Technology Resources for Differentiated Instruction and Understanding By Design

1. Differentiating Instruction and Understanding by Design: Powerful Keys to Student Learning September 9, 2005 Jann H. Leppien, Ph.D. University of Great Falls jleppien@mt.net Technology Resources for Differentiated Instruction and Understanding By Design

2. Workshop Agenda The Technology and Differentiation Connection Seeking Clarity in the Instructional Unit-UBD Resources Finding Alternative Lessons Using Professional Organizations Telecollaborative Projects Webquests Graphic Organizers Think Like an Ologist-Process Support Tools Assessment Protocols

3. Technology and Differentiation • Provides students with opportunities to share experiences with other students • Assists teachers in locating curricular experiences to attend to student interest, readiness, and learning preference • Extends the application of lessons to real world • Simulates problem solving used by scientists, mathematician, etc. • Enhances text-based curriculum • Engages students in process-application activities

4. Find sources of information that are appropriate for students who may have difficulty reading. Some examples are visitations, interviews, photographs, pictorial histories, films, lectures, or experimentation. Remember, these children do not want the curriculum to be less challenging or demanding. Rather, they need alternative ways to receive the information. • Provide advanced organizers to help students receive and communicate information. Students who have difficulty organizing and managing time also benefit from receiving outlines of class lectures, study guides, and a syllabus of topics to be covered. Teach students who have difficulty transferring ideas to a sequential format on paper to use brainstorming and webbing to generate outlines and organize written work. • Provide management plans in which tasks are listed sequentially with target dates for completion. Finally, provide a structure or visual format to guide the finished product. A sketch of an essay or science project board will enable these students to produce a well-organized product. STRATEGIES

5. Use technology to promote productivity. Technology has provided efficient means to organize and access information, increase accuracy in mathematics and spelling, and enhance the visual quality of the finished product. In short, it allows students with learning disabilities to hand in work of which they can feel proud. • Offer a variety of options for communication of ideas. Writing is not the only way to communicate; all learning can be expressed and applied in a variety of modes. Slides, models, speeches, mime, murals, and film productions are examples. Remember, however, to offer these options to all children. Alternate modes should be the rule rather than the exception. • Help students who have problems in short-term memory develop strategies for remembering. The use of mnemonics, especially those created by students themselves, is one effective strategy to enhance memory. Visualization techniques have also proved to be effective. STRATEGIES http://www.goknow.com/Products.html

6. Seeking Clarity in an Instructional Unit of Study

7. Planning a Focused Curriculum Means Clarity About What Students Should: Facts (Columbus came to the “New World” Vocabulary (voyage, scurvy) Concepts (exploration, change) Principles/Generalizations (Change can be both positive and negative. Exploration results in change. People’s perspectives affect how they respond to change). Skills Basic (literacy, numeracy) Thinking (analysis, evidence of reasoning, questioning) Of the Discipline (graphing/math/social studies) Planning (goal setting; use of time) Social Know Understand Be Able to Do As a Result of a Lesson, Lesson Sequence, Unit, and year In general, these are held steady as a core for nearly all learners in a differentiated classroom* *Exception--linear skills and information which can be assessed for mastery in the sequence (e.g. spelling)

8. Know These are the facts, vocabulary, dates, places, names, and examples you want students to give you. The know is massively forgettable. “Teaching facts in isolation is like trying to pump water uphill.” –Carol Tomlinson

9. Understand Major Concepts and Subconcepts These are the written statements of truth, the core to the meaning(s) of the lesson(s) or unit. These are what connect the parts of a subject to the student’s life and to other subjects. It is through the understanding component of instruction that we teach our students to truly grasp the “point” of the lesson or the experience. Understandings are purposeful. They focus on the key ideas that require students to understand information and make connections while evaluating the relationships that exit within the understandings.

10. Turning Ideas into Essential Questions or Inquiries • How does what we say and do reveal our personality? • How do people know what we think? • What is the difference between main idea and theme? • How does geographic location shape cultural beliefs? • How does the position and power of a number determine its value? • How does art shape a culture? • How does culture shape art? • What relationship exists between friction and distance a car travels? Are open-ended questions that drive investigations of topics and ideas toward conceptual levels of understanding. They assist the curriculum writer by framing the activities and lessons that lead students toward understanding.

