Differentiating Instruction

1. Differentiating Instruction Prepared by Kathy Deisley

2. Essential Questions What is differentiated instruction? How does differentiated instruction benefit students? How does differentiated instruction fit into LFS?

3. Differentiated Instruction means students have multiple options… • for taking in information • for making sense of ideas • for expressing what they learn

4. “In other words, a differentiated classroom provides different avenues to acquiring content, to processing or making sense of ideas, and to developing products.” ~Carol Tomlinson

5. What Differentiated Instruction is NOT: • Differentiated Instruction is NOT individualized instruction as popularized in the 1970s. D.I. does not assume a separate level for each learner. It does focus on meaningful learning or powerful ideas for all students.

6. What Differentiated Instruction is NOT: • Differentiated Instruction is NOT just another way to provide homogeneous grouping. D.I. does use flexible grouping which accommodates students who are strong in some areas and weaker in others. The teacher uses many different group configurations over time, and students experience many different working groups and arrangements.

7. What Differentiated Instruction Is: • Differentiated Instruction is PROACTIVE. The teacher plans lessons assuming that different learners have different needs. • Differentiated Instruction is more QUALITATIVE than quantitative. If writing one book report is “too easy” for the advanced reader, doing “twice as much” of the same thing is not only unlikely to remedy the problem, but it could also seem like punishment.

8. What Differentiated Instruction Is: • Differentiated Instruction provides MULTIPLE approaches to content (input, what students learn), process (how students learn), and product (output, how students demonstrate what they learn). • Differentiated Instruction is STUDENT CENTERED. • Differentiated Instruction is a BLEND of whole-class, group, and individual instruction.

9. Differentiating Instruction for all students 9

10. Key Principles Differentiated Instruction • Respectful and meaningful task • Flexible grouping • Teacher/students collaborate • Teachers value student difference • Content critical Accommodations Modifications • Changes the “what” • Changes what a student is expected to learn • Students may be taught grade level academic standards or the alternate standards • Students may be assessed with PSSA-M or PASA • Changes the “how” • Does not change what a student is expected to learn. Curriculum remains the same • Students are taught to the grade level academic standards • Students are assessed by the PSSA with accommodations

11. Readiness Interest Learning style Process Product Content Students Vary Teachers Vary

12. “...provides varied learning options in a classroom to make curriculum and instruction the best possible fit for learners who, though they have many things in common, differ in some important ways from one another.” (Tomlinson, 1998) Differentiated Instruction

13. Summary Whip Around: Write one noun, one adjective, and one verb going through your mind right now about differentiated instruction on sticky notes. Think-Pair-Share: What are the differences among differentiated instruction, accommodations, and modifications?

14. Tips for Teachers on Differentiated Instruction

15. Be clear on the key concepts and generalizations or principles that give meaning and structure to the topic, unit, or lesson you are planning. What is it that you want ALL students to know from this unit? What are the most important concepts of what you are teaching? Take the time to analyze what you are teaching and why you are teaching it.

16. Lessons for all students should emphasize critical thinking. Whenever possible, give students the opportunity to understand and apply what they are learning.

17. Balance student-selected and teacher-assigned tasks and working arrangements. Choice gives students a feeling of empowerment. Teacher assigned work and groups enable students to meet the overall goals of lessons and units.

18. Key Concepts for planning with Differentiated Instruction

19. All students need lessons that are coherent, relevant, powerful, transferable, authentic, and meaningful.

20. A curriculum that is good for students pushes them a bit beyond what they find easy or comfortable.

21. Plan to encourage your students to “work up” --that is be ready to match students to tasks that will stretch them. A good task for a given student is one that is just a bit too hard and through which the teacher ensures the presence of support required for success.

22. Differentiating Content • Varied Tests and Resource Materials • Learning Contracts • Varied Support Systems

23. Varied Texts and Resource Materials Use old text books, have classroom sets of texts on varying reading levels, find magazines, books, internet sites…

24. Learning Contracts Vary student work by creating contracts that include skill and content components.

25. Varied Support Systems • Study Buddies • Reading Partners • Audio/Video Recorders • Online Tutorials • Peer and Adult Mentors

26. Differentiating Process

27. All classroom activities should… • Have a clear purpose • Focus on a few key ideas • Guide them in understanding the ideas and the relationships among them • Offer opportunities to explore through varied modes (multiple intelligences) • Help them relate new information to previous understandings • Match their level of readiness

28. Learning logs Journals Graphic organizers Creative problem solving Cubing Think-pair-share Mind mapping Two-sided debates PMI (pluses, minuses, and interesting points) Role playing Model making Labs Tiered assignments Examples of Differentiating Strategies:

29. Differentiating Product

30. Tips for Differentiating Product Incorporate key concepts and relevant skills into product design Encourage student choice Incorporate various learning styles Use multiple criteria to assess the product After product completion, encourage students to reflect on their learning

31. DI and LFS If you are clear on what you want ALL students to KNOW, UNDERSTAND, and DO at the end of a unit, it is much easier to differentiate.

32. K-U-D organizer

33. K-U-D organizer

34. Tom Sawyer 5-paragraph essay Category A Questions • Using examples from the book, how old is Tom? • Would Tom Sawyer be a good friend? • How is Becky’s personality and character like Tom’s? • Why is Tom Sawyer still read in schools today? Category B Questions • What makes one character more prone than another to believing a superstition? • How are Mark Twain’s life lessons supported by events in the book? • Does Tom mature from the beginning of the book to the end? • How is social class division portrayed in the book? Category C Questions • What ways does conscience affect the behaviors of characters? • Would the book have been better if written from Tom’s point of view rather than in third person? • In what ways is Tom Sawyer a satire of people’s desire for power and money? • How is Tom’s vanity significant to the plot? KNOW: -structure of an essay -main themes and characters of the book UNDERSTAND: -Themes are classic literature relate to modern times. DO: -Write a 5-paragraph essay to answer one of the questions using specific examples from the text to demonstrate your understanding of the book.

35. Biology: Parts of a Cell Whole Class Study of Content: read, lecture, video Differentiated Product (Select 1): • Practical (must see usefulness, contextual) – Look for examples in your world of analogies to the cell; present comparisons to show interrelationships. Ex. How is a cell like a family? An orchestra? • Analytical (school house intelligence) – Create a cause and effect chain that shows the functions of the parts of a cell. • Creative (problem solvers – what if?) A. Hands on – Use unlikely stuff and depict the structure and function of a cell (baggies, erasers, paper clips…) B. Minds on – Tell a story that helps us understand a cell as a system with interdependent actors or characters, a plot to carry out the functions, an setting in which is all takes place (ex. Use Harry Potter’s world as a place in which it all takes place.) KNOW: -names of cell parts (label on diagram) -functions UNDERSTAND: -A cell is a system of interrelated parts DO: -Analyze the inter-relationships of cell parts/functions Present understanding in a clear, useful, and interesting way

36. Differentiating Reading

37. Character Map A Describe how the character thinks and acts: Describe how the character looks: Explain the most important thing the reader needs to know about him or her:

38. Character Map B What does the character really mean to say and do? What does the character say and do? What does the character mostly want others to know about him or her?

39. Character Map C Tell what the author really wants the reader to understand from the clues: Describe clues the author gives us about the character: What does the author want the reader to know about the character?

40. Summary • Tell about shapes…