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Hi Odalys!
Although I am still in school and haven't been able to practice this in my own classroom, I am getting a special education endorsement and we talk about this a lot in my classes for that. I think differentiating is all about knowing your students and what they need. For example, if you know how a student learns best, like if they like to move around, you can incorporate that into your lessons by having them act things out as you teach about them (like having students walk around a central object to see how planets orbit around the sun). Another thing I have discussed is having students with a higher level of understanding teach students with a lower level of understanding. This allows students with higher levels of understanding to solidify their ideas and dive deep into the content, since you have to know materials really well in order to teach them, and the students who don't understand as much get to hear information from their peers, which may be more motivating than a teacher. I would be cautious about doing this too much though, because we don't want to make the students with a higher understanding feel like they are being required to put in more work than others, or for the students with a lower level of understanding feel incapable. I hope these ideas help!
-Kaylee
Wartburg College class of 24
Elementary Education Major with endorsements in reading, early childhood, and special education
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