What is Differentiated Instruction?

Elements of Differentiation Acknowledgement of individual differences Expect all children to grasp concepts at some level Challenging curriculum Clear articulation of curricular goals as they align to standards or outcomes Multiple levels of understanding (concrete to abstract)

Elements of Differentiation Flexible grouping Student choice Assessment strategies On-going direction, redirection and feedback by teacher/facilitator Resources

Rules for Differentiation Know your students. Know your curricular goals Start small

Content Concept and generalization based High relevance Coherent Transferable Powerful Authentic

Process Concept and generalization driven Focused Multiple levels Purposeful Balancing critical and creative thought Promoting cognition and metacognition

Product Concept or issue centered Skills of planning taught Skills of production taught Requires application of key skills and understandings Uses skills of the discipline Real problems and audiences Multiple modes of expression

Adjusting Questions Teachers can use the level of thinking and the verbs that match those levels to advance the thinking of student response.

Anchor activities - These are tasks students automatically move to when they complete assigned work. Teachers may provide a list of possible anchor options and should encourage students to suggest other ideas. It is important that anchor activities are essential to student learning and not just time fillers. If a student consistently finishes work early, it is likely the work is too easy or the student is working at a lesser level of accomplishment than he is capable. An example of an anchor activity in a language arts classroom is "Reading-Writing Workshop", an approach wherein the classroom is organized for self-selected reading, journaling, writing, conferencing, and publishing.

Bloom's Taxonomy Classification of levels of thinking. Drawing from the top three levels of Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation is useful for teaching gifted students.

Knowledge Useful Verbs list, describe, relate, locate, write, find, state, name Sample Question Stems What happened after...? How many...? Who was it that...? Can you name the...? Describe what happened at... Who spoke to...? Can you tell why...? Find the meaning of...? What is...? Which is true or false...? Make a list of the main events.. Potential activities and products Make a timeline of events. Make a facts chart. Write a list of any pieces of information you can remember.  List all the .... in the story. Make a chart showing... Make an acrostic. Recite a poem.

Comprehension Useful Verbs explain, interpret, outline, discuss, distinguish, predict, restate, translate, compare, describe Sample Question Stems Can you write in your own words...? Can you write a brief outline...? What do you think could of happened next...? Who do you think...? What was the main idea...? Who was the key character...? Can you distinguish between...? What differences exist between...? Can you provide an example of what you mean...? Can you provide a definition for...? Potential activities and products Cut out or draw pictures to show a particular event. Illustrate the main idea. Make a cartoon strip showing the sequence of events. Write and perform a play based on the story. Retell the story in your words. Paint a picture of some aspect you like. Write a summary report of an event. Prepare a flow chart to illustrate the sequence of events. Make a coloring book.

Application Useful Verbs solve, show, use, illustrate, construct, complete, examine, classify Sample Question Stems Do you know another instance where...? Could this have happened in...? Can you group by characteristics such as...? What factors would you change if...? Can you apply the method used to some experience of your own...? What questions would you ask of...? From the information given, can you develop a set of instructions about...? Would this information be useful if you had a ...? Potential activities and products Construct a model to demonstrate how it will work. Make a diorama to illustrate an important event. Make a scrapbook about the areas of study. Make a paper-mache map to include relevant information about an event. Take a collection of photographs to demonstrate a particular point. Make up a puzzle game suing the ideas from the study area. Make a clay model of an item in the material. Design a market strategy for your product using a known strategy as a model. Dress a doll in national costume. Paint a mural using the same materials. Write a textbook about... for others.

Analysis Useful Verbs analyze, distinguish, examine, compare, contrast, investigate, categorize, identify, explain, separate, advertise Sample Question Stems Which events could have happened...? I ... happened, what might the ending have been? How was this similar to...? What was the underlying theme of...? What do you see as other possible outcomes? Why did ... changes occur? Can you compare your ... with that presented in...? Can you explain what must have happened when...? How is ... similar to ...? What are some of the problems of...? Can you distinguish between...? What were some of the motives behind...? What was the turning point in the game? What was the problem with...? Potential activities and products Design a questionnaire to gather information. Write a commercial to sell a new product. Conduct an investigation to produce information to support a view. Make a flow chart to show the critical stages. Construct a graph to illustrate selected information. Make a jigsaw puzzle. Make a family tree showing relationships. Put on a play about the study area. Write a biography of the study person. Prepare a report about the area of study. Arrange a party. Make all the arrangements and record the steps needed. Review a work of art in terms of form, color and texture.

Synthesis Useful Verbs create, invent, compose, predict, plan, construct, design, imagine, propose, devise, formulate Sample Question Stems Can you design a ... to ...? Why not compose a song about...? Can you see a possible solution to...? If you had access to all resources how would you deal with...? Why don't you devise your own way to deal with...? What would happen if...? How many ways can you...? Can you create new and unusual uses for...? Can you write a new recipe for a tasty dish? Can you develop a proposal which would... Potential activities and products Invent a machine to do a specific task. Design a building to house your study. Create a new product. Give it a name and plan a marketing campaign. Write about your feelings in relation to... Write a TV show, play, puppet show, role play, song or pantomime about...? Design a record, book, or magazine cover for...? Make up a new language code and write materials uing it. Sell an idea. Devise a way to... Compose a rhythm or put new words to a known melody.

