Success for ALL Middle School Students Through Differentiated Instruction

1. Success for ALL Middle School Students Through Differentiated Instruction David Vawter, Ph.D. vawterd@winthrop.edu National Middle School Association Conference Philadelphia, PA November, 2005 Richard W. Riley College of Education, Winthrop University Rock Hill, South Carolina http://coe.winthrop.edu

2. Differentiated Instruction The Highest Level of Teaching (Founder: Carol Ann Tomlinson)

3. Why Differentiation? • Block Scheduling • 180 (+)Teaching Strategies • Learning Preferences • 10-Year Reading Span

4. Why Differentiation? • Eight (+) Intelligences • Personality Styles • Brain Compatible Instruction • Hemisphericity • Many years of secondary school teaching

5. The Changing Classroom • Population Changes • Cultural Changes • Inclusion

6. Differentiation: A Definition Teaching Different Students Differently By Altering: Readiness, Interest, Learning Preference Or Content, Process, or Product

7. What Differentiated Instruction is NOT • Not Individualized Instruction • Not Hands Off • Not a way to track students

8. What Differentiated Instruction IS • Proactive • Based on Good Assessment • Based on Multiple Approaches • Student Centered • Combines whole-group, group, and individual Instruction

9. The Foundation of Differentiated Instruction • Learners need to make their “own” meaning of content • Learning is best when content is “powerfully organized” • Learning is best when it matches where learners are and then takes them a bit farther.

10. The Foundation of Differentiated Instruction • Students have a wide range of: • abilities and skills • interests • intelligences.

11. The Bottom Line: You can Differentiate by altering for • Readiness • Interest • Learning Profile • Content • Process • Products • A combination of any of the above.

12. Some Specific Examples • Mr. Erikson: Oregon -Science • Mr. Hotstedder: Dayton VA: Math • Mr. Lee: Waynesboro VA: S.S. • Gail Vawter: Science and Reading • Ms. Morrow: Furman S.C. L.A. • Londonderry Middle School: NH

13. The Bottom Line: You can Differentiate by altering for • Readiness • Interest • Learning Profile • Content • Process • Products • A combination of any of the above.

14. Instructional Strategies • Honoring Differences • Student Interest • Process • Product

15. Leveled Books on Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 420 Lola Schaefer Martin Luther King, Jr. 450 Pamela Walker Young Martin Luther King, Jr. 550 Joanne Mattern Martin Luther King, Jr.: 590 Patricia McKissack Man of Peace I Have a Dream 680 Margaret Davidson The Life & Words of MLK, Jr. 700 Ira Peck If You Lived at the Time of MLK810 Ellen Levine Martin Luther King 890 Rosemary Bray Assassination of MLK, Jr. 930 Conrad Stein MLK, Jr. & the Freedom 990 Lillie Patterson Movement MLK, Jr.: The Peaceful 1040 Edward Clayton Warrior The Day MLK, Jr. Was Shot 1140 Jim Haskins What Manner of Man: A 1190 Biography of MLK, Jr. Lerone Bennett

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17. Must register, but no cost. • Search books (English or Spanish) • Click title for more details • ONLY looks at text difficulty (links to standardized testing) http://www.lexile.com

18. Adaptation of KWL

19. Adaptation for Math Word Problems (from Teaching Reading in Mathematics by Barton and Heidema, published by ASCD)