Closing Achievement Gaps through Differentiated Instruction

1. Closing Achievement Gaps through Differentiated Instruction Alabama Department of Education

2. Alabama Department of Education • Alabama Leadership Academy • John Bell • Deann Stone • Tony Thacker

3. The Animal Schoolby Dr. G. H. Reavis, Cincinnati Public Schools

4. Differentiated instruction is not a set of tools but a philosophy that a teacher embraces to reach the unique needs of every learner.

5. Public schools are expected to… • Teach good nutrition habits • Treat the emotionally disturbed • Teach first aid procedures • Assist in disease prevention….

6. What is Differentiated Instruction? Read Primary, Elementary, Middle, or High School Sample from pages 3 – 7 in your book. Write one or two word descriptors and place on word wall.

7. Elements of Differentiation: • The teacher focuses on the essentials. • Concepts • Principles • Skills

8. Elements of Differentiation: • The teacher attends to student differences. • Culture • Gender • Genetic Code • Neurological wiring

9. Elements of Differentiation: • Assessment and instruction are inseparable. • Ongoing • Diagnostic • Used to benchmark • Formal • Informal

10. Elements of Differentiation: • The teacher modifies • Content: Multiple options for taking information in • Process: Multiple options for making sense of the ideas • Product: Multiple options for expressing what they know

11. Elements of Differentiation: • All students participate in respectful work. • Respect the readiness level of each student. • Expect all students to grow, and support their continual growth. • Offer all students the opportunity to explore essential understandings and skills at varied degrees. • Offer all students interesting, challenging tasks.

12. Elements of Differentiation: • The teacher and students collaborate in learning. • Student-centered classroom. • Teacher coordinates learning.

13. Elements of Differentiation: • The teacher balances groups and individual norms. “A great coach never achieves greatness for himself or his team by working to make all his players alike.”

14. Elements of Differentiation: • The teacher and students work together flexibly. • Group work • Individual work • Readiness, interest, learning style

15. Why differentiate instruction? Accountability Changing Classroom Changing Schools

16. Accountability • Standards-driven • No Child Left Behind • Adequate Yearly Progress

17. Changing Classroom • High Expectations • Cultural Relevance • Student Diversity • Cognitive Research • Societal and Technological Change

18. Changing Schools • C – Connected, Competent, Confidence, Compassion • A – Acceptance, Affection, Appreciation • R – Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic, along with Responsibility, Respect, and Relationships • T – Thinking, Technology, Teamwork

19. Reflecting on Learning Experiences • Think about a negative learning experience you have had as a learner. • Based on these experiences, what would you have changed to create a positive learning environment?

20. IF I HAD IT TO DO ALL OVER…. Group Sharing

21. The ‘Silver Cup’ of Differentiated Instruction Read the article. Choose a learning station. Respond to the statements in your workbook.

22. Learning Stations • Guided Note Taking • I.Q. Pairs • Mind Mapping • Match to Make Meaning

23. Reflection: What did you learn? • Respond to the following statements in your workbook: • Define Differentiated Instruction • List common themes between the activities used to accomplish the task. • Why did you choose the particular activity to accomplish this task?

24. Approaches to Differentiation Resources for further study and implementation

25. Creating a Healthy Classroom Environment Teacher Students Content

26. Case Study of Learners Continuum of Learner Satisfaction and Success 1 2 3 4 5 Low Satisfaction High Satisfaction and success and success

27. Three Approaches to Differentiation Learning Contracts Intelligence Preferences Tiered Assignments

28. Learning Contracts

29. Learning Contract An agreement between a teacher and a student.

30. Learning Contracts are written agreements that outline… • What students will learn • How they will learn it • In what period of time • How they will be evaluated

31. Help students learn to make decisions about their learning Help students learn to manage their time May involve the student in curriculum planning Can be used to support students with learning difficulties Can be used to facilitate learning for other students Help the teacher manage group work Individual projects Investigations centers Instructional Values of Contracts

32. How do you begin? • What do students like to do? • What materials and resources do you have available? • What technology do you want students to use?

33. Developing Contracts • Tiered Contracts • Variety of activities • Everyone has the same goals • Supply reading materials on varied levels • Give choices • Make requirements

34. Reviewing Sample Learning Contracts • With your table group, review the sample contracts in your workbook. • Respond to the statements on the ‘Analyzing a Learning Contract’ handout. • When your table has completed the handout, move with your table team to the appropriate poster.

35. Gallery Walk • Move with your table to the appropriate number. • Write your response on the poster. • When time is called, move to the next poster. • Read the former groups’ response • Clarify their response by making amendments or additions as needed.

36. Contract Do’s • Start small (1 or 2 day contracts). • Explain the role and function of contract. • Help set realistic deadlines. • Renegotiate the contract if it isn’t working. • Gradually involve students in contract development.

37. Contract Don’ts • Expect all students to be able to use contracts effectively immediately. • Expect all students to like contracts. • Assume contracts can take the place of regular instruction. • Use contracts without a good management system.

38. Developing a Learning Contract Use the planning guide as a resource to develop learning contracts for your students

39. Intelligence Preferences School Smarts Street Smarts Imagination Smarts

40. Sternberg’s Intelligence Preferences • Analytic Intelligence (“school smarts”) – People with strengths in this area tend to do very well with school tasks such as making meaning of text material, organizing information, seeing cause and effect, taking notes, and memorizing information.

41. Sternberg’s Intelligence Preferences • Practical Intelligence (“street smarts”) – People with strengths in this area learn well when they see how things work in the world and how ideas and skills help solve problems. They learn better by using ideas rather than just learning ideas. They need to solve problems in a meaningful context.

42. Sternberg’s Intelligence Preferences • Creative Intelligence (“imagination smarts”) – People with strengths in this area tend to come at ideas and problems in fresh and surprising ways. They prefer to experiment with ideas rather than work like everyone else They “think outside the box.”

43. What Does It Look Like? • Watch the video of a high school ecology teacher differentiating instruction using intelligence preferences. • As you watch, use the video viewing guide to jot down practices currently in place in the left column and practices you would like to include in your classroom in the right column

44. Reflection • Discuss the video clip with your table team using the “Analyzing One Use of Sternberg’s Intelligences” handout in your workbook.

45. Working Lunch • What is your Style of Thinking and Learning • Complete the inventory in your workbook

46. What is your learning style?

47. How Do Your Students Learn? • Read the case studies on the handout labeled “How People Learn” in your workbook. • Complete the table to • Identify each student’s intelligence preference. • Provide two descriptors for the preference. • List one instructional strategy that would be effective for this student • List one instructional strategy that would be ineffective for this student.

48. Reflecting on What We Learn • Use the handout “Thinking About the Sternberg Intelligences” to categorize learning tasks with your table team.

49. Tiered Instruction A Planning Strategy for Mixed Ability Classrooms

50. Tiered Instruction “When somebody hands you a glob of kids, they don’t hand you a matched set.” Carol Tomlinson • Provides teachers with a means of assigning different tasks within the same lesson or unit. • The tasks will vary according to: • Readiness • Interest