11. Essential Questions, Inquiries, and Ponderings: Grappling with Ideas In what ways do effective writers hook and hold their readers? How do an organism’s structure and behavior patterns enable it to survive in its environment? In what ways does art reflect culture as well as shape it? How does geographical location shape a culture? How do artists choose tools, techniques, and materials to express their Ideas?

12. Able to Do Skills These are the basic skills of any discipline, such as the thinking skills of analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, or planning; the skills of being an independent learner; the skills of setting and following criteria; and the skills of using the tools of knowledge such as adding, dividing, understanding multiple perspectives, following a timeline, calculating latitude, or following the scientific method. The skill portion encourages the students to “think” like the professionals who use the knowledge and skill daily as a matter of how they do business. This is what it means to “be like” a doctor, a scientist, a writer or an artist.

13. Process Skills/Methodologies of a Discipline • Thinking skills used by students to construct • meaning of the big ideas. • Compare and contrast Making an observation • Gathering data Drawing conclusions • Analyzing data Identifying trends • Identifying sequences Stating hypotheses • Making inferences Developing questions • Identifying point of view Determining bias • Making predictions Summarizing data • Categorizing Classifying • Sequencing Developing criteria • Making a decision Evaluating solutions • How to chart stars How to use a compass • How to identify a tree Determining authenticity

14. How Does the Internet Assist You in Locating the Know, Understand, and Be Able to Do? Take the Unit Framework and look at the categories of knowledge it requires you to identify for an instructional unit. Do you ever have trouble generating the big ideas for the instructional unit? How can you harness the Internet to locating some of these knowledge levels? Where might you go to seek clarity on the skills used by the discipline? Now take an idea for a unit that you are thinking about and let’s play with it during this work session. • Identify a topic or unit idea. • Generate the concepts for the unit. • Consider the essential ideas that students will come to understand from this unit of study. • Turn those understandings into essential questions that probe the how and why, and yes the what. • Identify the factual knowledge that students will acquire. • Consider the skills that students will use to use to make sense of the essential understandings. • Align this with the standards that you plan to use. • Keep the differentiation elements in your head as you plan instructional activities and performance tasks that align to your framework. • Align your assessment plan to your instructional goals.

15. Understanding by Design Templates and Support Resources Northwest Regional Professional Development Program http://www.washoe.k12.nv.us/hr/rpdp/SISinstruct.htm Understanding by Design Exchange http://www.ubdexchange.org/resources.html Understanding by Design Resources and Templates http://www.benjaminschool.com/ubd/ Authentic Education http://www.grantwiggins.org/UbdWebLinks.html

16. Looking for the Big Ideas Compendium of Online Standards http://www.mcrel.org/standards%2Dbenchmarks/ Teaching for Understanding in the Visual and Performing Arts http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/3646/ Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org http://www.fhs.fuhsd.org/acad_websites/english/worldlit/crimes/teacher.html

17. Can EXPLAIN: provide thorough, supported and justifiable accounts of phenomena, facts and data. Can INTERPRET: tell meaningful stories; offer apt translations; provide a revealing historical or personal dimension to ideas and events; make it personal or accessible through images, anecdotes, analogies, and models. Can APPLY: effectively use and adapt what we know in diverse contexts. Have PERSPECTIVE: see and hear points of view through critical eyes and ears; see the big picture. Can EMPATHIZE: find value in what others might find odd, alien, or implausible; perceive sensitively on the basis of prior direct experience. Have SELF-KNOWLEDGE: perceive the personal style, prejudices, projections, and habits of mind that both shape and impede our own understanding; we are aware of what we do not understand and why understanding is so hard. Six Facets of Understanding

18. ExplanationWhy is that so? What explains such events? What accounts for such action? How can we prove it? To what is this connected? How does this work? What is implied? Write letters home describing what pioneer life is really like vs. what you expected. Write a newspaper editorial in a 1777 newspaper: Was the break with England inevitable? Describe the role of silence in music. Develop a troubleshooting guide for an electric circuit system. Call on students to explain, justify, generalize, predict, support, verify,prove, and substantiate.

19. InterpretationWhat does it mean? Why does it matter? What of it? What does it illustrate or illuminate in human experience? How does it relate to me? What makes sense? Read and interpret real-life journals and stories of pioneers to infer from vocabulary and images what life was really like. Assume the role of an electrical sub- contractor: Interpret and analyze the wiring drawings for building a house. “What’s wrong with Holden?” Make sense of the main character in Catcher in The Rye. Call on students to interpret, translate, make sense of, show the significance or, decode, and make a story meaningful.

