Millennial Learners

echnology can provide opportunities for remediation through the use of software tutorials.Technology plays to the various learning styles of our students. For example, auditory/musical learners can benefit from books on tape (cd), listen to or create podcasts, and listen to or create music just to name a few ideas. Linguistic, interpersonal and intrapersonal learners can benefit from writing blogs, newsletters, and wikis for authentic audiences. For logical/mathematical learners, they can demonstrate the steps to solving a math equation using screencasting software (often free), then upload it to a wiki site for other students to use as a review. Visual/spatial learners can use photography, create videos, vodcasts, online posters, and create art from a number of interactive art sites. Kinesthetic learners can manipulate objects/text on interactive whiteboards, create 3-D models using free software ,iPad or even Legos, play educational video games, or even be the "behind the scenes" camera person or director in a video. Finally, the naturalist can learn about animals from the websites of the many large city zoos around the world, use telescopes, microscopes for a more hands-on learning (no, technology is not always about the computer!), or even cameras to photograph nature and upload to a website. T

Accept that human differences are not only normal but also desirable. Develop a growth mind-set. The greatest barrier to learning is often not what the student knows, but what the teacher expects of the student Work to understand students' cultures, interests, needs, and perspectives. Create a base of rigorous learning opportunities. Understand that students come to the classroom with varied points of entry into a curriculum and move through it at different rates. Create flexible classroom routines and procedures that attend to learner needs. Be an analytical practitioner.

Here are a few other suggestions. 1) Start small. Begin with whatever steps feel right to you. Differentiation isn't so hard. Change is. Go in a direction that's likely to result in some success. Start with one subject or one class. Start with 10 minutes a day or 15 minutes a week. Just start. 2) Study your students. The more you see them as distinct individuals--the more you understand them as human beings--the clearer your motivation will be. 3) Use formative assessments regularly (ones you develop to be close to your teaching--not standardized ones). As you see where your students are in relation to your learning goals, you'll understand more clearly what you need to do next to help students move ahead from their starting points. 4) Invest time in thinking through classroom routines--giving directions, handling transitions, starting and stopping tasks, using materials effectively. Envision how you want things to work and help your students do the same. 5) Make the students your partners in creating a classroom that works well for everyone. Don't do differentiation to them, do it with them. Explain your thinking and ask for their input. Enlist their help in making sure the classroom runs smoothly. Get their input on which approaches work best for them. Differentiation just asks of us what we commend for our students: flexible thinking, intellectual risk-taking, problem-solving--and a deepening sense of humanity.

differentiation is foremost a mindset. It's only 10% craft and mechanics of pulling it off

We teach in whatever way students best learn, even if that's different student to student, or different from the way we best learn ourselves. Many o