Preparing to Differentiate: Student ... - Sanford Inspire · like “The Hunger Games”. These...

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Copyright © 2017 Arizona Board of Regents, All rights reserved SanfordInspireProgram.org

For a complete list of references, refer to the On-Demand Module ‘Preparing to Differentiate: Student Interest.’

Preparing to Differentiate: Student Interest

Transcript

Chapter 1: Introduction

Bird's-eye

Transcript:

This is a module on preparing to differentiate according to student interest. This module is part of a series

dedicated to the topic of differentiation.

If you are new to this topic, access The Basics of Differentiation, an introductory express module that explores

foundational mindsets, beliefs, and terms.

Modules in the “preparing to differentiate” group will teach you how to gather pertinent information about your

students before implementing a strategy.

Modules in the “strategy” group will teach you how to differentiate instruction based on information you gather

from the “preparing to differentiate” modules.

Click on each module icon for a description. Click “Proceed” when you are ready to continue.

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Agreement

Transcript:

Learning about your students’ interests is a process that occurs throughout the school year; it’s more than just

giving students a questionnaire during the first week, then filing it away. Student interest is one of the most

important means through which teachers can differentiate instruction (Hidi, 2006; Middleton & Jansen, 2011).

In fact, along with other factors, student interest predicts academic performance (Harackiewicz, Barron, Tauer,

& Elliot, 2002). When students are interested in what they learn and the activities they do, they learn more

(Swarat, Ortony, & Revelle, 2012).

Why it's Important

Transcript:

It’s challenging to keep track of the numerous student interests that exist in your classroom. Knowing how to

gather, organize, and sort this information can help.

Student interest is important because of the positive feelings that arise from participating in interesting activities.

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When students participate in a learning activity that is connected to their interests, their motivation and

engagement increase (Fredrickson & Brannigan, 2000; Hidi, 2006).

Teacher Interviews

Transcript:

Let’s take a look at how two teachers used information about student interest in very different ways. Mr. Clark

and Mrs. Arredondo were asked these questions:

Watch each teacher’s response then select “Proceed”.

Mr. Clark

Transcript:

I mean I think, like most people when I first started teaching, I’d give a student survey in the beginning of the

year, or I would ask questions about the students’ likes and dislikes. I’d ask for parent contact information. I’d

gather the surveys back, you know in the first week of school and I’d maybe kind of flip through the information,

and like, you know, try to remember some things for later when I was having conversations with the students.

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But I never really organized it. And maybe after the first week of school the only time I would ever use it would

be to find what a student’s phone number was so I could call about, like a behavior problem or a behavior

issue.

Mrs. Arredondo

Transcript:

I gathered information in the beginning of the year, through surveys. I also would have the beginning of the

year type get-to-know you games so that students were able to pair up and get to know each other based on

their interests. I also use interest, student interest, during lessons. So if I knew a child loved dogs, I would use

their name and also, you know, “Shelia had seven dogs” in a math problem to just, kind of, build that

community within the classroom and getting to know you. And then I also used a newsletter where the students

each month, or each week, became student of the week and they were able to kind of share their interests and

be the spotlight in the classroom. But I would also meet with them one-on-one and it just built a bond between

myself and the students. And then also when the students were able to learn about each other’s interests, they

were able to connect at a different level than just being students or peers.

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Recap

Transcript:

Take a moment to review a few key points from each video. Both teachers gathered information about their

students but did very different things with it. Click Proceed when you are ready to continue.

Benefits

Transcript:

When teachers take the time to learn about and use student interest throughout the school year, it helps build

community in the classroom. Incorporating students’ interests makes them feel valued, and helps get them

excited to learn (Tomlinson & Moon, 2013; Puckett, 2013). In addition, when teachers provide students with

meaningful and interesting activities, their motivation and engagement will increase (Hidi & Renninger, 2006).

One quick note: it’s next-to-impossible to incorporate each student’s individual interests into every lesson that

you teach. That is not the intention of this module. Instead, you will learn three steps to help prepare you to

differentiate based on student interest.

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Chapter 2: Learn About Students

Overview

Transcript:

The first step is to learn about your students. One way to do this is to administer a general student interest

questionnaire. You would use this type of questionnaire to gather information about topics such as students’

likes, dislikes, or hobbies.

These questionnaires can be teacher-generated. The supplemental document entitled Student Interest

Questions can help you learn more about your students’ interests. This is by no means an exhaustive list of

questions, but it does provide a starting point.

Teachers can administer this questionnaire via paper and pencil or by using an online format such as Google

Forms.

Data from a general questionnaire can be used to inform how you group students, or to provide choice in

learning activities.

