Category Archives: Uncategorized

Great Blog Gives Technology Ideas for Teachers!

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I usually stick to writing about our new social studies differentiated instruction lesson plans but I ran across this blog that I was impressed with and I thought I would share it with you. It is called “The Educator Beat”. The articles are interesting and fun to read. I really like the ‘my top five’ list of technology for the classroom because there is so much technology out there, sometimes it’s hard to choose the best product. Randee has used the technology in the classroom that is suggested on the site which means more to me than the ad I read for it. The blog also has a good list of websites that are great for the classroom and some of them do focus on differentiated instruction which is what this blog focuses on too.

One of the articles on “The Educator Beat” suggests joining a support group if you are a special education teacher. I, having been a special education teacher for a short time, think this is a great idea. The laws are always changing and every special education teacher needs to be aware of them and share the laws with their co-teachers. Teaching special education can also be overwhelming at times and outlets are needed. I encourage you to join this group if you are a special education teacher. Click here to go to that article.

To visit “The Educator Beat”, click on the link below!

http://www.theeducatorbeat.blogspot.de/

 

Written by,

Kasha Mastrodomenico

kasha@socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

www.socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico

What are resources to help differentiate instruction for NYS social studies?

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NYS social studies can be a difficult subject to teach with the immense amount of material that needs to be covered each year. There are a lot of places on the web that provide resources for NYS social studies teachers. Two of them are provided below:

I bet most NYS social studies teachers don’t realize that they can email their NYS board of education and actually get a reply from them. I taught social studies in NY for 5 years and I didn’t know that I could do this until recently. It would have saved me a lot of time during my planning. Using them as a resource can help you become a more effective NYS social studies teacher. You can find the email by going to http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/aboutus.html and look under social studies.

Another great resource for NYS social studies is http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico. It follows the NYS core curriculum and standards. It offers differentiated instruction resources for NYS social studies. It contains the following resources:

You can also connect with me, Kasha Mastrodomenico, on Linkedin.com. I will be happy to help you in anyway.

Written by,

Kasha Mastrodomenico

http://www.socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

kasha@socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico

Example of Differentiated Instruction

What is an example of differentiated instruction when teaching about culture?

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Example of Differentiated Instruction

If you need an example of differentiated instruction for teaching about culture, I have one for you here. Part of the culture standard I had to teach was about creation stories. The main idea behind it was that every culture has a creation story. I decided to differentiate instruction by using the multiple intelligence learning styles. Since it wasn’t stated in the standards that a specific creation story be learned, I used several from around the world. I divided the students into cooperative learning groups to bring in the interpersonal learning style. I handed each cooperative group a different creation story. To bring in the linguistic learning style I had the groups put the story in their own words to simplify it. I brought in the kinesthetic learning style by making the students make up movements to go along with the story. The next day when the students came in the classroom, I had all of the desks on the outside of the room and in the middle I had created a fake fire with sticks and yellow, orange, and red construction and tissue paper. Each group told their story with their movements. The linguistic learning style and kinesthetic learning styles were used again during the presentation. It also included the spatial learning style because the students were watching the stories due to the movement and the “fire” focal point. The next time I use this differentiated instruction lesson plan using multiple intelligence learning styles, I will allow the students to use musical instruments from their culture, borrowed from the music room, to bring in the musical multiple intelligence learning style. To conclude the lesson, I used the logical multiple intelligence learning style by having the students find similarities between all of the creation stories.

In this lesson I accomplished differentiated instruction by bringing in the following multiple intelligence learning styles:

  • kinesthetic learning style
  • linguistic learning style
  • spatial learning style
  • musical learning style
  • logical learning style

By using all of these multiple intelligence learning styles to differentiate instruction, more students were interested in the lesson. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico has many examples of differentiated instruction using the multiple intelligence learning styles in the form of full lesson plans.

Written by,

Kasha Mastrodomenico

http://www.socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

kasha@socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico

How can technology help those with the linguistic learning style?

