Getting real about Differentiated instruction

1. Getting real about Differentiated instruction Agata Kula, Delving into Depth Studies (2014)

2. John D. Clare If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Henry David Thoreau I have found very little on the practical down-to-earth, doing-it-in-the-classroom strategies for differentiation, especially in History. John D Clare ***CLARE, JOHN D. (2004), 'Differentiation',  at Greenfield School Website (http://www.greenfield.durham.sch.uk/differentiation.htm)

3. Agenda • What is Differentiation? • Getting your classroom routines and curriculum ‘differentiation ready!’ the ‘How’ • Dimensions of Differentiation and Practical Examples using Three Tier Lessons for Individual Teachers. Basically how to embed different entry points and consider student readiness for learning in a realistic and results orientated fashion.

4. My Influences • My Context – IGS, Cconnect, GRIN/GRIN • Thomas the TankEngine Experiment • Carol Tomlinson • Robert Marzano • Marzano and Kendall (2007), The New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives • http://www.diffcentral.com/ • My Students • VAK (instead of Multiple Intelligences) • Explicit Teaching, Responsive Teaching and Feedback

5. Why? … I also teach Plato to nurses aides, soldiers, ex-cons, pre-school music teachers, janitors, Sudanese refugees… Traditionally the liberal arts have been privilege of an upper class… I recently got a letter from a former student, a factory worker, thanking me for introducing him to Schopenhauer. I was surprised, because I hadn’t assigned the German pessimist. The letter explained that I’d quoted some lines from Schopenhauer in class, and they’d sparked my student’s imagination…. he wrote me a long letter of thanks for inadvertently turning him on to a kindred mind…The fire will always be sparked. Are we going to fan it, or try to extinguish it? Scott Samuelson, “Why I Teach Plato to Plumbers.” The Atlantic 29 April 2014.

6. So… is this the idea?

7. Differentiation? What it is, What it is not. • If I were to differentiate this PD I would get some of you to answer questions, other to criticise my presentation and others to construct an interpretive dance regarding AusVELS progression points. • High Achievers do not require differentiation • Differentiation is just for students on a modified list, for example, with SLD • Differentiation can address various learning goals • Differentiation always includes pretesting • Differentiation means doing more/less work • Differentiation always means providing content that students find interesting • Differentiation is for all year levels P-12 • Differentiation means having three lesson plans for each lesson every time • Saying to kids – its ok not to have a go at the final task • Differentiation allows students to work in one preferred way all of the time • Getting kids to make a pyramid in an Ancient Egypt class which examines the social hierarchy of Ancient Egypt is differentiation • When in doubt teach up (a level slightly higher than the student is ‘capable of’)

8. Tomlinson and Allan (2000), Leadership for Differentiating Schools and Classrooms

9. My definition… An approach to learning and teaching in which the delivery of the learning intentions allows for multiple pathways into the same learning intention to help students move closer to expected levels used with other instructional approaches. “Curriculum tells us what to teach. Differentiation tells us how.” Carol A. Tomlinson

10. A definition…

11. So Go! Differentiate! NOW you are ready to differentiate! So how? Most PD ends here…

13. Before you abandon the curriculum… “There is no contradiction between effective standards based instruction and differentiation. Curriculum tells us what to teach. Differentiation tells us how.” Carol A. Tomlinson differentiationcentral.com

14. However, you do need to control it • Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (Robert Marzano, What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action) before you delve into depth studies. • The research indicates that there is greater within school variability than between school variability (Harvard Graduate School of Education). • Opportunity to Learn (OTL) has the strongest relationship with student achievement of all school-level factors identified by Marzano (2000). • Curriculum mandated at State and Federal Level is overcrowded • Marzano estimates 23 years to adequately cover US K12 curricula • McREL identified 200 standards and 3,094 benchmarks in national and state level documents for 14 subject areas (Kendall and Marzano, 2000). To deliver this one would need 15,465 hours (Marzano, Kendall and Gaddy, 1999) – lets not forget that not all classroom time is instructional either. Marzano estimates teachers have 9,042 hours available to deliver the 15, 465 hours of content.

15. Solution • Whole Team: “Organised Abandonment” (Rick DuFour) • Marzano suggests in Schools That Work: Identify and communicate essential content versus supplementary content for those seeking post-secondary education. This is whole team differentiation. • The Compass – less but better

16. Solution

17. Solution

18. Solution – Be Like Truman! :/ • Individual: identify key objective linked to each lesson and clearly communicate to students. • When the door of your classroom closes YOU are the educational system.

