Essay

Running head: DIFFERENTIATED LEARNING 1

Differentiated Learning

An Educational Tool to Alleviate Racism

Jose Lopez

Miami Dade College

DIFFERENTIATED LEARNING 2

Differentiated Learning: an Educational Tool to Alleviate Racism

One of the most effective ways to write a good introduction is to save it for later, once

you have explored the research problem and developed your solutions-based argument.

Regardless of when you write your introduction, you must make sure that in contains the

following elements: 1) You should first give a general presentation of the research problem. 2)

You should then lay out exactly what you are trying to achieve with this particular research

project. 3) You should then state your own position in the form of a thesis statement. In short, the

introduction is a general overview of you research paper. A good introduction should be around

150-200 words and must include a thesis statement.

Literature Review

After the introduction comes the Literature Review section. Aim to write at least 500-600

words, but please do not confuse this with a Literary Analysis. This is not that. In this section

you are not analyzing but reviewing at least 4 scholarly articles that will help explain your issue

at a deeper level. This section is called a literature review because its focus is to objectively

present what scholars say about your issue. Here you want to concentrate on presenting a fair and

objective, fact-based overview of the issue. In this section you are not concentrating on arguing

but on explaining the researcher’s methodology/approach and summarizing the researcher’s

findings. Avoid adding your opinion about the issue in this section. You can, however, give your

opinion about the effectiveness or importance of a given study, but always in third person.

Here is a bullet point of what each article review should consist of:

 the author and title of article

 the authors discipline and methods

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 a summary of the article’s main points

 one or two quotes from the article in APA style (very short quotes),

 an explanation of the relevance of the article to what you are trying explore and

understand

 Transitions that lead into and make connections between articles

In organizing your literature review paragraphs, think in terms of a thematic layout. For

example, you may want to start with an article that gives a general overview of the problem and

then follow up with articles that provide a more specific point of view or approach or you may

arrange paragraphs according to similarities (i.e. articles with similar ideas next to each other).

The goal is to make connections and transition effectively from one article to the next. Make sure

that you use attributive tags when summarizing and use quotations in APA style, but do not let

the quotes dominate your paragraphs. In citing make sure you are citing in APA style. For

example, “In citing make sure you are citing in APA style” (Gomez, 2019, p. 14). You will end

the literature review section with a transition paragraph that is like a conclusion of this section

that leads the reading into the discussion sections. This paragraph should include Synthesize all

four articles by explaining what the overall findings suggests and should talk about further

research needed to learn about possible solutions, which is what you will discuss in the

Discussion section. The discussion section will be about an action plan to improve the issue.

Discussion

The discussion section should be at least 500 words and should contain an effective

organizational pattern, with transitions between paragraphs. This section must include at least

three quotes from two more research articles that speak about solutions to the issue at hand.

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Continue to use the MDC database or try this website, Solutions Story Tracker:

https://storytracker.solutionsjournalism.org/ which offers solutions based journalism where you

can find innovative actions being taken by people around the country to improve our society’s

ailments. Find two articles and analyze their contribution. What makes the organization or action

plan effective? What are some important take a ways?

Having analyzed the solutions, contribute some ideas of your own and argue for the need

to action while explaining what needs to be taken into consideration to solve the issue. Your

discussion is your argument. This is where you support your thesis statement more fully. Answer

this: based on what you have learned from your literature review, and from the solutions articles,

what is the best approach in tackling the issue at hand? Why should your solution be adopted by

the reader? As you develop your argument, engage the reader in thinking critically about the

issue based upon an evidence-based interpretation of your findings. This section should

demonstrate your ability as a researcher to think critically about an issue, to develop creative

solutions to problems based upon a logical synthesis of the findings, and to formulate a deeper,

more profound understanding of the research problem under investigation.

Conclusion

This section should be around 150-200 words. Recap the main points of your essay.

Emphasize the significance of taking action. Explain what further studies should be done. This

section should be around 200 words. Recap the main points of your essay. Emphasize the

significance of taking action. Explain what further studies should be done. This section should be

around 200 words. Recap the main points of your essay. Emphasize the significance of taking

action. Explain what further studies should be done. This section should be around 200 words.

Recap the main points of your essay. Emphasize the significance of taking action. Explain what

DIFFERENTIATED LEARNING 5

further studies should be done. Recap the main points of your essay. Emphasize the significance

of taking action. Explain what further studies should be done. PLEASE SEE SAMPLE

REFERENCE PAGE ON THE FOLLOWING PAGE.

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References

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Communications of the ACM, 45(7), 103-108.

Delaroche, Paul (1829) Portrait of a Woman, [Pastel Drawing]. From European Drawings from the

Collection of the Ackland Art Museum (p. 93) by Carol C. Gillham and Carolyn H. Wood, 2001,

Chapel Hill: The Museum, University of North Carolina.

Franklin, M. L. (1991). A motivational approach to exercise. Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences, USA, 73, 21-28.

Hu, Y., Wood, J. F., Smith, V., & Westbrook, N. (2004). Friendships through IM: Examining the

relationship between instant messaging and intimacy. Journal of Computer-Mediated

Communication, 10, 38-48.

Tidwell, L. C., & Walther, J. B. (2002). Computer-mediated communication effects on

disclosure, impressions, and interpersonal evaluations: Getting to know one another a bit

at a time. Human Communication Research, 28, 317-348.

Underwood, H., & Findlay, B. (2004). Internet relationships and their impact on primary

relationships. Behaviour Change, 21(2), 127-140.