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Differentiating Instruction with the OER Project

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DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION WITH THE OER PROJECTOER Project courses offer a wide array of materials that can be easily scaffolded and differentiated to meet your students’ needs. This guide will help you navigate and locate these supports on the OER Project site. For more detailed information about the OER Project approach to differentiation, check out pages 28 to 30 in the OER Project Teaching Guide. Article SupportsLeveled Versions We’ve partnered with Newsela to provide multiple Lexile levels of all our OER Project articles. Note that students are also able to access the different levels when they log in to their OER Project student accounts. Please note that only the highest level is provided in WHP AP®. Audio Recordings We offer audio recordings for nearly all OER Project articles. The recordings are at the highest Lexile level, so keep that in mind if you have students read along. Both supports are accessible from two different places: the article tile and the PDF viewer. You’ll find the article tile option is most efficient for easy downloading, and the PDF viewer is helpful when you want to read or listen to a text in real time.
DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION WITH THE OER PROJECT 2Article TileYou can find an article tile from the Unit View,or the Lesson View (access by clicking View Lessonin the Unit View).
DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION WITH THE OER PROJECT 3From the article tile, click the download arrow. From there, you will have options to do the following:1. Select Lexile level: Use this to choose your level, and then download or save to your Google Drive.2. Epub: If you or your students are reading articles on mobile devices, click Epub.3. Audio file: This will give you the option to download the audio file or save it to your Google Drive. 123123PDF ViewerFrom the PDF viewer (accessed by clicking on the article tile):1. Audio recordings: Click on the sound icon. The recording will then play within the PDF viewer.2. Leveled versions: Click Version. From there you can select the level, which will then appear directly in the PDF viewer. 3. Note that you can also download, share, and print from the PDF viewer.
DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION WITH THE OER PROJECT 4Video SupportsOur videos offer a variety of built-in scaffolds. Pause at Key IdeasThis feature will pause the video automatically when a key idea is addressed. These pauses will match up with the Key Idea questions found in the Lesson View. Teachers have sample answers; students do not. To use this feature, simply make sure the Pause at Key Ideas box is checked. When watching videos as a class, remember to discuss the questions. And if students are watching videos on their own, we recommend you show them how to use this feature because it will help them engage more closely with the content.
DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION WITH THE OER PROJECT 5CaptionsAnother way to help students engage with videos is to use the closed captions (also helpful if your audio setup isn’t great!). Simply click the CC box in the right-hand corner of the video player. TranscriptsTranscripts are another great option to help students follow along with a video. There are two ways to access these:1. From the video tile, click Transcript. From there you can download the transcript or save it to your Google Drive. 1
DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION WITH THE OER PROJECT 62. Within the Lesson View, you can click the arrow underneath the video player. This will also give you the option to download the transcript or save it to your Google Drive.English Learner SupportWe currently offer Spanish translations for most articles and activities in the Big History Project. We hope to offer translations for the World History Project in the future. Articles Spanish translations are available through the article tile and the PDF viewer. The steps are the same as for selecting Lexile levels—simply select Español to access the translated version. 2
DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION WITH THE OER PROJECT 7ActivitiesSpanish translations of activities are only available through the PDF viewer. Click the Version dropdown in the top left corner, and then select Teacher Español.