It's Easy to Differentiate Instruction With Vocabulary.com

For many teachers, differentiated instruction sounds wonderful in theory, but given time constraints, ends up looking more like "providing extra help to struggling students" than a true curriculum adaptation. Digital tools promise to help, but a recent Software and Information Industry Association survey shows that not many teachers are using them — only 23% of K-12 educators surveyed report that their schools are taking advantage of "courseware and/or learning-management systems...to differentiate instruction." (Check out this statistic and others in Edweek's recent "K-12 Technology Usage" infographic.) 

Good news: Vocabulary.com makes it easy. Recently, eighth-grade English teacher Deborah Ryles from Correia Middle School in San Diego told us how she's differentiating vocabulary instruction in her classroom with Vocabulary.com. (Read our interview with Deborah here.) She's saving time, her students are learning words, and everyone is having fun.

Here's a step-by-step guide for how you can replicate her plan:

1. Make a Vocabulary List based on assigned reading. (See this short video to learn how. Or check out our library of ready-made lists here.) 
2. Once a week (or whenever you introduce a new batch of words), take 15 minutes in class for students to log in to the list. Then, once they're comfortable getting to the list, assign learning it as homework. Students can email or print screen shots to show you how they're doing.
3. After they've had a chance to work on the words, ask students to "word journal" the ten they're having the most trouble learning. This involves writing a definition, an example sentence, and drawing a graphic to help that word's meaning stick in their brains.
4. Here's where differentiation comes into play: All students must record at least ten words in their journals, but the choice of words is up to them. This allows students to work hardest on the words they need to learn and not waste time with what they already know. ESL and vocabulary-challenged students may chose to work on more words — and many do. Meanwhile, you can require students with more advanced vocabularies to return to the text to find more challenging words to make it to their ten-word quota.
5. Give weekly vocabulary quizzes based on the original list to assess students across the spectrum of word knowledge. If all goes according to plan, any one of them should have an equal shot at success. 

Like this idea? Have others? Start a conversation by sharing what you're doing or your thoughts about vocabulary instruction in the comments below. We want to hear from you!