** This post is part of a larger post: Developing a Gifted and Talented Program. **
Individualized instruction is personalized instruction that is tailored to the student based on their capabilities. It allows teachers to give gifted students a challenge, and students can learn more about their individual interests while working through the assignments. Students work at their own pace through their plans, allowing them to be able to skip lessons and/or units that they already know the concepts and skills for.
Benefits
- meets the learning needs of each individual student
- students gain confidence in their capabilities
- increases student engagement and self-motivation
- students do not have to sit through lessons when they already know the information
- students are able to take control and responsibility for their learning
- students learn to ask for help when they do not understand something
- can increase students’ success in their academics
- students are able to learn the information in a way that works best for them and at their own pace
Suggestions
- An example of individualized instruction would be if a student is interested in a certain animal, they can learn more about that animal in all subject areas (reading, writing, science, math, social studies, art, etc.), with that animal being the main topic throughout everything.
- The student and the teacher should write the learning plan together, making sure all necessary requirements are being met in the plan.
- Tweak the student’s plan when needed to make sure it fits their abilities and allows them to achieve the highest results possible.
- Give each student an assignment chart that shows the lesson’s objectives, what is required of them, the order they have to complete the lessons, and the due dates for each activity.
- Have each student keep a folder that has the assignment chart and the worksheets for the assignments in it.
- Make sure the goals of each activity are clear and specific, as well as challenging and realistic.
- Check in with each student frequently to see how they are doing with their assignments.
- Provide clear deadlines so students know when everything is due. If they finish a task before the due date, then they can move on to the next assignment.
- Before students move on to the next activity, make sure they have demonstrated mastery of the concept. If they have not reached mastery yet, work with them on the information they are not understanding.
- Make sure you provide resources and support to each student.
[…] Independent Study/Individualized Instruction ~ Independent study allows students to conduct research independently, learn planning skills, and work at their level while challenging themselves with working on in-depth work on problems of interest. Together, the teacher and student identify a topic or problem of student interest and make a plan of study. While students work on their project, they document their work through a log that gets turned into the teacher to do follow-ups with the student. […]