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.

math inquiry

In our last math class, my "aha moment" came when we learned how to use algebra tiles to uncover algebraic concepts. It took a couple of example problems, but once I saw how the algebra tiles worked I realized their potential as a learning tool - especially as a visual representation of rules like "FOIL" - rules that we were simply given and expected to memorize back in the day.

A question I have about using inquiry based techniques like algebra tiles for teaching math concepts is how to introduce them to a classroom with a scripted, direct instruction based, curriculum. My gut feeling is that these techniques would increase comprehension in my main placement classroom. However, I can see an inquiry based approach like algebra taking up more teaching time, therefore, the idea would meet with resistance.

In my main placement classroom, as stated, my feeling is that using manipulatives like algebra tiles would help some of our struggling kids "get it." Simply re-iterating the rule isn't working for them. We're currently using a FOIL technique called multiplication wrestling to teach double digit multiplication. The kids take each double digit number in the problem, separate it into 10s and 1s, and then multiply all the numbers together using FOIL. For instance, the kids would write out 32*49 as (30+2)*(40+9). Then the 30 and the 2 need to wrestle the 40 and the 9 (30*40, 30*9, 2*40, 2*9). The results are added together to get an answer. Many kids get this, but many do not, and going over the rules again isn't helping things sink in. I'd be interested to see whether these kids are helped by using a manipulative technique.