Differentiating Instruction

1. Differentiating Instruction Kelly Roberts Putnam County Charter School System

2. Differentiating instruction is doing what’s fair for students. It’s a collection of best practices strategically employed to maximize students’ learning at every turn, including giving them the tools to handle anything that is undifferentiated. It requires us to do different things for different students some, or a lot, of the time. It’s whatever works to advance the student if the regular classroom approach doesn’t meet students’ needs. It’s highly effective teaching. Rick Wormeli

3. Successful Differentiation 80% Mindset 20% Craft and Mechanics Mindset: What we teach is irrelevant. It’s what students carry forward after their time with us that matters.

4. Differentiated Instruction is based on the following beliefs: • Students vary in their learning profiles. • Classrooms in which students are active learners, decision makers and problem solvers are more natural and effective than those in which students are served by a "one-size-fits-all" curriculum.  • Making ideas meaningful take precedence over “covering information." • All students are regularly offered choices and students are matched with tasks attuned with their individual learner profiles. 

5. Effective Teaching Results in Effective Learning For Each Child Teacher Student Content Think About Individual Student What Are You Trying To Present Artful Teaching Is A Love Triangle

6. Differentiated Instruction Is A Willingness To See Children As Individuals With Individual Needs High Quality Teaching Who We Teach (Gender, Race, Culture) How We Teach (Methods) What We Teach Where We Teach

7. Some Principles Of A Differentiated Classroom • The teacher is clear about what matters in subject matter. • The teacher understands, appreciates, and builds upon student differences. • Assessment and instruction are inseparable. • The teacher adjusts content, process, and product in response to students’ readiness, interests, and learning profile. • All students participate in respectful work. • Students and teachers are collaborators in learning. • Goals of a differentiated classroom are maximum growth and individual success. • Flexibility is the hallmark of a differentiated classroom.

8. Differentiation of Instruction Is a teacher’s response to a learner’s needs guided by general principles of differentiation, such as Ongoing Assessment and Adjustment Respectful tasks Flexible grouping

9. Multiple options for making sense of the ideas Multiple options for taking in information Multiple options for expressing what they know Through a Range Of Instructional and Management Strategies

10. Vary difficulty level of text & supplementary materials Adjust task familiarity Vary direct instruction by small group Adjust proximity of ideas to student experience Tiered activities Tiered products Compacting Learning contracts Tiered tasks / alternative forms of assessment To Differentiate Instruction By Readiness Useful Instructional Strategies:

11. To Differentiate Instruction By Interest • Encourage application of broad concepts & principles to student interest areas • Give choice of mode of expressing learning • Use interest-based mentoring of adults or more expert-like peers • Give choice of tasks and products (including student designed options) • Give broad access to varied materials Useful Instructional Strategies: • Interest Centers • Interest Groups • Enrichment Clusters • Group Investigation

12. To Differentiate Instruction By Learning Profile • Create an environment with flexible learning spaces and options • Allow working alone or working with peers • Use part-to-whole and whole-to-part approaches • Vary teacher mode of presentation (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, concrete, abstract) • Adjust for gender, culture, language differences Useful Instructional Strategies: • Multi-ability cooperative tasks • Varied questioning • Varied homework • Interest centers • Interest groups • Compacting • Varied journal prompts

13. Multiple Intelligence Jigsaw Taped Material Anchor Activities Varying Organizers Varied Texts Varied Supplementary Materials Varied Questioning Strategies Interest Centers Interest Groups Varied Homework Varied Journal Prompts Strategies • Tiered Lessons • Tiered Centers • Learning Contracts • Small-Group Instruction • Group Investigation • Independent Study • Complex Instruction

14. What is scaffolding? Scaffolding is providing support needed for a student to succeed in challenging work. “Challenging work” means assignments or tasks that are slightly beyond the student’s comfort zone. Some ways to scaffold are: • Giving directions that have more structure • Recording reading passages on tape • Reteaching • Modeling • Reading buddies • Use of manipulatives (when needed) • Use of study guides • Use of graphic organizers • Gearing reading materials to student reading level

15. The Equalizer Concrete---------------------------------------------------Abstract (representations, ideas, applications, materials) Simple to-------------------------------------------------Complex (resources, research, issues, problems, skills, goals) Basic to-----------------------------------------Transformational (information, ideas, materials, applications) Single facets to----------------------------------------Multi-facts (directions, problems, applications, solutions, approaches, disciplinary connections) Smaller leaps to-------------------------------------Greater leaps (application, insight, transfer) More structured to------------------------------------More Open (solutions, decisions, approaches)

16. Less independence to ----------------Greater independence (planning, designing, monitoring) Slow to----------------------------------------------------Faster (pace of study, pace of thought) Carol Ann Tomlinson

17. A Traditional Classroom Compared With A Differentiated One • Student differences are masked or acted upon when problematic • Student differences are studied as a basis for planning • Assessment is on-going and diagnostic to understand how to make instruction more responsive to the learner’s needs • Assessment is most common at the end of learning to see “who got it”

18. A Traditional Classroom Compared With A Differentiated One • A relatively narrow sense of intelligence prevails • Focus on multiple forms of intelligence is evident • Excellence is defined in large measure by individual growth from a starting point • A single definition of excellence exists

19. A Traditional Classroom Compared With A Differentiated One • Student interest is infrequently tapped • Students are frequently guided in making interest-based learning choices • Relatively few learning profile options are taken into account • Many learning profiles options are provided for

