Catering for Learner Diversity

students to work as a team and develop in students the belief that they win or lose together as a team. Such a collaborative team spirit, with clear learning goals for progression into the next stage of learning, can encourage each student to be responsible for his/her own growth.

Each student in a class is now in competition with his/her own, not against others. Such a learning environment is favourable for addressing academic diversity.

(b) Quality Curriculum Content and Teaching Up

In a differentiated classroom, teachers should ensure that the content of each lesson delivered to students is important and meaningful to them (i.e. focused on key ideas).

Teachers should identify the key principles or concepts, as well as core knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to be developed before teaching. These should be the essential learning elements that have to be learnt by all students regardless of their learning abilities. With this in mind, teachers can then vary the content / process / product of learning based on pre-assessment results on the readiness, interest and learning profiles of students.

Instead of just giving more work to those advanced learners and lowering down the requirements for those struggling learners, teachers using differentiated instructions should create a quality and rich curriculum that can help to stretch the potential of their students to the maximum. The major task of the teachers is to help students with different readiness levels by providing various types of support so that every student is capable of maximizing what they can achieve. Differentiation should always be about “lifting up” the potentials of students.

(c) On-going assessment with clearly set assessment criteria

Quality differentiation is guided by on-going assessment. This type of assessment aims at collecting data on students’ readiness, interests and learning profiles on a recurrent basis for lesson planning and giving feedback to students. It should be carried out before, during and after every cycle of learning and teaching. Before the start of a teaching unit, teachers should conduct assessment to avoid teaching in the black box. Such pre-assessment may be simple formal pre-assessment / survey (like Figure 4.1 and Figure 4.2) or informal observation by teachers during some well-planned classroom activities before the teaching of a module.

During the course of teaching, it is advisable to carry out assessment for learning periodically to monitor students’ progress and see if re-teaching of some of the parts are necessary. An “exit card”

(Figure 4.3) is one of such assessment methods. Teachers may further differentiate their questions / requirements in an on-going assessment, such as homework assignments. This differentiation of learning products (e.g. giving students graded data-response questions or different coursework formats to choose), with clearly set assessment criteria, can help students with different learning styles learn better.

Figure 4.1 An example of pre-assessment on student readiness

Figure 4.2 An example of pre-assessment on student interests

Name: ________________________ Class: _______________________

Complete the following diagram to show what you know about sustainable development.

Write as much as you can.

Definition: Information / details:

Examples: Non-examples:

Interest Survey

Name: ________________________ Class: _______________________

Describe your interests below with suggested connections of your interests with geography.

Such information may help me to understand more about your learning needs. Thanks.

Interest: Interest:

Connection with geography: Connection with geography:

Interest: Interest:

Connection with geography: Connection with geography:

It is important to include

“non-examples” here to uncover the misconception of students.

Sustainable Development

Figure 4.3 An example of an exit card

(d) Flexible Grouping

In differentiated classrooms, teachers group students flexibly in the learning process according to the readiness, interests and learning profiles of students. Teachers can group their students homogeneously (i.e. students with similar abilities / interests / needs are in the same group) in some cases but group them heterogeneously (group students with different abilities / interests / needs together) in other cases. Teachers can also allow some students to do work individually or in pairs. Flexible grouping arrangement enables students to learn collaboratively so that learners with different abilities can learn as a team, help each other and work for success together.

(e) Various Differentiated Instructional Strategies

Based on the readiness, interests and learning profiles of students, teachers can use different differentiated instructional strategies to cater for their learning needs. Examples of such strategies include learning contracts with menus, “RAFT”, scaffolding, tiered assignments, learning centres or stations and web quests. Learning may be differentiated in:

• content, e.g. by using geography materials of different level of difficulty and readability for students with different readiness levels; or by using materials containing different contents or on different topics but focused on the same key ideas for students with varied interests. For the latter, teachers may ask students with different interests to study materials of different types of natural hazards, such as typhoons, landslides and earthquakes. Although choices are given, all of these materials and student learning are focused on the study of the key elements of natural hazards, that is, the causes and impacts of these hazards.

• process, e.g. by using scaffolding or learning contracts.

• product, e.g. by asking students to do assignments with multiple modes of expression.

Exit Card —Water Cycle

Name: _____________________ Class: _______________________

• What is a water cycle?

• How does it operate?

• ……

In differentiation, students are usually given choices on what to do and how to do (individually, in pairs or groups). Differentiated instruction helps students take increasing responsibility of their own learning. Among the differentiated instructional strategies mentioned above, “RAFT”

and “learning contracts with menus” are chosen as examples below to explain how differentiated instruction can be used in the learning and teaching of this curriculum to cater for learner diversity.

RAFT Assignments

“RAFT” is an acronym for “Role”, “Audience”, “Format” and “Topic”. In a RAFT activity students are given different roles and they need to develop different products / assignments on given topics with particular formats for specified audiences (see Figure 4.4). RAFT assignments are usually with short duration but they give teachers great flexibility in dealing with learner diversity by providing learning choices for students.

RAFT Assignments on Climate Change

The following RAFT assignments are designed for S2 geography students on climate change. The focus of the assignments is on the key concepts of climate change but with different presentation formats for students to choose.

RAFT Objectives Knowledge: … Skills: …

Values and attitude: …

Now, choose and complete your most favourite one from the RAFT assignments below:

Role Audience Format Topic

Sea with a

People living at Tuvalu Letter Why we have to stop

rising level seeing each other?

