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

  • Weekly Assignment Sheet

    • 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.

  • Hint Cards

    • 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.

  • Task Cards

    • 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.

  • RAFT Writing Assignment

    • 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

    • 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.

  • Voice Typing in Google Docs

    • For those students who are not fast at typing, they can use the Type with your voice feature in Google Docs

Google Sites

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 Slides

Google Drawing

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.

  • Read & Write for Google (extension)

  • 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.

  • Word Cloud Website Preview (extension)

  • 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/.

  • Announcify (extension)

  • 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.

  • BeeLine Reader (extension)

  • 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.

  • TCEA Chrome Apps & Extension List

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

Google Sheets

Google Forms

Blogger

  • Use Blogger as place to have student's create their own individual blogs.

  • Have students update their blog daily.