Full Description [Aug. 12, 2011, 8:01 a.m.]

Overview

Every classroom is made up of individuals with diverse strengths, backgrounds, and approaches to learning. Understanding and responding to students' individual learning styles and needs can be a challenge for teachers. Participants in this course, Differentiating Instruction, will be introduced to learning theory related to learning styles and multiple intelligences, as well as web-based resources to assist teachers in both identifying students' learning styles and intelligences and engaging students in activities which best suit those styles and intelligences. Participants will become familiar with teaching strategies and tools targeted for each learning style and intelligence and develop a preliminary lesson plan using those strategies and tools.

Goals and Products

During this course, participants will learn skills and strategies to:

Understand the principles of addressing individual learning styles and multiple intelligences ;
Identify techniques to use in lesson design to address a variety of learning styles;
Identify and use a variety of assessment techniques to provide for students' learning styles and intelligences ; and
Develop a technology-rich, standards-based lesson plan which provides for students' learning styles and multiple intelligences

Course Length

This course is divided into six one-week sessions. Each session includes readings, activities, and an online discussion among course participants. The time for completing each session is estimated to be between four and five hours, and the total amount of time required for the entire course is estimated to be 30 hours. A more detailed description of each session is provided in the course syllabus.

Session One:	Orientation and Introduction to Differentiating Instruction
Session Two:	Identifying Learning Styles
Session Three:	Identifying Students' Multiple Intelligences
Session Four:	Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom
Session Five:	Assessment Strategies
Session Six:	Share and Review

Assessment and Recommended Guidelines for Participation

Specific questions about assessment, expectations, or requirements should be directed to the facilitator of this course. ETLO recommends that the following criteria be used to determine successful completion of this course:

Discussion Participation	Participants are required to post a minimum of two substantial postings in all of the content sessions, including one that begins a new thread and one that responds to an existing thread. Participants will be evaluated on the frequency and quality of their discussion board participation. Postings that begin new threads will be reviewed based on their relevance, demonstrated understanding of course concepts, examples cited, and overall quality. Postings that respond to other participants will be evaluated on relevance, degree to which they extend the discussion, and tone. These criteria are discussed further in the Discussion Board Expectations.
Course Activities	Participants are expected to complete the course readings and activities as posted in each of the session assignment pages. Activities may include exploring websites related to course content, taking learning style inventories, watching online video clips, and working on the final project.
Final Project	As a final project for this course, participants will develop a lesson plan that utilizes differentiated instruction techniques and strategies. To aid in this task, they will be expected to utilize the Final Project Template throughout the course. Participants are expected to work independently on the final project throughout the course, and should submit a completed final project to the facilitator before the end of the final session of this course. A set of Final Project Guidelines is available as a resource for facilitators and participants.

About This Course

This course was developed by EdTech Leaders Online (http://edtechleaders.org) at Education Development Center. EdTech Leaders Online provides capacity building, training, and online courses for school districts, state departments of education, and colleges and universities.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.