Meeting Individual Learning Needs in the Classroom

Learning Works

5 x 14 = 25

The more ‘able’ students

“If you are willing to deal effectively with the needs of able students you will raise the achievement of all pupils”

Mike Tomlinson

Director, Ofsted

Spotting the difference?

Bright Pupil Gifted Pupil

Knows the answers

Is interested

Learns with ease

Absorbs information

Copies accurately

Is pleased with own learning

Asks the questions

Is highly curious

Already knows

Manipulates information

Creates a new design

Is highly self-critical

Characteristics of a ‘gifted’ student

Uses advanced vocabulary, learns and comprehends quickly and easily, makes judgements and decisions

Original, flexible, curious, problem solver, feels free to disagree, transforms and combines ideas, intellectually playful

Sets own goals, motivated, perseveres, has leadership ability

However the student may…

Demand perfection from self and others Incomplete assignment and projects Frequently daydreams Be disruptive and interruptive Challenge authority Resist completing rote or repetitive tasks Resist conventional approaches or responses

“A good teacher makes you

think even when

you didn’t want to.”

R. Fisher

QUESTIONS???

My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school:

So? Did you learn anything today? But not my mother. ‘Izzy’, she would say, ‘did you ask a good question today?’

That difference – asking good questions-made me become a scientist.

Isidor Isaac Rabi, U. S atomic physicist.“Great Minds Start with Questions”

Is this a thinking lesson?

High quality open-ended tasks Critical thought/Creativity/Imagination Pace, Breadth, Depth and Complexity Higher order thinking/questioning Aptitudes, Interests and ability considered

Wait time…

The length of time a teacher pauses after asking a question

3-5 seconds no hands up question (promotes thinking)

The type of questions teachers ask…

Bloom’s TaxonomyCreating

Evaluating

Analysing

Applying

Understanding

Remembering

High-order thinking

Spot the ‘creating’-type questions!

Who can tell me what a simile is? Make up a new simile for an old person Share a happy memory of an old person How successful was the poet in… Use a well known simile to describe…

Creative thinking…

Teaching strategies for an activity may include…

1. Considering all factors (CAF)2. First Important Priorities (FIP)3. Plus, Minus, Interesting Points (PMI)4. Consequences and Sequel (C & S)5. Aims, Goals and Objectives (AGO)6. Alternatives, Possibilities, Choices (APC)7. Other Points of View (OPV)

It ain’t what you do it’s

the way that you do it …

Strategies to help match tasks to pupil’s abilities Start pupils on a task at an appropriate

level of difficulty Use challenging questions to extend

thinking Extend and open up tasks Organise peer support and collaboration

Opening up a task…

Change part of a question / task Remove some of the information Give the answer Ask what is the same / different

E.g Remove some of the information

9367 – 2649 =

What if…

9 67 – 2649 =

Early finishers should be given:

in depth work a different aspect of the work inventive/creative work research problem solving further challenge

Practical Suggestions

A = All must do C = Choice of writing tasks for group members (group

decides who does which)

O = Oral Work – Group chooses ONE and works together

D = Design – work using information from the book (group decides who does which)

E = Extension wider reading – own reading

21 ideas from Deborah Eyre1. Plan – Do – Review 2. Involve pupils in planning learning activity3. Offer choices in how to handle content4. Encourage decision making5. Model thinking skills6. Set problem-solving and enquiry tasks7. Use questions to promote higher-order thinking8. Teach study skills9. Use more difficult text10. Present a range of text and information11. Develop inferential and critical thinking12. Only use a single text or artefact13. Provide study guides14. set time restrictions 15. No correct answer16. Give the answer17. Record responses in an unusual way18. Use technical vocabulary19. Reward with puzzles, games, competitions etc20. Use experts21. Anticipate early finishers !

MOTIVATION

CAPTIVATION: Does it grab my attention? CHOICE: Can I do it my way? COLLABORATION: Can I do it with my

friends? COMPETENCE: Is it going to be too simple

or too challenging? CONNECTION: Does it contribute to my

personal learning goals?

“ If the child doesn’t learn the way you teach, can you teach the way he learns?”