IMPROVING INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE WITH DIFFERENTIATION

1. IMPROVING INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE WITH DIFFERENTIATION Sponsored by Teachers’ Center Facilitated by Kim Lewis May 12, 2014 Based on the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson

2. Your Students… • come from different cultures • have different learning styles • come to school with varying levels of emotional and social maturity • have varying interests in both topic and intensity • reflect differing levels of academic readiness in various subjects • all of the above can vary over time and depending upon the subject matter

3. SO…CONSIDER THIS….. How does recognizing that kids perceive the world differently help us as practitioners? Does all learning look the same? Does all success look the same?

4. Goals for Today: • Review Differentiated Instruction • Take away 3 new or “re-newed” strategies to use this month WHAT? WHY? HOW? WHICH? Want more? http://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson

6. What is Differentiated Instruction? • Take the slips of paper out of your envelope. • Sort them into two groups on your table • “What DI is” • “What DI is NOT” • Be ready to share the rationale for your decisions.

7. What DI is NOT DI • Separate learning goals for each student • Same assignments for all students • Single approach to learning • Allowing students to skip questions • Unstructured or chaotic • Homogeneous grouping that never changes • Using mostly direct instruction all the time • Different grading system for each student

8. What DI IS : • Proactive • Flexible Grouping • Learning Options • Assignment Choices based on learning styles or interests • On-going Assessment • Matching Content to the Learner • Multiple Approaches to Instruction • Student Directed

9. Keeping a Balance • It is not the goal of a teacher to differentiate everything all the time. • Try to meet learners where they are in order to further their knowledge, understanding, and skill. • Use student-selected and teacher-assigned tasks and working arrangements. • REMEMBER: • Curriculum is WHAT we teach. • Differentiation is HOW we teach. • Fair does NOT mean equal…fair means everyone gets what s/he needs.

10. The Goal : “In a differentiated classroom, the teacher proactively plans and carries out varied approaches to content, process, and product in anticipation of and response to student differences in readiness,interest, and learning profile.” Carol Ann Tomlinson

11. What Kind of Learner Are YOU? Are you more like a beach ball?, clip board?, microscope?, or a puppy? Conditions for Learning Quiz Differentiation Based on Learning Profiles

12. Far West Teacher Centers

13. Far West Teacher Centers 3 Ways to Differentiate Your Students: • Readiness • Interests • Learning Profiles

14. Far West Teacher Centers Differentiation by Learning Profiles: • Refers to the way we learn BEST • Intelligence preferences • Verbal, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, interpersonal, intrapersonal, right/left brain, etc. • Culture-influenced preferences • Gender-based preferences Strategies: • VAK modality survey • Beach Ball activity • Learning style inventories • “How I Like to Learn” Questionnaires

15. Far West Teacher Centers Differentiation Based on Students’ Interests can….. • Be a tool to engage students • Demonstrate a connection with them by focusing on something that is personally relevant to them • Can be a motivator for further learning

16. Strategies to Differentiate by Student Interests: • KWL Chart • Rank types of movies/books that student likes best • Show and tell • Interest survey • America’s Got Talent • 6 Hats Self Reflection

17. Far West Teacher Centers Differentiation Based on Readiness Provides teacher with • clarity regarding students’ prior knowledge • information about the students’ level of master of the unit’s new content to target instruction • What do they know? • How can I build on what they know? • How can I support them in the process?

18. Strategies to Differentiate by Student Readiness: Informal • Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down • KWL Charts • Four Corners • Response Cards • Clickers • Geddit , Quizlet, etc. • Teacher Observation PRE- ASSESSMENT

19. Strategies to Differentiate by Student Readiness: Formal • Frayer Diagrams • Graphic Organizer • Journal Entries • Quizzes • Student Self Rating

20. Far West Teacher Centers Readiness: Four Corners

21. Far West Teacher Centers Path to Differentiated Learning • What is a strategy you use in your classroom to gauge your students’ readiness, interest, or learning profiles? • Write your strategy on a post-it.

22. Far West Teacher Centers Place a post-it on the color that best represents your learning so far: • Green – post something valuable you learned or “your” strategy • Yellow – post a question you have still have about DI • Red – post something you don’t understand from first section Using this method in your classroom Survival Guide : Differentiation 12 min Frames for Discussion Secondary Literacy 7 min

24. Lesson/Unit Design with DI:Teachers Can Differentiate by… • Through a range of instructional and management strategies

25. Far West Teacher Centers Differentiating CONTENT involves Varying INPUT: How students will gain access to new learning • Readiness differentiation:matching material to student’s capacity to understand it. • Interest differentiation: using materials that build on or extend student interest. • Learning Profile differentiation:using materials/methods that best match students’ preferred way of learning.

28. LETS PLAY!DI STRATEGY BINGO

29. How does Assessment relate to DI? FIST TO FIVE

31. Letsgeddit.com TIERED Exit Card Infinitely Reusable Folder For Practice & Assessment Hint Cards for Scaffolding Clipboards for Informal Assessment

33. Far West Teacher Centers Differentiating CONTENT Examples: • I-Search • Learning Contracts • Learning Centers • Compacting • Interest Centers/Groups • Flexible Grouping • Tiering

34. Far West Teacher Centers Tiering by Content : giving students pathways aligned with their levels. Great strategy when you are able to use materials which are matched to student needs and readiness. Same content but varying levels ie. reading levels, varied directions, varied materials/resources for task • All students explore same essential content but varied degrees of difficulty • Equally active • Equally engaging and interesting • Fair in terms of expectations (targeted to students’ readiness) and allotted time • Task incorporates key concepts, skills, and/or ideas

35. Far West Teacher Centers Differentiating PROCESS: • Student activities or opportunities for learning, understanding, and application • Students make sense of ideas and information when instruction: • Matches their level of readiness • Causes them to think at high levels • Relates new ideas/skills to previous learning • Causes them to use a key skill(s) to understand a key idea(s) • Is of interest to them

36. Jigsaw Six Hats PMI (pluses, minuses, interesting points) Cubing Far West Teacher Centers Differentiating PROCESS Examples: • Learning Logs & Journals • Graphic Organizers • Think-Pair-Share • Two Sided Debates (Discussion Webs)

37. Far West Teacher Centers Differentiating PRODUCT: • Refer to ways students will demonstrate their ability to use, transfer, and extend what they have learned. • Differentiated product assignments can be excellent forms of assessing student knowledge.

38. Far West Teacher Centers Differentiating PRODUCT: • Choice Boards • 4-MAT • Portfolios • Independent Study • Group Investigation • Orbital Studies • RAFTS • Learning Menus

39. Check out the activities in as many folders as you can • Write your name on the list for any you want • Later ~with your certificate~ you’ll get a personalized (DIFFERNTIATED) folder of documents ! • You can also sign on to computer and check out links on next page and print what you’d like to have

40. Far West Teacher Centers Additional resources: iPad TECHNOLOGY

41. Far West Teacher Centers The PRESENT requires us to remember: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_6GUx1Zx0w