Even in a self-contained class of special education students, there are many levels of abilities. One of the greatest challenges is to appropriately reach and teach each of these levels. Additionally, my students' disabilities vary, from autism, to intellectual disabilities, to emotional disturbances. With these different disabilities, it can make differentiating instruction almost imperative. One way that I do this is through technology.
Each day, we incorporate the SMARTboard into our lessons via our daily meeting/calendar, handwriting exercises, viewing PDFs to mark up during lessons, and for free time (teacher dimension: by process/product). The SMARTboard allows me to include all kinds of different activities and lessons in a fun and different way for my students. Often times, even if it is something they may not normally enjoy, they have fun because it's on the SMARTboard. If I were just lecturing and teaching in the "traditional method," they don't have as much focus.
Additionally, I have (in the past week) created accounts for each of my students on the website brainnook.com (teacher dimension: by content, student dimension: by readiness/interest). With this website, I am able to assign activities for single students or groups of students. Because of this ability, I am able to differentiate lessons for each of my students, depending on their ability level. Furthermore, my students love the website, since they are playing computer games, but learning about math and reading/language arts concepts. The website also allows the students to send their parents emails with updates about their progress.
Finally, we use Istation at our campus for reading interventions. This adaptive program allows for students to increase their skills at their own pace and ability level. With the results from their assessments and weekly practice, I am able to guide and inform my decisions on classroom small group and individual time.
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