Assignment Requirements

Planning and Differentiating Instruction for Every Student

In this week’s Learning Resources you examined the importance of planning for designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment. You also explored different planning strategies and frameworks. These tools support your efforts to provide a learning environment that maximizes opportunities for every student to successfully access the general education curriculum. In the media segment, “Ryan’s Story, Part Three,” you observed the IEP team as they made decisions about the accommodations and modifications Ryan will receive in his general education classroom. In this week’s Discussion, you will explore how to plan for differentiated instruction and how to use the strategies and frameworks described in this week’s Learning Resources.

Consider Dr. King-Sears’ planning strategy from the media segment “Planning,” the INCLUDE planning strategy from the course text, and the Universal Design for Learning framework from the CAST website. Think about how your current approach to planning is similar to, or different from, the strategies you learned about this week. With this information and your personal experiences in mind, reflect on the potential benefits as well as issues, problems, and concerns that may arise when curriculum, instruction, and assessment are adapted or altered to meet students’ needs.

Posting Instructions

• Post a brief summary of your thoughts and experiences regarding the following questions:
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o Can every lesson, learning activity, and assessment be effectively differentiated?
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o What do students gain when I provide modifications and accommodations? What do they lose?
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o How far can I go with modifications and accommodations before students are no longer engaging the general education curriculum?
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o How do I plan instruction so that students with special needs can access grade level skills and content while remaining true to the learning objective? How might the INCLUDE strategy or the Universal Design for Learning framework assist me in this process?