Students differ considerably in their response to stimuli and events in their environment. The same novel event in a classroom can be exciting and interesting to one individual, but ominous and frightening to another. Similarly, for some students reducing potential distractions is of great benefit in sustaining effort and concentration. For others, the presence of “distracters” in the environment may actually have beneficial effects: They study better in a noisy environment than in a quiet one. Differences in the effects of novelty, change, stimulation, complexity, and touch are just a few examples of stable differences among individuals that have both physiological and environmental roots. The optimal instructional environment offers options that, in their aggregate, reduce threats and negative distractions for everyone.
Examples to try:
At a Glance: 4-MAT, Design-a-Day, Choice Boards, Problem-Based Learning, Entry Points.
Choice Boards
A Choice Board is a technique that allows a teacher to routinely vary the kind of information, tasks, activities, assignments, and assessments students may be invited to engage in. Teachers across the K-12 spectrum find this technique especially helpful as a starting/ending point for disseminating and collecting paperwork. Where feasible, hanging wall pockets/pouches are left up permanently, with the contents varying in a multitude of ways. Directions for use of class time, tiered assignments, and reflection tasks are common tools to be included in Choice Boards. Teachers who teach multiple classes may find it works best to use hanging file folders in a countertop container designed to hold these folders. The structure and routine of using folders is balanced by the flexibility that is created as teachers make decisions about what to place in the folders. To add additional choices for students, teachers can include multiple options of tasks/assignment levels so students can self-select their own level of engagement. Choice Boards (or folder systems) provide teachers and students numerous ways of connecting on such topics as interests, learning profiles, readiness, zones of proximal development, and level of instructional match. Teachers will also find that if the Choice Board is used to deliver notes of encouragement that specify where students have overcome adversity, students will respond very favorably to the use of Choice Board pockets. Caution should be taken so that negative written feedback is never provided through the pockets/folders. If students begin to associate the pocket system with negative “gotchas,” then they may view this strategy as a source of punitive (and passive) feedback.
4MAT:
(Adapted from Tomlinson, 1999, p. 93)
This is a complex approach where teachers base their decisions primarily on information available through several personality and learning inventories. 4MAT hypothesizes that students have one of four learning preferences and teachers can teach most effectively when they vary instruction to address each of these preferences. All students benefit as their dominant style is addressed and students may also benefit from having opportunities to work from perspectives that may not be their preferred style.