Differentiated instruction is an approach that teachers use to adjust instruction to maximize the learning of all students regardless of their learning styles, interests and readiness. Teachers can use differentiated instruction to offer students a variety of strategies within the same learning environment. Teachers who differentiate instruction often:

• Modify classroom assignments to meet the needs of specific students
  
  
• Assess students on an ongoing basis and use assessment results to adjust instruction
  
  
• Provide a variety of options for how students can learn and demonstrate their knowledge. (e.g., via lecture, modeling, hands-on, visual representations)
  
  
• Use different grouping formats
  
  
• Provide students with several options to demonstrate their knowledge
  
  
• Define “success” in relation to an individual student’s academic growth in relation to standards, not by classroom test scores

When I think about Clicker, I most often think about the reading and writing supports that Clicker can provide. Clicker can read a passage to a child or a child can use voice to text to help them write words. That’s where I usually start when I recommend Clicker to teachers. The features are easy to learn and easy to infuse into daily instruction. The support tools in Clicker can be customized to meet the individual needs of each student which helps teachers offer true differentiated instruction for reading and writing.

Speaking and listening

In most states, academic standards include speaking and listening expectations that require students share accurate, relevant information; respond to and build others’ ideas; make comparisons and contrasts; and analyze and synthesize a wide range of concepts across different subject areas. Even in Kindergarten, standards are designed to ensure that students develop an adequate mastery of age-appropriate skills and applications. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet the speaking and listening standards specific to that grade and further develop the skills they mastered previously.

Kindergarten Speaking and Listening (K.SL) Standards

K.SL.2 Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

K.SL.3 Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

K.SL.4 Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.

K.SL.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

K.SL.6 Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

(Oregon Department of Education (2019). Oregon English Language Arts and Literacy Standards).

Using Clicker Talk Sets to differentiate instruction

I have worked with many students who have difficulty sharing their ideas when they are speaking and listening. Some know what they want to say but are reluctant or unable to share. Some use Alternative and Augmented Communication (AAC) devices or need extra time to express themselves. Others have difficulty in specific communication environments like large groups, when they are asked to speak to the entire class, or even when they are asked to listen to unfamiliar communication partners.  

In the past, my main solution for addressing standards with students like these in classroom assignments was to help them make a recording in advance and play it to their peers when the time was right. Making an individual recording is a really good solution. But it can take a lot of time and requires one-on-one attention from educators to provide prompts and generate the recordings. Carol Ann Tomlinson, one of the leaders in the differentiated instruction movement, acknowledges this difficulty:

"The issue in terms of- it [differentiated instruction] takes too much time in class- is an intriguing one to me because it turns out that differentiation is not what takes extra time in class. What takes extra time in class is giving kids chances to work with ideas and manipulate ideas and come to own the information. It doesn’t take as long just to tell kids things or just to cover standards, but we also don’t have any evidence that students come away with understanding or the capacity to use what they’ve learned to transfer knowledge."

Carol Ann Tomlinson- Iris Module, Differentiated Instruction: Maximizing the Learning of All Students Vanderbuil University, acquired from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/di/cresource/q1/p01/#content

Especially when communication and listening are part of academic class assignments, there are never enough helpers to ensure that every child had a voice. I used to wonder “How could students who have difficulty expressing themselves verbally be more independent?”

Clicker and differentiated instruction for speaking and listening

Clicker Talk Sets can help students be even more independent as they work toward mastering Speaking and Listening Standards like the ones listed above. Clicker Talk Sets can help students practice what they want to say and then say it to others while also helping teachers differentiate instruction.

Oliver’s Talk Set report

Oliver has Down Syndrome.  He has lots of ideas but finds it difficult to communicate them. When he can utter an entire sentence that people understand, despite his struggle in trying  to find the words, he is as proud as his older brother in scoring a touchdown in varsity football. 

The more Oliver practices what he wants to say, the better his communication gets. But Oliver is in a class with several other students with Developmental Disabilities (DD), so he doesn’t get the one-on-one practice that his teachers might want to give him. Clicker Talk Sets are a great way for Oliver to get the prompts, opportunities to speak and the auditory feedback that helps him grow and learn.

Because Oliver lives in the Northwest of the United States (US), his class has been assigned a series of reports about logging activities in their area. Students are reporting on what happens when trees are cut for lumber and how they feel about that. Oliver’s family recently did a small amount of logging around their house to let in more light and reduce wildfire danger. Oliver got help from his teachers to create a Clicker Talk Set of photos that were taken during the logging.

Here are the sentences that Oliver used in his Clicker Talk Set when he presented it to his class using the talk set pictures and his recorded voice.

Picture 1: They cut a lot of trees down to make light for the garden, but the trees were in a very wet place and the logging machine got stuck in the mud.

Picture 2: We asked the loggers to pile a lot of logs in our driveway so that they could cut them up for boards and lumber.

Picture 3: if you look in the middle you can see the man who is cutting this log into boards. The words on the machine say Backwoods Portable Sawmill Service.

Picture 4: He cut the log in half and then sliced it just like a loaf of bread.

Picture 5: It took three men to load another log onto the sawmill.

Picture 6: My mom and her friend made a big pile of scrap wood to start fires with in the winter.

Once the photos were inserted into the Talk Set, Oliver was able to create his speech about logging without any more help. He clicked on each photo and was able to talk about each one. If he didn’t like the way it sounded or wanted to change his work in any way, he was able to edit the description until he was happy with it.

Through the use of this Clicker-based differentiated instruction technique, Oliver was able to share what he wanted to say more independently and this meant that his teacher could offer alternative assignments to assess the progress in relation to state standards for many more students in the class.

Gayl Bowser is a leading expert in the field of assistive technology. She was the state of Oregon’s AT specialist for 20 years helping schools get the technology they needed to support students. She now works as a national consultant and facilitator for state AT leaders where she uses her expertise to provide consultation and project management services to organizations involved in the education of people with disabilities.