In order to reach the student’s mind, you need to pass through their heart.
Differentiated and Personalized Instructional Strategies
“In order to reach the student’s mind, you need to pass through their heart.”
The most effective schools believe in and implement differentiated and personalized instructional strategies with a student-centered learning and teaching environment. In this model, the teacher facilitates and guides the students’ quest for knowledge and acquisition of skills and thus acts as a facilitator rather than a typical teacher focused on lecturing.
Facilitators can use the list provided below to begin the process of working with their respective schools to design a handbook with differentiated and personalized strategies. This handbook will act as one of the most important and crucial directorial resources for teachers to structure and conduct their facilitating and learning environment.
The Parents – School Mutual Partnership is a crucial layer in education and one of the primary layers of the new multi-layered curricular approach. In order to ensure transparency in this partnership, school administrators should post the handbook on the school website’s parent portal, so parents can understand the standards and methods being used to educate their children.
Focusing on the students’ emotions is a core part of being able to properly differentiate. Research has shown that one of the most effective ways to engage a student and help them acquire knowledge involves reaching them and getting their buy-in emotionally. To differentiate, facilitators must achieve all five of the differentiated pedagogical pillars shown below:
While trying to create a differentiated and personalized facilitating and learning environment, one of the main challenges is developing a structured differentiated curriculum and the necessary directorial resources needed to provide the foundations for the classroom. Adopting the Multi-Layered Curricular, Real Life Based Learning, and the One Subject Called Knowledge Approaches will enable facilitators to easily generate a differentiated and personalized learning and facilitating environment. The Curriculum/Classroom Differentiation Pedagogical Framework shows the sequence of approaches and material required to achieve effective differentiation and is shown below:
All facilitators can use the following list as a summarized checklist to simplify and help develop a handbook for a differentiated and personalized learning approach.
| Instructional Strategies | Resources Needed | Frequency |
| Virtual Private Learning Network | iPads or tablets, Wi-Fi, Socrative app or similar, See Saw app or similar, Smart Board | Once a Week
Very Effective for Exit Tickets |
| Classroom with Borders ( Flipped Classrooms ) | Smart Board, PCs, iPads or tablets, Notebook and Showme apps or similar, Wi-Fi | Daily |
| Think Pair Share | Smart Board, iPads or tablets (if needed) | Daily |
| Debating – Judging Techniques | Smart Board, iPads or tablets (if needed), Rubrics | Weekly |
| RAFT ( Role , Audience, Format, Topic ) | Costumes, Stage Set and Decorated by Students, Cameras, Microphones, iPads’ or tablets’ cameras. | Bi- Weekly |
| K.W.L. ( What I Know, What Do I Want To Know , What I Learned ) | Smart Board, iPads or tablets (if needed), Different apps, Wi-Fi | Daily |
| The Baby and The Cup (Facts, Skills, Concepts, Attitudes, Principles) | Smart Board, iPads or tablets, Different apps, Notebook app or similar, Wi-Fi |
Daily |
| E3.R.R. Milieu ( Explain, Evaluate, Enhance, Reinforce, Reward Milieu ) | Smart Board, iPads or tablets, Different apps, Notebook app or similar, Web Sites, Prezi, PPT Presentations, Wi-Fi | Daily |
| PRA Road Map ( Passion, Relevance, Attitude )
WHAT, HOW, WHY, WHEN and WHERE |
Smart Board, iPads or tablets, Different apps, Notebook app or similar, Web Sites, Prezi, PPT Presentations, Wi-Fi, iMovie app or similar. | Daily |
| Fun Illusion Approach | Socrative app or similar, See Saw app or similar, Puppet Pal app or similar, Smart Board, iMovie app or similar, Wi-Fi, iPads or tablets |
Weekly |
| Montessori’s Shadow Teaching | Smart Board, Different apps, Notebook app or similar, Web Sites, Prezi, PPT Presentations, Wi-Fi, iPads or tablets | Daily |
| La Salle’s Snow Ball Method | Smart Board, Different apps, Notebook app or similar, Web Sites, Prezi, PPT Presentations, Markup App or similar, Wi-Fi, iPads or tablets | Daily |
| Real Life Modeling | Smart Board, iPads or tablets, Different apps, Notebook app or similar, Web Sites, Prezi, PPT Presentations, Keynote app or similar, iMovie app or similar, Wi-Fi, Book Creator app or similar | Daily |
| Flexible Grouping | Smart Board, iPads or tablets, Different apps, Notebook app or similar, Web Sites, Prezi, PPT Presentations, Keynote and iMovie apps or similar, Wi-Fi, Pages app or similar, Numbers app or similar, Photo app or similar |
Daily |
| Think Tac Toe | Choice Boards, iPads or tablets, Socrative app or similar, Smart Board |
Daily |
| 1+1 Not Equal to 2 | Smart Board, iPads or tablets, Different apps, Notebook app or similar, Web Sites, Prezi, PPT Presentations, Keynote and iMovie apps or similar, Wi-Fi | Daily |
| PPD (Plan, Pre-Assess, Differentiate) | Smart Board, iPads or tablets, Different apps, Notebook app or similar, Web Sites, Prezi, PPT Presentations, Keynote app or similar, iMovie app or similar, Pages and Numbers apps or similar, Book Creator app or similar, Wi-Fi | Daily |
| One Subject Called Knowledge Approach | Smart Board, iPads or tablets, Different apps, Notebook app or similar, Web Sites, Prezi, PPT Presentations, Keynote app or similar, iMovie app or similar, Pages and Numbers apps or similar, Wi-Fi | Daily |
| Differentiation BY EMOTION | In Order to reach their mind, you need to pass through their heart | |
The Hua Quan team will continue to publish more specific information on these strategies and please feel free to reach out with any questions.
Classroom Without Borders 
Co/Extra-Curricular Activities: A Crucial Layer in the Facilitating/Learning Curricula & Environment 
One Subject Called Knowledge 