All students are capable of learning. Teachers must find the best strategies to reach all learners. This presentation gives you hints about what can be done to help them learn at their level.

1. Differentiation when teaching
EFL/ESL learners
By: Ms. Meibis González V.

2. Objectives
• To get acquainted with terms and meanings related to differentiation
when learning a new language.
• To identify the limitations and solutions that students might have
when learning a language.
• To be conscious about the importance of thinking critically about
strategies that can be used to help students with difficulties succeed.
• To promote the value of what students can achieve comparing to what
they previously had.

3. Does this look fair to you?

4. WhatisDifferentiatedInstruction?
Differentiation is a way for teachers to alter their teaching
strategies to help all students with mixed abilities and
learning styles reach their academic potential. Note that
this does not mean that the teacher should teach a different
lesson for every student.
To differentiate instruction is to recognize students varying
background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in
learning, interests, and to react responsively to those
variations through modifications in lesson delivery.
Know your audience...then deliver aproduct
that fitsyour audience.

5. No child is left behind
• General education must include all students in their classrooms,
and cannot refer them out to special education. Their lesson plans
need to meet the needs of multiple-level learning.
• All teachers must be skilled at making accommodations. That
is, not only special education teachers do.
• Accommodations and Modifications are not the sole
responsibility of the Special Education teacher.
• Special Education and General Education teachers need to
work together to accomplish differential instruction that will
lead to student success.
• .

6. Slower students have the right to
be within the general curriculum
• General education shall include all students in their
classrooms, and cannot refer them out to special
education.
• All teachers shall be skilled at making
accommodations. That is, not only special education
teachers do.
• .

7. Whyisthis important when teaching
English as a foreign language?
What teachers can do inflences the success of the students.
There are five important elements that help teachers include all
kinds of learners.
•Creating a thriving learningenvironment.
•Differentiating instruction for English languagelearners.
•Encouraging flexible grouping forstudents.
•Using diversity as aresource.
•Developing alternative assessments for Englishlanguage
learners.

8. Teachers can Differentiate the:
CONTENT:
Knowledge, skills and attitudes
we want children to learn;
differentiating content requires
that students are pre-tested so
the teacher can identify the
students who do not require
direct instruction
PROCESS:
Varying learning activities /
strategies to provide
appropriate methods for
students to explore the
concepts; important to give
students alternative paths to
manipulate the ideas
embedded within the concept
(different grouping methods,
graphic organizers, maps,
diagrams, or charts)
PRODUCT:
Varying the complexity of the
product that students create to
demonstrate mastery of the
concepts; students below grade
level may have different
performance expectations than
students above grade level (ie.
more complex or more
advanced thinking~ Bloom’s
Taxonomy)
According to Students’:
READINESS/
DEVELOPMENTAL:
Some students are ready for
different concepts, skills, or
strategies; others may lack the
foundation needed to progress
to further levels
INTEREST:
Student interest inventories
provide information to plan
different activities that respond
to individual student’s interest
LEARNING STYLE
Individual student preference
for where, when or how
students obtain and process
information (visual, auditory,
kinesthetic; multiple
intelligences; environment,
social organization, physical
circumstance, emotional
climate, psychological climate)
8

9. Keep in Mind!
It is important to have high expectation
students to meet grade level academic
Teachers should Learn about accommodation for
instruction and assessments.
Teachers should choose accommodations
appropriate to students
Teachers should evaluate and improve
accommodations use

10. Content
1. Presented information at different levels
2. Taking into account their different learning styles
3. Gradual release of responsibility from the
4. Key words:
5. Differentiation Accommodations Modifications
Scaffolding

11. Environment
•1.There should be flexible seating
•2.There should be promoted a growth mindset
•3.There is risk-taking skills
•4.There will be Independent learning
•5.There is a need for collaboration skills

12. Product
• 1. Offer several options and choices
•2. Open-ended tasks
•4. More tan one way to get to success

13. Scaffolding
• Providing support to student learning and then re- teaching
that support so that the student becomes self-reliant.
• Clear instructions: simple language, restate in another way
• Clarifies purpose
• Keeps students on task
• Clear expectations
• Points students to high quality sources of help and
information
• Reduces uncertainty, surprise and disappointment
• Delivers efficiency

14. How can we implement Accommodation?
• Response- allow students to complete assignments, tests, and
activities in different ways.
• Setting – Change the location in which a test or assignment is
given or the conditions of the assessment setting.
• You may a student to learn less material
• Revising assignment or tests to make them easier.
• Timing- change the allowable length of test or assignment and
may change the way the time is organized.
• Presentation- Allow students to access information in ways that
do not require them to visually read standard print (visual,
tactile, auditory).
• Students can work in groups in collaborative way

15. Flexible Grouping
“A hallmark of an effective differentiated classroom….is
the use of flexible grouping, which accommodates students
who are strong in some areas and weaker in others.
~Carol Tomlinson
15

16. Teacherscanmodify
assessmentsfor students at this
stage by doing the following:

17. • Realistic picture of what students cando,
without focusing on what they cannotdo
• Stressstudent growth, not correctanswers
• Extended time for tests
• Instructions in nativelanguage
• Using bilingual dictionaries and electronictranslators
Activities to differentiate students who
learn a foreign or second language

18. • Teacherscansimplify studyguides
• Teachers canallow students tousetheir booksor notes
duringa test.
• Allow studentsto answeressayquestionsorally
• Havestudentscompareandcontrasttogether
• Teacherscan permitstudentstoworkwithamodified outline,
chart, graph,ortime line
• Teacherscanimprovetheformatofatestusing largerfontand
morewhite space.
• Simplifyessayquestions.TeacherscanprovideanExampleofwhat
theyexpectstudentstodo.
• Useadialoguejournalto discussspecifictopicswith
students

19. • Tell them what they are required to study for atest.
• Usegraphic organizers, study guides, and other scaffolding .
• Simplify language and reduce responses for multiple-choice
• Highlight key words or clues on atest.
• Provide support for essayquestions through discussion,
brainstorming, andwebbing.
• Allow students to useatranslationdictionary.
• Give students more time to develop the activities if
necessary.

20. “The biggest mistake we have made in
past centuries in teaching has been to treat
all children as if they were variants of the
same individual and thus to feel justified in
teaching them the same subjects in the
same ways. “
~Howard Gardner

21. References
Haynes, Judie. Getting Started with English Language Learners. Alexandria:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2007. Print.