20. ApplicationHow and where can we use this knowledge, skill, or process? How should my thinking and action be modified to meet the demands of this particular situation? Create a museum exhibit in which photos and facsimile artifacts tell the story of the hardships of pioneer life. Build a working set of switches for a model railroad layout. Perform a chemical analysis of local stream water to monitor EPA compliance, and present findings. Call on students to put ideas to a new use or apply the concepts, principles, or skills to a new situation.

21. PerspectiveFrom whose point of view? From which vantage point? What is assumed or tacit that needs to be made explicit and considered? What is justified or warranted? Is there adequate evidence? Is it reasonable? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the idea? Is it plausible? What are its limits? So what? Read and discuss The Real Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf. AC or DC? Argue the merits of each type of current for various users? Stage a debate between settlers and Native Americans on the effects of western settlement. Call on students to generate reasons for varying points of view; argue, compare/contrast, and criticize.

22. EmpathyHow does it seem to you? What do they see that I don’t? What do I need to experience if I am to understand? What was the artist or performer feeling, seeing, and trying to make me feel and see? Write a series of simulated letters back and forth between relatives in America and England during the pre-Revolutionary war, war, and post-war era. Write a letter to relatives “back east” describing the death of pioneer neighbors. Create an imaginary diary entry-”A day in the life of an electron.” Call on students to assume the role of; express emotions related to; consider; imagine; and relate.

23. Self-KnowledgeHow does who I am shape my views? What are the limits of my understanding? What are my blind spots? What do I now know? Journal writing: What would I fight for? Develop a mathematical resume with a brief description of your intellectual strengths and weaknesses. Keep a log of your reactions to the concerns expressed by the Pilgrims. Call on students to express new insight; self-evaluate; reflect; prove that you realize that.

24. Explanation Interpretation Application Topic/Idea Empathy Perspective Self-Knowledge

25. Differentiation Strategies… • Webquests • Filamentality • Telecollaborative Research Opportunities • Graphic Organizers • Assessments (Scholarly Levels) • Primary Sources (Document-Based Questions) • Performance Tasks • Student Research

26. Be clear on the key concepts, principles, and generalizations that give meaning and structure to the topic, chapter, unit, or lesson you are planning. Lessons for all students should emphasize critical thinking. Lessons for all students should be engaging and respectful. In a differentiated classroom, there should be a balance between student-selected and teacher-assigned tasks and working arrangements. Differentiating Instruction: Rules of Thumb

27. What is Differentiated Instruction? • It’s teaching with student variance in mind. • It’s starting where the kids are rather than with a standardized approach to teaching that assumes all kids of a given age or grade are essentially alike. • It’s responsive teaching rather than one-size-fits-all teaching.

28. What is Differentiated Instruction? • It means teachers proactively plan varied approaches to what students need to learn, how they will learn it, and/or how they will show what they have learned in order to increase the likelihood that each student will learn as much as possible. • It’s a way of thinking about the classroom with the goals of honoring each student’s learning needs and maximizing each student’s learning capacity while developing a solid community of learners.

29. What is Differentiated Instruction? • It’s a teacher reacting responsively to a learner’s needs. • It’s shaking up the classroom so students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn.

30. STUDENT TRAITS: Readiness Interest Learning Profile Affect CLASSROOM ELEMENTS: Content Process Product Learning Environment Differentiation Elements

31. STUDENT TRAITS: Academic Readiness Differentiation Elements

32. It begins with pre-assessment!

33. An Example of a Concept Map

34. Differentiation of Instruction Concept Map is a teacher’s response to learners’ needs guided by general principles of differentiation, such as teachers & students collaborating in learning clarity of learning goals ongoing assessment & adjustment respectful tasks flexible grouping Teachers can differentiate process product content according to readiness interests learning profile

35. Less-Developed Readiness Level • Students with less-developed readiness may need • someone to help them identify and make up gaps in their learning so they can move ahead; • more opportunities for direct instruction or practice; • activities or products that are more structured or more concrete, with fewer steps , closer to their own experiences, and calling on simpler reading skills; or • a more deliberate pace of learning. C.A. Tomlinson, 1999, p. 11

