disorder that makes it difficult for her to hear what is being said in a busy classroom environment, she may benefit from being allowed to sit in a quiet area during lessons. If this accommodation is helpful only for this one student, then it would not be considered curriculum differentiation.
Students with special needs often face unique challenges in the classroom. Because these challenges may not be immediately apparent to teachers, it’s important that they take steps to determine each student’s particular strengths and weaknesses. For example, some students may have difficulty reading, but are able to understand information when it is presented orally. A teacher should be able to recognize this difference and adapt their teaching style accordingly: rather than presenting information through written text, a teacher should use alternative methods such as verbal presentations or visual aids. If a student has difficulty writing, they might be asked to record their thoughts using an audio recorder instead of writing an assignment by hand.
A student’s curriculum should also be adapted according to their specific abilities and learning styles. For example, if a student struggles with reading comprehension but has high-level verbal comprehension skills, then it might make sense for them to read books at a higher level than other students in class but also receive verbal instruction from the teacher at that level.