19. Routine 3: Differentiate when it makes sense and be strategic!

20. Routine 1: Pretesting

21. Routine 1: Pretesting

22. Routine 1: Pretesting Readiness for Learning

23. Routine 1: Pretesting – Readiness for Learning Data Collected by the School and Data Collected by You Examples • On Demand/NAPLAN • Pre-tests for units of study • Post-tests of units of study • Formative assessment measures BUT it does not have to be that formal!!!

24. Routine 1: Pretesting – Readiness for Learning

25. Routine 1: Pretesting – Readiness for Learning

26. Routine 1: Pretesting The most effective pre-testing occurs in the classroom as a regular part of the teaching program. These are routines which are in place to assess the ‘temperature’ of the classroom… Examples • Mats • Ball of Pain • Caesar Salute • True/False cards • Spot book checks and workshops • Traffic Lights • Ask questions while you complete the roll

27. Routine 1: Pretesting

28. Routine 1: Pretesting Not a summary of what you did at the beginning of class but ask kids what have you learnt? Golden rule: Everything a student says or does IS assessment. “Become an assessment junkie.” (Tomlinson and Stirckland).

29. Routine 1: Building Confidence

30. Routine 1: Pretesting Learning Profile

31. Routine 1: Pretesting – Learning Profile VAK – moving beyond learning styles to sensory receivers – thus focusing on reception rather than expression. Learners use all three to receive and learn new info (focus of MI has traditionally been on output of students and this is where this is different; there is no evidence that this improves retention). Preference NOT fixed. K-3: K, 4-8: V, 8+and VCE: A According to VAK theorists we need to use all three.

32. And you already do it! Add this to your PRP and interviews!

33. Routine 2: Making the learning intention clear and tracking Before you can provide different entry points for learning you have to make explicit what is at level and what the learning intention isfor everyone. If it doesn’t match your learning intention its not differentiation. Kids have to track that learning intention and their movement towards it as much as you do. Example • Capacity Matrix • Entry and Exit Cards

34. Routine 2: Entry/Exit Cards

35. Routine 2: Capacity Matrix

36. Manage student reactions before they happen if using Tiered Approach As Tomlinson (1999) so aptly states, “Assessment always has more to do with helping students grow than with cataloguing their mistakes.”

37. Think about sequence of History • Vocabulary • Historical knowledge • Sources and perspectives • Structure

38. Think about sequence of History

39. Marzano and Kendall New Typology of Educational Objectives • Vocabulary - Retrieval • Historical knowledge - Comprehension • Sources and perspectives - Analysis • Structure – Knowledge Utilisation • Marzano and Kendall (2007), The New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

40. Bloom-Marzano Hybrid (2012).

41. Routine 3: Find a strategy to suit it • By Assessment • Kula (2014) typology of historical education: vocabulary, historical knowledge, source and perspectives (using sources to make an argument), structure Level 1: Contestability Table sources regarding Hiroshima Level 2: Essay Hiroshima with or without sentence starters Level 3: Student participates in Simpson Prize.

42. Contestability Table

43. Source Timeline

44. Routine 3: Find a strategy to suit it • By entry point student readiness/Flexible Grouping • Kula (2014) typology of historical education: vocabulary, historical knowledge, source and perspectives (using Point Evidence Explain (PEE) to identify and explain the main message of a source), structure Level 1: Procedural Activity Level 2: Declarative Activity (Marzano) – retention and ability to apply to new contexts

45. Sentence Starters

46. Sentence Starters

47. Routine 3: Flexible Grouping

48. Routine 3: Point Evidence Explain

49. Routine 3: PEE (Point, Evidence, Explain) The main point of the source titled ________________ is ________________________________. Evidence of this is _______________________________________________. This source does/does not fit with other sources from the period, for example, ______________, which states that ___________________________.

50. Ability Grouping… • Robert Slavin (1986). • Grouping students as a class by ability for all subjects does not improve achievement. • Finding: within class ability groups work (although more so for low achievers than average or high). • Robert Slavin, Achievement Effects of Ability Grouping in Secondary Schools. • MAKE IT CLEAR THAT IT IS FOR THIS TASK