Differentiating with Google Apps
Differentiate with Google Apps
Differentiation is essential in today's classroom and Google Apps makes it easier. Learn how to use Google Apps to support differentiation in your classroom.
Differentiated Instruction
Differentiated instruction is the way in which a teacher anticipates and responds to a variety of student needs in the classroom. To meet these needs, teachers differentiate by modifying . . .
1. Content (what we plan to teach and what we want students to learn)
Content includes what we want students to know, understand, and be able to do, as well as the narratives, events, and examples that make up a unit or topic of study.
Two ways to think about differentiating content:
1. differentiate the actual "stuff" - the K's, U's, and D's.
2. differentiate how students get access to the stuff and the content
2. Process (begins when students stop taking in information and begin to work actively with it)
Process is often called "activities" in school
Process is how students come to own what they should know, understand, and can do - How they come to understand or make sense of the content.
When process begins, students stop "borrowing" information from other sources and make it their own.
3. Product (ways that students show what they have come to know,
understand, and be able to do as the result of study)
Students apply and extend what they have learned
Summative Assessment and Authentic Assessments are examples
Google Groups
Flexible grouping works well in a differentiated classroom.
With Google Groups, you can create different groups to share Google Docs with.
Add students to as many Google Groups as you would like.
You can create groups by class, reading level, writing ability.
When you share documents by group name, individual names won't appear.
Your groups can always be easily changes.
Note: You can also create groups in your Contacts by going to https://www.google.com/contacts/.
Google Docs
Assignment in your classroom may vary by student, therefore, creating individual or group weekly assignments sheets is a good way to differentiate. These assignment sheets can be created in Google Docs and then shared.
You might have some students who need an extra hint on homework. Hint cards can be created and shared with either individual students or groups of students.
In a differentiated classroom, students may work on varied versions of the same task or even on different tasks during the same length of time. Task cards are an effective means of giving directions to individuals or groups with varied work.
The RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) strategy can serve as a motivator by giving students choice, appealing to their interest and learning profiles, and adapting to students readiness levels.
Choice boards or learning menus are a form of differentiated learning that provide multiple options for student learning or assessment.
See Kasey Bell's iPad Tic-Tac-Toe and Diner Menu created in Google Docs. You can make your own Tic-Tac-Toe from this Template.
For those students who are not fast at typing, they can use the Type with your voice feature in Google Docs
Google Sites
Use Google Sites to create a website of all your differentiated activities in the classroom.
Use Google Sites to offer voice and choice. Create learning menus in Google Sites
Project Example - Napa Valley Unified
Create pages for Groups, Learning Levels, and more.
Use Page-Level Permissions
Google Classroom
Google Classroom allows you to build a set of resources for a single assignment. This makes it possible to offer students choices as to how they access the information or how the student would like to address the assignment (Alice Keeler) - http://goo.gl/0JUSVW
Google Classroom and Differentiation - http://goo.gl/ns5QCA
Google Classroom - A Differentiation Strategy (YouTube Video)
Google Slides
Use Google Slides to build interactive non-linear presentations.
An example is "Choose Your Own Adventure" story where each slide offer choices that lead to different parts of the story.
Dragon Quest! A Google Slides Interactive Story by Eric Curts
Google Drawing
Scaffold learning in Google Drawing by arranging beginner, intermediate, and advanced key words around a canvas.
TRY IT! - Galveston Island Poem Activity
Collaborative Magnetic Poetry by Kasey Bell
Collaborative Brainstorming can allow groups of students to collaborate and share ideas on the same concept map. Digital brainstorming provide all students with an opportunity to contribute.
See templates of concept maps and ven diagrams in this Google Drawing Templates Folder
Differentiation with Google Drawing (YouTube Video)
Chrome Apps & Extensions
Newsela (app)
Newsela publishes and adapts daily news articles at 5 reading levels from grades 3–12, and aligned quizzes. This is a great resource for non-fiction text! Students and teachers can login with their Google accounts. Teachers can assign articles and monitor progress.
