I-Search Proposal-Draft

 I-Search Proposal-Importance of Differentiated Instruciton

--- Not going to happen!

Topic: Importance of Differentiated Instruction

Questions:  What is differentiated instruction?  How can you use differentiated instruction? What are the advantages/disadvantages of differentiated instruction? Why don't general education teachers use differentiated instruction as much as special education teachers? I know it's important, but how do you do it effectivly?

General Resources:  NCTE articles and IRA articles from ODU's online library.  Also, any recent article pertaining differentiated instruction and how it is used in literacy.

People to Interview:  I plan on interviewing, Mrs. MacMahn, the reading specialist that I am co-teaching with this semester to gain perspective on her own personal experiences with differentiated instruction and how she uses it in her inclusion Reading class.
and/or
 Ms. Cathi Ownes, secondonary English teacher who also uses differentiated instruction in her classroom.

Titles of Articles planned to be used:  Conundrums in The Differentiated Literacy Classroom; Reading Instruction in Tier1: Bridging the Gaps by Nesting Evidence-Based Interventions within Differentiated Instruction; To-With-By: A Three-Tiered Model for Differentiated Instruction; Comparing Inclusion in The Secondary Vocational and Academic Classrooms: Strengths, Needs, and Recommendations. So far...

Notes:

My main concern is educators do not understand the importance of differentiating instruction and are not using it in their classrooms to ensure student academic success. The purpose of this paper is to research the importance of differentiated instruction and interview teachers who are implementing it in their classrooms effectively.

Possible Interview questions:
1. What is differentiated instruction to you?
2. How do you use differentiated instruction in your classroom?
3. Is differentiating instruction important for student success? How so?
4.What are the advantages of using differentiated instruction?
5.What are the disadvantages of differentiated instruction?
6. Is differentiated instruction hard to do in a large classroom setting?
7. Is differentiated instruction only for special education students/teachers?
8. Do you think differentiated instruction is more effective at a higher or lower grade level?
9. Do you think teacher's need more training to learn more about differentiated instruction?
10. What are some effective strategies to use when differentiating instruction?
11. Is it even possible to provide differentiated instruction in a core class? If so, how do you do it effectively while still providing some sort of direct instruction?
12. How does differentiated instruction work in an inclusion classroom setting with both general education students and special education students?
13. Any additional thoughts? concerns? etc...