Teacher Rockstar Academy

Read at least 2 different articles on differentiated learning strategies on Edutopia. To find your articles, search for these terms:

• Differentiation
• Differentiated learning
• Differentiated instruction

Answer the following questions:

• What are the benefits of differentiated learning?
• What might make differentiated learning difficult to implement in your classroom?
• How will you overcome these challenges?

It is time to put what you will have learned about differentiation into practice. Take an old lesson plan that you have, even if it is one from student teaching, and apply the concepts of differentiation to it.

Create the following:

• 2 activities or centers for struggling learners that help build a bridge to mastery.
• 2 activities for advanced learners as an extension of the topic.

There is a lot of great information on brain-based learning out there. Go to websites like YouTube or Edutopia and search for the following terms:

• Brain-based learning
• Brain-based instruction
• Brain-based lessons

Once you have read at least one article and watched one or more videos on the topic, write a summary of what you have learned about brain-based learning. In your summary include how you will incorporate brain-based learning strategies into your lesson plans.

Read the following article and watch the video on Study.com: Should I Play Music In My Classroom

After you have finished, go to YouTube and/or Flocabulary and find the following musical resources:

• One song to teach a reading or language arts objective
• One song to teach a math objective
• One song to teach a science objective
• A mix of music to play in the background for focus that would be helpful to struggling learners.

Brain-based Learning – Art

Art is another way for struggling students to activate both sides of their brain and engage in learning. In taking their learning objective and turning it into an act of self-expression, struggling students are able to apply what is being learned and more effectively master it.

Art projects can easily be incorporated into any subject. Other techniques such as sketchnoting have been effectively layering art into content seamlessly and boosting student engagement.

Don’t know what sketchnoting is? Here is a link to learn more about it.

Getting Started With Sketchnoting

Read the following article on InformED:

50 Ways to Integrate Art Into Any Lesson

After you have read the article, please answer the following questions:

• What role does art play in learning?
• How does art help learners who are struggling?
• What are 3 ways you will incorporate art into your lesson plans?
• What materials will you need to make available to your students to make this work?

Become familiar with different ways to grade and strategies to make the process less cumbersome, more meaningful, and streamlined. For this activity you have three tasks:

• Become familiar with the grading policy used by your school. Know what is required.
• Go to Edutopia and search for the terms grading, grading tips. Read 2 articles on this topic.
• Answer the following questions: What is your personal philosophy about grading?
  What will you do to maintain fair and consistent grading policies?

Time to practice creating a rubric for an assignment. To prepare to create your own rubric, go to Edutopia and search for articles on grading rubrics. Read two articles on effective rubrics.

Next, using the lesson plan that you revised in Activity 2, create an assignment for the activity that could be graded as well as a rubric for the assignment. As both the rubric and the assignment stem from the learning objective, they should be clearly aligned.