In choosing instructional strategies to differentiate and engage diverse students.  I first thought about the goal of the lesson.  My goal for this lesson happened to be about the Columbian Exchange.  While students may be familiar with all the items that were exchanged in the Columbian Exchange, I am sure that many students didn’t know the origins of the items exchange in the Columbian Exchange.  Most students have one time, or another probably have used, eaten, or might even be interested in one or more of the items traded in  the Columbian Exchange, so I planned to use students’ prior knowledge to engage the students.  Many students probably could understand what an orange or a potato were but may not know their origin.  Using the students’ prior knowledge would help me gage student interest.  As educators it is our responsibility to accommodate a diverse range of skills, needs and interests (O’Donnell, 2017).   The Columbian Exchange is a great way to engage students in things that they all have experienced before whether they be animals, food, or clothing.  We have all been impacted by the Columbian Exchange thus students all have vested interest in the Columbian Exchange. By providing students with visuals, videos and maps I given student multiple ways for all learning styles to be engaged in the lesson.

Differentiating Assessment

            For students to be engaged in learning it must be relevant and meaningful on personal level (Perez & Grant, 2022).  In other words, students need to know why they are learning something and the importance of what they are learning.  Students ask the question why is this important to me?  Why do I need to learn this?  How can I use this in my world?  Understanding these questions helped me to develop assessments that fit the skill of each student.  For my English Language Learners (ELL) and special needs students the way that I would engage them is by providing students picture or even some of the items themselves, so they have that concrete example of things exchange in the Columbian Exchange.  These students are able to make connections through real-world examples to make connections to their personal worlds.  Gifted students were given the opportunity to further develop their understanding of the Columbian Exchange by doing research project to understand the impact of the Columbian Exchange.  Early finishers were able to extend their understanding of the Columbian Exchange by explaining their understanding of the impact of the Columbian Exchange upon the Americans, Europe and Africa.

Technology Utilization

            Technology was very important to my lesson.  In fact, by using assessment that was project-based students were using technology to engage in the first part of my activity. Project-Based Learning allows us to engage in the creation of inquiry-based learning projects that showcase students knowledge, understanding, experience, and design choices (Murawski & Scott, 2019).  For the assessment, students were able to refer back to the video to help them better understand items traded in the Columbian Exchange.  Also, both auditory and visual learners were able to engage in first par of the lesson by watching the video about the Columbian Exchange.  Then student take an online quiz showcasing their knowledge of  the Columbian Exchange.  I watched the YouTube video in order to assess whether the video was appropriate for individuals and the group.  Then I took the online quiz to ensure user-friendliness to of the online Columbian Exchange quiz. 

References

Murawski, W., & Scott, K. L. (2019). What Really Works with Universal Design for Learning. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.

O’Donnell, A. (2017, October 26). Teaching Tools and Strategies for Diverse Learners. Retrieved from International Literacy Association: https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2017/10/26/teaching-tools-and-strategies-for-diverse-learners

Perez, L., & Grant, K. (2022, February 9). 30+ Tools for Diverse Learners. Retrieved from ISTE: https://iste.org/blog/30-tools-for-diverse-learners