differentiating instruction with an ipod touch

The past week or so, I've been thinking of ways in which the Ipod Touch could help differentiate instruction for certain students in my 4th grade main placement classroom. I've come up with a few possibilities, based on specific needs I've noticed.

One student (I'll call her Joy) is very low in reading and my master teacher informed me that she doesn't yet have full phonemic awareness. During independent reading or word sort activities, she could be using an app such as ABC Phonics Animals or Pocket Phonics to boost her ability to recognize phonemes and sound out words. The big drawback is that these apps are very basic, and very "baby" looking. A 4th grader would probably be embarrassed to use some of these apps. An alternative might be to create custom word sorts for her that she can practice at home. You'd need to devise a way to monitor her progress, so you could adapt future sorts to her current skill level.

Another student (I'll call him Brian) has been diagnosed with an Emotional/Behavioral Disorder and has co-created a plan for managing his behavior with our special educators. Brian has a behavior goals book that he can review when he needs help sticking to his plan and meeting his goals. I recently came across a couple of apps that might benefit him. One is called Model Me Going Places. This app contains narrated social scenes that he could reference when he needs reminding. This app could prove to be a helpful refresher for Brian - he could watch the playground scene before recess, for instance. Another potentially useful, and also more flexible, app is called Story Kit. Story Kit allows you to create your own unique and original multimedia story. The special educators could create social stories just for Brian (and are able to use personal photos and record their own audio). Bear in mind a couple of potential drawbacks, though. If Brian used his Ipod during instruction time, he could be quite distracting to the other students. Also, apps like Model Me Going Places could prove to have limited use in the classroom. Model Me Going Places only contains one potentially school related social story - visiting the the playground.

A final student for whom differentiation might be supported with an Ipod is a boy I'll call David. David is very proficient in math and often finishes tasks early. While a beneficial extension for his learning has been helping other students, his learning could also be extended with an Ipod. He could use an app like Pi Cubed Lite to construct more difficult equations than those the class is working on, or to practice more of the same kind of problem. There could be a problem, though, if students who don't get to use an Ipod in math equate it with "not qualifying" or "being stupid."

While the uses I've described could prove beneficial to the students in my classroom, one general drawback to allowing students to take their Ipods home is the varying heath and quality of students' home life. It might not be a safe or wise decision to allow an Ipod to go home. Another general problem could be finding a way to monitor students' progress. Finally, when using an Ipod to differentiate instruction, perhaps only a few students will be using IPods. This could cause tension or disruption in the classroom.