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Technology and the Linguistic Learning Style

Technology can be a very useful tool for those with the linguistic learning style. It can help them review and study as well as create. Any technology that helps students read, write, listen or speak can be used to help the linguistic learner learn. Here are some suggestions using technology to help the linguistic learner:

  • Allow the students with the linguistic learning style to record the mini-lesson so they can listen to it later
  • Allow the students with the linguistic learning style to record the main concepts and vocabulary and download it to the MP3 player so they can listen to it when they have time.
  • Use interactive writing sites like http://www.theeasyessay.com/
  • Provide audio books for the linguistic learner
  • Allow the linguistic learner to record themselves reading the text out loud.

Using technology in the classroom can help those with the linguistic learning style learn. Teachers need to feel comfortable with their teaching style and knowledge of the subject to allow students to record them. If they do not feel comfortable with being recorded there is always the option for the teacher to record themselves talking about the content without students around.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico offers many linguistic learning style activities including two interactive writing systems.

Written by,

Kasha Mastrodomenico

http://www.socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

kasha@socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico

What kind of intrapersonal learning activities can be used for closings?

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Intrapersonal Learning Activities

There are many intrapersonal learning activities to choose from when creating a closing assignment for students to complete for review of daily content. Due to the fact that intrapersonal learners are great at self reflection, a daily diary entry or journal entry about what they have learned can really help them review content and they will enjoy the process. You can have them go further and write about how they felt and what they think about the content. This intrapersonal learning activity can help intrapersonal learners connect content to themselves and background knowledge.  This is very important since intrapersonal learners know themselves so well.

If writing an intrapersonal learning activity journal entry or even a paragraph for a historical figure, you could ask them to imagine what kind of advice they would be given if they sat down and had lunch with them. You could ask them what characteristics they see in the historical figure that they also see in themselves or which ones they wish they had or didn’t wish they had.

Another closing intrapersonal learning activitythat is available is filling in a thinking map or a graphic organizer. These are easily completed quickly and will fit into the closing of a lesson time frame of 3-5 minutes. They can also be connected to the intrapersonal learner by simply adding a box to the graphic organizer, or thinking map, or a question at the bottom.

Intrapersonal learning activities can be used to differentiate instruction also. You can add an intrapersonal learning activity as an option for a work session or you can include an option like self reading to gain the content information during the mini-lesson. Intrapersonal learning activitiesare easily implemented in today’s classroom.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico/Category/Activity-Templates-and-Rubrics offers many intrapersonal learning activities.

Written by,

Kasha Mastrodomenico

http://www.socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

kasha@socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico

 

What are kinesthetic teaching methods?

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Kinesthetic Teaching Method

There are many kinesthetic teaching methods. Anytime you can have students touch and feel something you are using a kinesthetic teaching method. Kinesthetic teaching methods have to do with movement. Role playing is a useful kinesthetic teaching method in subjects like Language Arts and Social Studies. If a teacher has a student in Science conducting an experiment, that is a kinesthetic teaching method. The same goes for building something like a historical puppet and then putting on a puppet show to demonstrate knowledge of the content. Building a robot in technology is also an example of a kinesthetic teaching method. Using kinesthetic teaching methods to differentiate instruction can be an easy and fun way to tweak mini-lessons and activities.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico/Category/Activity-Templates-and-Rubrics offers many activities based on kinesthetic teaching methods. 

Written by,

Kasha Mastrodomenico

http://www.socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

kasha@socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico

Why should you use kinesthetic teaching methods?

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Kinesthetic teaching methods can be very useful for students who learn best actively. One group of students that will almost always benefit from the use of kinesthetic teaching methods are students labeled ADHD. These students need breaks and have a ton of energy to burn. The more you can get kinesthteic learners to move, the better. Using kinesthetic teaching methods is a great way to differentiate instruction. When you differentiate instruction using kinesthetic teaching methods, you have more of a chance to reach more students.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico/Category/Activity-Templates-and-Rubrics offers many kinesthetic classroom activities. Check it out!

Written by,

Kasha Mastrodomenico

http://www.socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

kasha@socialstudiesdifferentiatedinstruction.com

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kasha-Mastrodomenico