Differentiating for Student Readiness and Interest

For this assignment, you will be given a scenario that describes two very different students that you may have in your classroom. Based on the information, you will develop appropriate ways to differentiate content, process, and product based on student readiness and interest.

Scenario:
You are a fifth grade teacher and are preparing to teach the students a unit on matter. In this particular lesson, you will introduce to the students the structure of an atom, which includes protons, electrons, and neutrons. You already conducted a pre-assessment and you found that most students were familiar with the word atom, but were not particularly strong in knowing the parts of an atom. Mary loves science and was the only student who shows that she already has a good understanding regarding the structure of an atom. You also know that Davion is an average student who is very capable of learning the content, but it is a struggle to motivate him when teaching science because he does not care for the subject and thinks it is boring. In conducting an interest survey in the beginning of the year, you know that Davion is really interested in comics.

In reviewing this scenario, you will determine how to effectively differentiate for content, process, and product based on student readiness and student interest for Mary and Davion. Your assignment should include the following:

1. Based on what Mary knows about the atom, explain how might you differentiate for student readiness based on content, process, and product? Think about what you want Mary to learn and how you plan to teach it (content), the activities she will engage in (process), and how she might show what she has learned in a different way (product). See Chapter 5 of your text for support and ideas.
2. Considering Davion’s interest in comics, explain how you might differentiate for student interest based on content, process, and product. Think about how you might differentiate the way you teach atoms to Davion (content), the activities you may engage him in to help him make sense of the content (process), and the options he has to show he has mastered the objective (product). See Chapter 6 of your text for support and ideas.
3. Explain your rationale of your differentiated approach for each student and how it will support these two students in your classroom for learning about the structure of an atom. Consider how your selection in content, process, and product for Mary and Davion differ for the rest of your class. How do the options you provide for Mary and Davion align with their readiness level and interest? Be sure to use evidence to support your ideas.

You have two options in completing this task:

1. Write a two- to three-page paper (not including the title and references pages).
2. Develop an eight- to ten-slide PowerPoint presentation (not including the title and references slides).

You must reference the course text and at least one additional scholarly source using the Ashford University Library. You must include title and references pages or slides regardless of which option you choose. For information regarding APA formatting, visit the Ashford Writing Center, located under the Learning Resources tab in the left navigation of the online course.