Polar bear Polar ice Song I need you

Trees Hong Kong residents with high Oral My life is worth saving air-conditioning cost response

You may suggest your own RAFT on climate change.

Ask your geography teacher for approval.

Figure 4.4 A “RAFT” on climate change

Learning Contract with menu

A learning contract (usually with choices) is an agreement between a teacher and a student. A learning contract has different formats, but usually it includes clear learning objectives, guidelines and requirements of the assignment, deadline and assessment criteria. Learning contracts help students take increasing responsibility of their learning.

Learning menus, usually included in learning contracts, are designed to provide learning choices to students. A learning menu usually includes 3 main parts listed below:

• “Main Course / Dish”: This is the compulsory part (must do) of the menu. All students are required to finish all activities in this part, which are focused on key concepts / ideas of an issue / problem. This ensures that although students have academic diversity, they can acquire all essential learning elements of the learning unit. According to students’ needs, teachers may further differentiate the “Main Dish” tasks, e.g. preparing 2-3 sets of “Main Dish” on the same topic but with different levels of difficulty. They are of similar length and appearance for students with different reading levels.

• “Side Dish”: This is the elective part (choose to do) of the menu which contain different options to meet the varied needs and interests of the students.

• “Dessert”: This is the extended part of the menu which usually includes enrichment tasks to further stretch the potentials of the students. Students can choose whether they will complete this part.

An example of a learning contract with menu activities is given in Figure 4.5.

A Geography Learning Contract - Student Copy

Menu of the week: Natural hazards

Major concepts / key questions of the issue:

- What are the causes and impacts of different types of natural hazards?

- What are their preventive and remedial measures?

Objectives: …

Guidelines and timeline:

All items in the main dishes and a specified number of side dishes should be completed by you during your Christmas holidays (Due date: 2 Jan. 20xx). You may choose any one item from the side dishes. For the desserts, you may choose to complete one / two / none of them.

A list of assessment criteria is also attached with the menu for your reference. It will be used for your self-assessment and as an assessment tool of your geography teacher. After the completion of the menu activities, remember to complete your self-evaluation form.

Main Dishes—Map work and landslides: (You must complete all the tasks in this part.) 1. Based on the contour map of Area A,

• find the height of Points C, D and E;

• calculate the gradient of Slope X; and

• construct a cross-section from Point C to Point D and calculate its vertical exaggeration.

2. Based on map evidence, explain why Area A will most likely be affected by landslides.

3. Suggest preventive measures that can be adopted to reduce the negative impact of landslides in Area A.

Side Dishes—Earthquakes: (You must complete any one of the tasks in this part.) 1. Drawing diagrams:

• Draw 3 annotated diagrams on cards to show how earthquakes occur at constructive, destructive and conservative plate boundaries respectively.

• Design a leaflet which includes a list of safety rules to follow during the occurrence of an earthquake (Hint: Surf the website of the Hong Kong Observatory - http://www.hko.gov.hk) 2. Letter-writing:

• Suppose you were a resident in Sichuan. Write a letter to your friend in Hong Kong in about 200 words to describe your experience in an earthquake.

• Include in your letter the recent earthquake events in Sichuan and their causes. Show the responses of your government to these events.

• You may also include a few relevant photos in your letter (can be obtained from the Internet).

3. Oral presentation:

• Prepare a PowerPoint presentation on the global distribution of earthquakes, as well as their causes and effects.

• Include in your PowerPoint file a digital map showing the global distribution pattern of plate boundaries and the locations of earthquake hazards. The map may be created using Geographic Information System (GIS) software or a downloadable freeware “Seismic Eruption”. “Seismic Eruption” can be downloaded from the website

http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~ajones/. Details on how to use this freeware can be found on P.103-109 of “A Teacher’s Guide to GIS Operations: Using Geographic Information System (GIS) for implementing enquiry learning in Geography” published by the Education Bureau in 2009.

• You will be given 10-15 minutes to present your findings in your coming geography lessons.

Desserts—Climatic hazards: (The tasks here are optional. Finish any item(s) below if you wish.) 1. Visit the website of the Hong Kong Observatory (http://www.hko.gov.hk) and choose to view the information of a tropical cyclone on the list (click “Tropical Cyclones” on the left-hand side menu and then click “Tropical Cyclone Track and Position”). You may also choose to look at the part “Tropical Cyclone Track Information on GIS Platform”.

If you view the part “Tropical Cyclone Track Information on GIS Platform”, remember to use GIS functions, like pan, zoom in, zoom out and identify.

• Describe the general path of a typhoon affecting the Asia-Pacific region (including Hong Kong) and your personal experience about typhoon in about 50 words.

2. Visit the following websites to see satellite images and photos about another climatic hazard — sandstorm.

Hong Kong Observatory

(http://www.hko.gov.hk/press/SP/pre20100322e.htm) 2009 Australian dust storm-Wikipedia

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Australian_dust_storm) Dust storm in Australia-The Big Picture-Boston.com

(http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/dust_storm_in_australia.html)

By clicking the photos with a label “click on this image to see it fade” in this website, you can compare photos of different parts of Sydney before and after the occurrence of a sandstorm.

• Describe the possible impact of sandstorms in the world and your relevant experience (if any) in about 50 words.

Assessment Criteria:

The following criteria will be used for your self-assessment as well as assessment by your geography teacher.

1. Map work