As students with diverse learning styles fill classrooms, instructional strategies should be differentiated in order to meet the needs of all learners.
This can involve adjusting:
Content — The media and methods teachers use to impart and instruct skills, ideas and information
Processes — The exercises and practices students perform to better understand content
Products — The materials, such as projects, students complete to demonstrate understanding.
Below are some suggestions that can be integrated into Social Studies lesson plans
16 Differentiated Instruction Strategies
Graphic Organizers – can help to organize information for visual learners who respond well to information represented in graphic form. Concept maps, Venn diagrams, Cause-and-effect charts, Story Maps, T-charts, and Timelines can assist students to incorporate new knowledge. Multimedia such as pictures, charts, graphs, audio, and video can also be beneficial.
Leveled Reading Materials – Providing reading materials on a particular topic, but written at different levels will allow a students with reading disabilities to learn about the same topic as the rest of the class.
Modified Directions – students may misunderstood the instructions for an assignment so teachers should keep the directions clear and concise.
Multi-sensory Approach – Most new content is delivered verbally, but students have strengths in different areas. They may be great illustrators, innovative builders and and able to gather information visually on the Internet. By using multi-sensory techniques to introduce new material, more students will retain it.
Visual component – some students may find pictures and symbols easier to understand, they should be presented during explanations.
Assistive Technology for students with special needs. Access to computers, screen readers, and voice recognition software can help students with special needs use technology more effectively.