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Content-Specific Questionnaire

Transcript:

Another way to gather data is to create and administer a content-specific questionnaire. This can be used to

learn about student interest related to a particular unit or topic that was not on the general questionnaire. A

teacher creates a content-specific questionnaire as he or she is planning the unit. Click on the grade band

most relevant to you to see an example.

Early Elementary

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Elementary

Secondary

Observations/Conversations

Transcript:

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The use of questionnaires is not the only way to learn about your students’ interests. Teachers can learn a lot

about their students just by observing them. An easy way to accomplish this is to be aware of current pop-

culture trends or events that may interest students (Duncan-Andrade, 2004).

Another way for teachers to obtain anecdotal information about interest is to informally chat with students.

Consider having these conversations in the cafeteria, in the hallway between classes, or at the beginning or

end of the school day.

Chapter 3: Organize Information

Overview

Transcript:

Once you have learned about what your students are interested in, you are ready for step two. The second

step is to organize information gathered during step one. This can be accomplished by creating a record of

common and individual interests. There are different ways to organize data. Use the one that works best for

you.

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Examples

Transcript:

Here are a couple examples of how you might organize data, click on the one you’d like to learn more about.

Spreadsheet

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Notecards

Chapter 4: Identify Trends

Overview

Transcript:

The third step of learning about student interest is to sort the data. The purpose of sorting through data is to

identify common and unique trends. It isn’t possible to connect to each student’s interest in every lesson.

However, you can identify trends and themes in what interests your students, and use this information to

differentiate instruction (Fredrickson & Brannigan, 2000; Renninger, Ewen, & Lasher, 2002).

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Examples

Transcript:

You can identify trends by sorting data into broad categories such as “hobbies”, “personal information,” or

“school experiences”. Then, narrow the description into a specific interest such as “sport”, “favorite musician”,

or “favorite class or subject”. Then, list students who share that interest.

Let’s take a look at an example. For this class, the teacher would like to have students work in groups based

on the books they prefer to read. First, he sorts the data according to students’ favorite books to see if any

trends emerge. He notices that two students like “Divergent”, one student likes “The Giver”, and two students

like “The Hunger Games”. These books all fall under the genre of fiction and even more specifically, dystopian

and utopian fiction. So, even though they are all different books, they share a similar theme and the teacher

decides to group these five students together when he forms literature circles. These students will likely be

more engaged and motivated throughout upcoming activities and tasks because their teacher took the time to

learn about and incorporate their interests into the content (Beringer & Hidi, 2006; Fredrickson & Brannigan,

2000; Krapp & Lewalter, 2001).

Now let’s sort the data for unique student interests. These are interests that are specific to one, or maybe two

students. In this example, Suzy’s interest in visiting museums is pretty unique. Suzy’s teacher can use this

knowledge in a few ways. He can allude to this interest during informal conversations. He can also use it as the

basis for an example when he’s trying to explain a concept to her.

When teachers show interest in a student’s interests, it’s a form of validation that can increase student

engagement and motivation (Deci, 1992; Hidi, 2006).

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Chapter 5: Conclusion

Interview: Missed Opportunities

Transcript:

Learning about student interests is important. Let’s revisit Mr. Clark as he discusses how he could have

learned about and used student interest in his own classroom.

Video

Transcript:

What I learned once I was actually able to reflect on it was just what a huge missed opportunity it was. You

know? Because I have this distinct memory of - at the end of my first year of teaching - cleaning out my

classroom and throwing a bunch of stuff away and coming across the student surveys that I had given at the

very beginning of the year. And coming to realize, oh my gosh, like if I had known this about this student, it

might have totally changed the way that I interacted with them, or approached them about things. Or I could

have used some of this information about the things students knew a lot about or were interested in to develop

really compelling examples when I was explaining something new. Or, you know, I taught middle school so I

was trying to match students with books they enjoy reading. Like, that kind of information would have been

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hugely beneficial.

I think that if you actually use it and take the time to use this information to begin building what you know about

your students, it can have an incredibly positive impact on both your classroom culture and your instruction.

Call to Action

Transcript:

In order to effectively differentiate for student interest, you first must take the time to learn what your students’

interests’ are, then organize the information, and identify trends. Next you consider how you can fit these

interests into your instruction. When you make this effort, your students will be more interested, motivated, and

engaged (Beringer & Hidi, 2006; Deci, 1992: Fredrickson & Brannigan, 2000; Hidi, 2006).

Preparing to Differentiate: Student ... - Sanford Inspire · like “The Hunger Games”. These...

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Transcript of Preparing to Differentiate: Student ... - Sanford Inspire · like “The Hunger Games”. These...