The Common Sense of Differentiation
Meeting Specific Learner Needs in the Regular Classroom Video Series

This kit is avaiable in both VHS and DVD format (see ordering information below for formats and individual videos).

In just about every classroom, teachers find students with a wide range of exceptionalities--students with one or more learning problems, students with various degrees of English language proficiency, students with different interests, students who are very advanced, and students without a "label" but whose learning needs are just as unique. How can teachers face this challenge and meet such a variety of student learning needs?

Help teachers answer that question and maximize learning for all students with the commonsense approach featured in this new ASCD video series. Use the videotapes with the workshops in the accompanying Facilitator's Guide to take teachers inside elementary, middle, and high school classes to show how a differentiated approach helps teachers:

• Identify the learning needs of their students
• Understand learner needs that impact students' achievement of learning goals
• Adapt instructional plans to maximize success for each learner
• Create classroom routines that support differentiation

Program 1, Discovering Learner Needs, examines how teachers identify and understand learner needs that can affect students' performance. Classroom scenes show how teachers can determine their students' learning needs by

• Assessing students' status related to the prerequisites for a particular course unit
• Pre-assessing students' knowledge, understanding, and skills that are the focus of an upcoming unit
• Using ongoing assessment to understand each student's progress toward essential goals
• Assessing for insights about students' interests and learning preferences

Then use Program 2, Techniques for Adjusting Instruction, to help teachers explore techniques for addressing students' diverse learning needs. Teachers in the video explain and demonstrate how they determine "clusters" of learning needs among students in their classroom and use a range of techniques to help students draw on their strengths and overcome learning problems.

Program 3, Classroom Routines, explores routines that help teachers address learner needs in ways that are comfortable and predictable for both teachers and students. Scenes from elementary and secondary classrooms demonstrate classroom routines that anticipate and address variance in learner needs and support differentiation. Teachers explain why they use particular routines and how they taught the routines to their students.

This is an ASCD production.

Ordering Information

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