Planning and Resources

Differentiating Instruction: Teaching All Your Students

by Estella Gahala

Has the bell-shaped curve disappeared from your foreign language classes and been replaced by a two-humped camel? More and more teachers say yes, because they find their students falling into one of two categories: those who "get it" rather quickly and those who don't and need more time. If instruction is slowed to accommodate the latter, the others become bored and act out. If pace is maintained for those who learn more readily, the others fall hopelessly behind. How do we respond to this dilemma?

At-Risk Students

At-risk foreign-language students may have subtle first-language deficiencies that become more prominent in second-language learning, according to Ganschow and Sparks. Their research reveals that students who have average or above-average IQs but also have learning deficits similar to those of learning-disabled students experience difficulty in learning a second language. These students devise effective coping strategies during their long exposure to their first language which may desert them in second-language learning. Those difficulties are most evident in comprehending oral language, spelling, and grammar, and may be combined with rote memory problems. What are the classroom implications of this knowledge? The high-risk students described above can profit from the following:

• Explicit teaching of the second-language sound system
• Explicit teaching of the second-language grammar
• Explicit teaching of vocabulary
• Multisensensory approaches to the above that simultaneously involve auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic learning pathways (this means that students need to listen and read simultaneously and to speak and write simultaneously)
• Slower-paced instruction
• Allowance for poor spelling
• Testing compensations, such as untimed tests
• Daily review
• Structured study period with a teacher or tutor

Successful Language Learners

The successful language learner, according to Trayer and Rubin, is highly verbal, is a willing and accurate guesser, is extroverted with a strong desire to communicate, is attentive to form and meaning, practices and monitors his/her own speech and that of others. Gifted students understand relationships among diverse ideas, quickly grasp general principles, and generate lots of ideas. In other words, they are articulate communicators equally adept with both meaning and form. Lest it appear that we have painted a portrait of perfection, these talented learners may demand disproportionate time and attention and pursue agendas that run counter to yours. What are the implications of working with low-risk, academically able students? They need the following:

• Multisensory presentation and practice
• Practice in generating questions
• Activities that improve memory and fluency
• Activities that allow divergent as well as convergent thinking (seeking multiple appropriate answers as well as one "right" answer)
• Practice in imaginative speaking and writing
• Work on higher order thinking skills, problem-solving, and decision making
• Varied types of assessment

Giving Both Groups What They Need

How do you juggle these diverse needs within the same classroom? Probably with great difficulty. However, there is a paradigm that can guide your efforts. A comparison of instructional time for average and gifted students in terms of Bloom's taxonomy might look like this (Tuttle and Becker):

Fortunately, there are some specific approaches that you can follow to minimize the problems posed by this "two-humped camel" in your classroom.

• Provide basic instruction of vocabulary and structures by appealing to as many senses as possible.
• Proceed through carefully sequenced in-class practice.
• In interactive classroom activities, such as question-answer practice, allow sufficient wait time for students to process the question, think of possible responses, formulate a response, and make the response.
• Get students to discuss how they think of answers, how they learn new material, and how they function in small-group work. When needed, provide direct instruction in processing.
• Make the most of paired practice and peer teaching. Give direct instruction in expected and appropriate behaviors when students are in pairs or small groups.
• Give clear instruction on all assignments and model process or desire outcomes with students before they begin the task. Use more able students to assist you in modeling the activity.
• Use lab tapes for listening and reading, not listening alone.
• Regularly give a choice among two or three homework assignments. Instead of grading solely on correctness, consider grading on any two of the following criteria: completion of task, comprehensibility, quantity of appropriateness of information generated, individual improvement. Be sure to let students know the criteria in advance.
• Provide open-ended applications of basic learned material in which individuals or pairs of students may choose to do one of three tasks. Each task represents a different level of thinking skill.
• Base evaluation on a variety of procedures: taking short quizzes, participating in role plays or skits, writing scenarios of oral activities, labeling pictures or visuals, creating personal flashcards or study devices, creating posters or cultural projects, actively participating in classroom question-answer or other interaction, describing a picture, creating a drawing from a description, writing a new study exercise, writing questions for a reading or dialogue.
• Break up chapter tests and give them over more than one day. Sequence the parts so that the first parts given help prepare students for the later, more complex parts.
• Create a sense of community in the classroom that promotes a feeling of personal safety in a structured learning environment.