When considering and planning for the ways in which student readiness, interest and learning profile will be addressed in a DI classroom, I invite you to consider GEARS:
Goals – Know your respective content area and teach for understanding, not just coverage. Have a long-term trek in mind before ever meeting the students who will journey with you. Meet the students and begin to integrate the education process with both students and content in mind. Use backward design process such as Understanding by Design (UbD) and UDL to create learning road maps that impact decisions about content, process, product, and learning environment. Be sure to share with students where they are heading and how they will know when they have arrived.
Exploration – How teachers will lead students through a series of opportunities to make progress toward the goals. These are based initially on past experience you have as a teacher with similarly situated learners, but this is an ongoing developmental picture as you “ride” with your students. Teachers co-explore with students and adjust. One of the keys early on is to assess for “interests” and develop opportunities for choices. Another key is to determine student readiness and make decisions that will translate into appropriate entry points for students. Overall learning profiles take on a long-term power as information is gathered over months (and years). Develop personalized models to show complexity of adjustments, or gears, on the part of you (as the teacher) or on the part of students.
Access to understanding: Map the barriers to learning in your specific content area(s) and develop appropriate methods for responding to these barriers. Assess a wide range of skills where domain-specific skills (reading, writing, math computation, problem-solving, etc.) skills are involved. These will not define whether a student will be successful in meeting the goals or which explorations will/won’t work, but will help teachers to determine types of teaching strategies that have the highest probability for being effective. Apply backward design thinking, such as UbD and UDL, to any or all aspects of content, process, products, and learning environment. Effective teachers develop what I call an “instructional hypothesis” that can be implemented, measured for effectiveness, and re-developed for future implementation. Teachers can operationally define whether “access to understanding” is an espoused value or a reality. Barriers to understanding can cause lengthy detours or roadblocks for both students and staff.
Responsiveness to instruction (RTI): Design ways to gather further data in both quantitative and qualitative formats to determine the trajectory and rate of student learning. Teachers must have ways to assess (gather data) and then evaluate (make decisions). DI is an approach that works naturally with a “growth portfolio” concept and includes the affective aspect of assessment as well. Where data indicates the growth pattern (trajectory or rate) is problematic, adjustments in teaching approaches are warranted. An RTI approach helps identify indicators of trajectory and the rate of travel.
Strategies – Ultimately, “learning how to learn” is the goal. Students who are strategy-deficient are at a distinct disadvantage when making decisions about their learning. Develop ways to pre-assess (e.g., learning profile, interests, content-specific strategies, general strategies, study skills, memory/concentration techniques, etc.) and develop ways to enhance content to make it more accessible to learners. Infuse strategies in instructional activities, assignments, and homework, and teach directly as appropriate. The goal is for both teachers and students to work smarter, not harder, so that leverage, gear shifts, and derailers work in the student’s favor.