One thing that I've taken away from this quarter through my classes and working in classrooms with students is that differentiation isn't just about ability level. Differentiation can be about individual interests, cultural backgrounds or learning styles too. Either way, the goal is to help all students learn. Technology is one way we can do this. With the use of technology, students have many more avenues through which they can be reached. While I was not able to take full advantage of having the ipod touch in my classroom, I am starting to see more and more how it can help differentiate instruction.
The most relevant way that I believe it could help students is to differentiate instruction for students with different learning styles. Whether they are learning Math, Science, Reading, Writing or Social Studies, there are apps on the ipod that allow students to access those subjects in ways other than those that may have been taught in the classroom. In Math, students can use the technology to practice facts they've been struggling with or to enrich instruct and go further into concepts they're learning. They can also use it as a way to see different ways of attacking the same type of problem, differentiating instruction by ability level and learning style.
In reading instruction, students can use ipod touch technology to improve their reading fluency, read a variety of texts and learn about various strategies for decoding. Using it to enrich a social studies curriculum can allow them to access the internet from right where they are and have access to information on topics that interest them. These strategies allow for differentiation by ability level, learning style and student interests. Additionally, there are many apps for translation in a variety of languages, helping some students to overcome a language barrier in their classroom.
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