Differentiation for Projects:

We see plenty of teachers that differentiate their lessons, but when it comes time to do a project they always do the same thing.  If differentiation of instruction is successful for lesson plans, it seems to reason that it would also be successful for projects.  This could not be more true.  For many students, especially those that with learning disabilities, creative projects are their chance to shine.  Many students who may struggle academically can have a variety of other strengths.  The problem is they are often not given a chance to showcase their talents.  This often leads to students having low confidence and slowly starting to participate less and less in class.  We can break this cycle, empower all students, and have some fun with our projects all at the same time.
The following websites can give teachers a new perspective on projects, and get rid of stale powerpoints and boring posters for ever.

1. Glogster - Glogster is an interactive poster.  It allows students to easily create a digital poster with media links, videos, web links and animations/graphics.  The website is linked here.  Below are a few examples of Glogster in action
   
   
2. Photostory - Powerpoints may be a good way to get information across, but they have a few problems I have observed over the years.  My two main problems are: powerpoint is very difficult to automate so students end up spending too much time clicking through slides when they should be explaining content, and students who are shy finish their presentations in 1 minute and are unable to elaborate on their great ideas.  Photostory solves both of these problems.  Students can easily create a free moving media story and record their voices into the story ahead of time.  Even the shyest student can record their photostory ahead of time then present their ideas without fear to the entire class.  Don't take my word for hear, click the video below to see an example.