Differentiating Your Classroom For Success - EDU 518DC

Register for this course now through December 31, 2012.

Get the training and skills you need to meet the learning needs of ALL your students. Recommended for teachers of all grades through Community College.

Do you want to:

• Develop challenging and engaging tasks for each student in your class?
• Respond to students' readiness, instructional needs, interests and learning preferences?
• Establish a teacher facilitated, learner-responsive classroom?

Welcome to "Differentiating Your Classroom for Success", a four-semester unit course designed by the University of San Diego, Division of Continuing Education, for teachers of grades K-Community College.

Differentiation is not a new concept nor can it be avoided.  Look at any classroom of students.  There are undoubtedly those who have trouble sitting still and those who stay seated in an attentive mode all class period.  There are those who prefer the arts to math; those who function well with ambient noise as opposed to those who work best with relative quiet.  Just like any group of individuals, students come to class with various interests, ability levels, and learning styles.  Since this is a fact, teachers will be more effective if these differences are addressed.

For this course, you will think about and select a unit of study that you have taught or will teach.  This targeted unit will be the focus for this independent study course.  As you progress through each assignment in the course, you will build your capacity so that at the end you will have written a unit outline in the form of guiding questions, two comprehensive differentiated lessons, and a culminating assessment.  If you choose to complete an entire differentiated unit, you may.

Your course grade will be determined by how well you demonstrate understanding of the course content and how well you can apply that knowledge to create meaningful and effective differentiated lessons and a unit summative assessment.  Each lesson will include specific components and instructional strategies as explained in the text.  Details for completion will be provided in each section.  Your submitted coursework will be carefully reviewed.

To take this course you will need access to the following resource text.  This is the only book required for this course:  Title:  Lesson Design for Differentiated Instruction by Katherine Tuchman Glass (ISBN:  1412959829).  Access this book through your local bookstore or Amazon.com.  Make sure to purchase the less expensive soft cover copy. NOTE:  Required text has changed as of 3/15/2010 and is now reflected in current course work instructions.

HOW DO I RECEIVE MY COURSE INSTRUCTIONS?

After registering for courses, allow 48 business hours and then your course instructions will be available through this website.  Log in to our website by using your e-mail address and password.  Go to MY ACCOUNT and the course instructions will be there for you to download and print.  Please allow 48 business hours for this access. 

For course content information, contact USD Professional and Continuing Education at pce-edu-info@sandiego.edu.