Fluency Tutor for Google (app)
Fluency Tutor for Google is much more than just an app for leveled reading passages. This is a very robust tool that allows teachers to assign leveled reading passages, add your own reading passages, and more. Students can also practice and record their reading to improve fluency, and teachers can listen to the recordings when convenient.
Books That Grow (app)
Books That Grow is a leveled reading application with over 100 eBooks. Teachers can assign reading to their classroom, and monitor student reading student progress.
Kaizena (app)
Kaizena makes it easy for teachers to give high quality feedback on student work - simply highlight and speak to give verbal feedback, or attach reusable resources for common problems.
Though this extension has premium features, there are many elements of the free version that are useful. You can hear words, passages, or whole documents read aloud with easy-to-follow dual color highlighting. Within Google Docs, students can have words and passages read aloud to them.
This handy extension gives generates a Word Cloud from the page you are currently reading. For students and reluctant readers, this provides an overview of the content, a place to gather a general understanding of the article. Try this: ask your students to go to an article and run the Word Cloud Website Preview extension. Ask them to note the words that appear the most and create an anticipation chart. Try it out with an article from Go to DoGoNews - http://www.dogonews.com/.
This is one of my favorite text-to-speech translators. It highlights the section it is currently reading and blurs out the rest. One of the struggles that students sometime have is focusing on content. This extension takes away that obstacle.
This extension will make text clearer. Another obstacle struggling readers have is sorting the “extra stuff” from the actual content. BeeLine Reader strips a Website article of the fluff and leaves just the text. It also color codes the lines for easier reading. And, it also includes a checkbox for Open Dyslexic Font, allowing students with Dyslexia to read in an adjusted font.
Google Calendar
Ways to use Google Calendar to differentiate include:
Create individual homework calendars for your student
Create small group schedules
You can use YouCanBook.me to set up student conferences
Additional Resources
Ideas for Using Google Apps for Differentiation - https://goo.gl/AQBQlb
Differentiate Instruction using Google Apps - http://goo.gl/v5OTJD
Using Google Apps to Support Differentiation - http://goo.gl/Tzshkv
Learning Menus and Choice Boards - http://goo.gl/WGbr5I
Speech to Text Resources - https://goo.gl/deJQwz
Unlock the Power of Google Forms - http://goo.gl/EpWU2c
Digital Differentiation with Google Apps - http://goo.gl/lq7LtS
Choose Your Own Adventure with Google Drive - https://goo.gl/vf7YqO
Using Learning Menus and Choice Boards in your Classroom (Pinterest Board) - https://goo.gl/W8kuA7
Meaningful Menus from Laurie Westphall - https://goo.gl/YLLenY
Differntiated Instruction: A Primer (Education Week) - http://goo.gl/I2WRTr
The Differentiate Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners - Book by Carol Tomlinson - http://goo.gl/9wqXpH
Google Sheets
You can use Google Sheets to sort data to facilitate grouping of students
Analyzing Data
Google Forms
Create Student Surveys
Use surveys to find out student preferences, strengths, and weaknesses.
Use Branching for Student Quizzes
Branching in Google Forms is a great way to differentiate student quizzes by having the form "go to page based on the answer" the student selects.
This could also be used for "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories.
TRY IT! - Sample Math Quiz.
How to use branching in Google Forms - http://goo.gl/GVllSY
The responses on a check-in form make it easier to give student the feedback they need.
Reading logs can serve as a good way for when you need to conference with a student.
Exit Slips
Daily Activity Check In (with branching)
Use Flubaroo for Student Quizzes
With the Flubaroo add-on you can grade quizzes quickly and get an analysis on student performance.
Blogger
Use Blogger as place to have student's create their own individual blogs.
Have students update their blog daily.
Edie's Blog - Sample Student Blog