Making Content Comprehensible

GUIDING PRINCIPLE 1

Where possible, it is preferable (and more manageable!) to have all students learning similar content. Whether the topic is the study of fluids, pioneers or the impact of globalization, design lessons so that all students can participate at their own level. 

Shelley Moore suggests that teachers design the initial task in their lesson so students at the lowest ability level in their classroom can participate and then notch up the subsequent activities and tasks to meet the needs of the majority of students.  For example, when studying triangles, all students start by matching up the three types of triangles. Some students might stay at a picture, matching, fill in the blank, vocabulary development level, but the rest can move on to identifying equal sides, calculating area or measuring angles - whatever the desired outcome is.

Diane Heacox uses the concept in her differentiation work of laddering up or laddering down our expectations depending on the student. If we are studying planets, some students might simply name the planets in order and list one or two characteristics while other students can compare planets. Another group might be able to apply their knowledge and move on to a creating process where they plan an interplanetary visit and identify what they are looking forward to seeing and what clothes they should pack. 

Make use of a wide variety of resources to help students develop understanding. For example, while studying Aztecs, you have decided to undertake a mini-inquiry to build background knowledge of students so they can get a sense of what Aztecs ate, their clothing, weapons, homes, beliefs, etc. In order to meet all needs, you provide students with a range of texts, from the simplest elementary level, highly visual browsers to more challenging texts to short video clips or multimedia texts. Set out the materials in stations, ask students to note the big ideas in a graphic organizer and then share as a whole class what was learned. All students can be successful in a task such as this one.

Examples of multi-grade levelled texts: 

• • Newsela, Dogo, Tween Tribute, What’s In The World, News in Levels

  • Hi-Lo Readers, Big Idea and Remix (Pearson), Ladders Series (National Geographic), Talk About and Fast Track (Scholastic)

  • Brief Videos; Annotating videos (EdPuzzle, Zaption)

  • Browsers - Dorling Kindersley

Use Bloom's Taxonomy to guide how you might support and challenge students at different levels of ability. Here are a few resources designed for ELLs:

Blog post: Bloom's taxonomy and English Language Learners (Word Document below by same author, Judy Haynes)

NSDC Article, Winter 2008: Asking The Right Questions