20. A Traditional Classroom Compared With A Differentiated One • Whole class instruction dominates • Many instructional arrangements are used • Student readiness, interest and learning profile shape instruction • Coverage of texts and / or curriculum guides drives instruction

21. A Traditional Classroom Compared With A Differentiated One • Mastery of facts and skills-out-of-context are the focus learning • Use of essential skills to make sense of / understand key concepts and principles is the focus of learning • Single option assignments are the norm • Multi-option assignments are frequently used

22. A Traditional Classroom Compared With A Differentiated One • Time is relatively inflexible • Time is used flexibly in accordance with student needs • Multiple materials are provided • A single text prevails

23. A Traditional Classroom Compared With A Differentiated One • Single interpretations of ideas and events may be sought • Multiple perspectives on ideas and events are routinely sought • The teacher facilitates students’ skills at becoming more self-reliant learners • The teacher directs student behavior

24. A Traditional Classroom Compared With A Differentiated One • The teacher solves problems • Students help one another and the teacher solve problems • Students work with the teacher to establish both whole class and individual learning goals • The teacher provides whole class standards for grading

25. A Traditional Classroom Compared With A Differentiated One • A single form of assessment is often used • Students are assessed in multiple ways

26. A good differentiated lesson looks like a………… 10-15 minutes-Global lesson-everyone 30 minutes-Differentiation 5-10 minutes-Focus summarization-everyone

27. Successfully differentiating teachers…….. • Are willing to teach in whatever way is necessary for students to learn best, even if that approach doesn’t match their own preferences. • Have the courage to do what works, not just what’s easiest. • Actively seek to understand their students’ knowledge, skills, and talents so they can provide an appropriate match for their learning needs. Once strengths and weaknesses are discovered, the teachers actually adapt their instruction to respond to the students’ needs. • Continually build a large and diverse repertoire of instructional strategies so they have more than one way to teach.

28. Organize their classrooms for students’ learning and not their teaching. • Keep up to date on the latest research about learning, students’ developmental growth, and content specialty areas. • Ceaselessly self-analyze and reflect on their lessons-including assessments-searching for ways to improve. • Are open to critique. • Push students to become their own education advocates and give them the tools to do so. • Regularly close the gap between knowing what to do and really doing it.

29. Differentiation-MYTHS • Something extra to do. • Takes too much time. • Must be done everyday, every lesson. • Is an individualized education program. • Takes additional resources to do well. • Is a whole class practice. • Allows teachers to cover more material. • Doesn’t help students prepare for CRCT, EOCT, or GHSGT. • Is a “program.” • One size fits all.

30. Lowers expectations for students. • Causes students to be dependent. • Will soon pass away. • Incompatible with standards-based instruction. • Requires use of particular instructional strategies. • Differentiation works only for ESL and PEC students. • Differentiation is a code word for “tracking.” • Differentiated classrooms are noisy, confusing, disorderly, and chaotic. • Unfair because the teacher doesn’t treat all students the same. • Most teachers already differentiate.

31. Differentiation-REALITIES • A part of the normal planning process. • Can be complex, can be simple. • Causes teachers to adjust their practice. • Teachers must know and understand their students. • Teachers need a rich understanding of the content. • Motivates students. • Collaborative planning. • Choice for students. • Cooperative learning.

32. Less use of pull out programs. • Wide array of resources. • One size does NOT fit all. • Variety of instructional practices. • Variety of assessment practices. • Can be inconvenient. • Raises expectations for all students. • What’s fair isn’t always equal. • Fits well with standards-based instruction. • Is not a bag of tricks. • Effective with many instructional strategies. • Effective with all students. • Takes place with students all in the same room. • Can be noisy or quiet. • Choice is one way to differentiate.

33. Some Examples of Differentiation

37. Anchor Activities What do I do if I finish early? • Practice keyboarding • Work with the Flexitables • Illustrate a story you’ve written • Play a quiet math or language game • Write a morning message for our class • Practice your cursive writing • Read-comics, letters, books, poetry, encyclopedias, etc. • Write-a letter, a poem, a story, a comic, etc.

38. RAFTINGHelps a student understand: • An AUDIENCE of fellow writers, students, citizens, characters, etc. • The ROLE of writer, speaker, artist, historian, etc. • How to produce a written, spoken, drawn, acted, etc.-FORMAT • A deeper level of content within the TOPIC studied.

39. RAFT is an acronym that stands for • ROLE of the writer. What is the writer’s role: reporter, observer, eyewitness? • AUDIENCE. Who will be reading this writing: the teacher, other students, a parent, people in the community, an editor? • FORMAT. What is the best way to present this writing: in a letter, an article, a report, a poem? • TOPIC. Who or what is the subject of the writing: a famous mathematician, a prehistoric cave dweller, a reaction to a specific event?

40. RAFT Example KNOW • Basic needs of plants and animals • The role of natural resources in lives of people and animals UNDERSTAND • Our actions affect the balance of life on Earth. • Animals become endangered or extinct when natural resources they need are damaged or limited. • Natural resources are not unlimited and must be used wisely. BE ABLE TO • Identify causes of problems with misuse of natural resources. • Propose a useful solution to the problem.

41. Directions: Pick one of these rows to help you show what you know and why taking care of natural resources is important to the balance of life in our world.