36. Advanced Readiness Level • Advanced students may need • to skip practice with previously mastered skills and understandings; • activities and products that are quite complex, open-ended, abstract, and multifaceted, drawing on advanced reading material; or • A brisk pace of work, or perhaps a slower pace to allow for greater depth of exploration C.A. Tomlinson, 1999, p. 11

37. STUDENT TRAITS: Interests Differentiation Elements Creative Learning Press www.creativelearningpress.com

38. Sample Items…Imagine that you can spend a week job shadowing any person in your community to investigate a career you might like to have in the future. List the occupations of the persons you would select.1st choice ______________________2nd choice______________________3rd choice ______________________

39. Sample Items (Secondary Interest-A-Lyzer)…If you could conduct an interview with a man or woman you admire, past or present, who would it be? What 3 questions would you ask him or her?1. ____________________________________2. ____________________________________3. ____________________________________

40. STUDENT TRAITS: Learning Profiles Differentiation Elements Sample Items from the Learning Style Inventory (LSI)… Really Dislike……..Really Like Being a member of a panel that 1 2 3 4 5 is discussing current events Working on your own to prepare 1 2 3 4 5 material you will discuss in class

41. How Do You Like to Learn?Directions: Use the questions below to guide your writing about your learning preferences. This information will be helpful to be as a teacher in understanding how you best learn. • Do you study best when it is quiet or can you ignore the noise of other people talking while you are working? • Do you prefer working at a table or desk, on the floor, or in some other space? • Is it important for you to work hard? Why? • Do you work on an assignment until it is completed, or do you get frustrated with your work and do not finish it. • When an assignment is given, do you like to have exact steps on how to complete it or do you prefer creating your own steps on how to complete it. • Do you prefer working by yourself, in pairs, or in groups? • Do you like to have unlimited amount of time to work on an assignment or do you prefer to have a certain amount of time to work on an assignment? • Do you like to learn by moving and doing or while sitting at your desk? • Do you set your own time schedule for completing assignments or do you prefer to have someone assist you in keeping yourself on schedule? • What other things should I know about you as a learner?

42. Create Your Own Surveys SurveyMonkey This software allows you to design professional online surveys. http://www.surveymonkey.com

43. In other words . . . . . • “In the early stages of differentiation, it’s helpful to think about using student readiness, interest, and learning profile to differentiate content, process, and product.” Tomlinson. 2001 How to Differentiate Instruction. . . (page 66) • “Indifferentiated classrooms, teachers continually assess student readiness, interest, learning profile,and affect. Teachers then use what they learn to modify content, process, product,and the learning environment to ensure maximum learning for each member of the class. Tomlinson. 2004 Fulfilling . . . (page 6)

44. Differentiating the Content:Finding Alternative Lessons Using Professional Organizations NSTANational Science Teachers Association http://www.nsta.org http://www.nctm.org http://www.ncss.org http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/

45. Differentiating the Content: Finding Alternative Lessons http://www.econedlink.org/ http://edsitement.neh.gov/ http://www.readwritethink.org/ http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/ National GeographicXPEDITIONS http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/

46. Differentiating Content and Process http://www.marcopolo-education.org/ http://www.nytimes.com/learning/ http://eduscapes.com/ http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/index.html

47. Differentiating the Content: Finding Alternative Lessons http://www.enc.org http://www.enc.org/focus/differentiated/ http://memory.loc.gov http://www.dohistory.org/home.html http://www.learner.org/teacherslab/math/patterns/index.html http://historymatters.gmu.edu/

48. Differentiating the Content: Finding Alternative Lessons http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/arts_lit/high_visual.shtm http://www.my-ecoach.com/resources/litconnect.html Mathematics, Science, History/Social Studies, Language Arts http://www.score.k12.ca.us/

49. Differentiating the Content and ProcessWhat is a Telecollaborative Project? A telecollaborative project is an educational project that involves sharing information with another person or group of people over the internet. Telecollaborative projects range from setting up simple keypal relationships between your students and another class to involving many classrooms and experts from around the world in an information-gathering project that requires a collaborative effort. IECC (Intercultural Email Classroom Connections) connects educators seeking classroom collaboration worldwide. http://www.teaching.com/index.cfm http://www.teaching.com/act/

50. Telecollaborative Projects http://k12science.ati.stevens-tech.edu/collabprojs.html http://www.iearn.org/projects/index.html http://ll.terc.edu/toplevel/home.cfm http://www.eduplace.com/projects/index.html