Evaluation Useful Verbs judge, select, choose, decide, justify, debate, verify, argue, recommend, assess, discuss, rate, prioritize determine Sample Question Stems Is there a better solution to... Judge the value of... Can you defend your position about...? Do you think ... is a good or a bad thing? How would you have handled...? What changes to ... would you recommend? Do you believe? Are you a ... person? How would you feel if...? How effective are...? What do you think about...? Potential activities and products Prepare a list of criteria to judge a ... show. Indicate priority and ratings. Conduct a debate about an issue of special interest. Make a booklet about 5 rules you see as important. Convince others. Form a panel to discuss views, eg "Learning at School." Write a letter to ... advising on changes needed at... Write a half yearly report. Prepare a case to present your view about...

Tiered Instruction Decide on the concept that students should know or understand Determine if the tiers are going to be based on student readiness, interest, or learning profile Develop appropriate levels of difficulty Determine which tiers are appropriate for individual students

When Tiering adjust: Level of complexity Amount of structure Materials Time/Pace Number of steps Form of Expression Level of Dependence

Higher-order thinking/questioning In differentiating instruction, a critical step is to set up learning activities that require students to think about the content beyond the literal level. Teacher uses questions that challenge students to apply, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize knowledge are crucial. Activities that require students to problem-solve, rather than to rely on rote memorization, are encouraged. Taxonomies of thinking, such as Bloom's Taxonomy, are helpful in constructing activities and questions.

Creative Problem-Solving Experiences - Students are grouped in pairs or small working groups to develop a plan to solve a problem presented by the teacher. Often the same group completes the plan and a response about the process is expected. Evaluative thinking is valuable for problem solving. Evaluative thinking includes activities that call for students to consider more than one viewpoint and develop valid criteria for decision making so that decisions are based on factual considerations rather than opinions. - Some examples would be; independent group research, and science labs.

Concept-based teaching Refers to use of essential concepts and key principles of a discipline to organize the curriculum content. For example, "change" is a concept in social studies. A principle that relates might be:" 'Change' occurs within a culture when people react to circumstances that seem unjust, uncomfortable, or unreasonable for the time." Together, this concept and principle help students make connections to their own lives, current events, and historical events.

Convergent thinking This is logical/analytical reasoning. Examples are matrix (grid) logic problems, analyzing objects for various attributes, classification, Venn diagrams, etc. (In convergent thinking activities, there is usually only one correct answer.)

Cooperative learning tasks Provides an opportunity for social interaction while completing a collective learning task in like or mixed ability groups. A teacher may place students having similar intellectual needs or students having different learning styles and intellectual needs within the same work group. The method reaches students who process well through interaction and discussion and teaches students to assess and build on the strengths of others through teamwork.

Critical & Creative Thinking Skills Creative thinking is the ability to visualize, foresee and generate ideas. Creativity is a combination of originality, fluency, flexibility and elaboration. Creative thinking enables students to break away from usual sequences of thought and into "out of the box" and productive sequences. Critical thinking is how we assess ideas and act upon them. Critical thinking skills are instrumental in assessing basic information, making inferences and drawing conclusions from the information. Using the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy, analysis, evaluation and synthesis, helps students determine whether the judgments they make are correct or incorrect.

Curriculum compacting Requires the teacher to examine the content and skills within a unit that will be pre-assessed, accelerated, or eliminated. Usually, a student demonstrates mastery of a part or all of the content and skills through a pre-assessment. The teacher then replaces the regular curriculum skills that have been mastered with the same or related types at an increased level of challenge. Learning tasks and materials in the "compacted unit" are more complex, abstract, application-oriented, or sophisticated, resulting in a depth and breadth of understanding not provided for in the regular course of study.

Divergent thinking This is creative thinking. Included in this category are: Fluency: A creative thinking skill. Activities require students to produce a large quantify of ideas or responses. Flexibility: A creative thinking skill. Activities ask for alternative ideas and require the student to look at things in new and different ways. Originality: A creative thinking skill. Activities produce unique or novel ideas or responses.

Flexible grouping A purposeful rearranging of students into working groups of similar levels of readiness, interests, and/or learning profiles. These groups may change throughout the course of study as appropriate. Heterogeneous grouping (multiple levels and types of students) allows for smaller work groups to be fluid according to the topic and skills being taught at any given time. This practice meets students' needs in a variety of ways and on a variety of levels.

Independent Studies and Investigations A student chooses a topic of interest that he/she is curious about and wants to discover new information. Collaboration between student and teacher takes place in which they plan a method for investigation of topic or problem. As a team, they will identify they type of product the student will develop that demonstrates the students' mastery of the topic. Research is done from questions developed by the student guided by the classroom teacher or differentiation teacher. The researcher produces a project to share learning with his/her classmates.

Renzulli’s Triad Model Type I Enrichment Type II Skills Training Type III Student selected project

Learning centers A collection of materials and activities designed to teach, reinforce, or extend students' knowledge, understanding, and skills. Many teachers set up center materials and activities in a particular area of the classroom, asking students to move to that area to complete those tasks. The type and level of information/tasks within a center serve to differentiate the information or skills. Students visit centers that address their particular learning needs. Records of their work and learning are often kept by students, making this approach somewhat more independent, with the teacher acting as facilitator.

Learning contracts Agreements between students and the teacher regarding tasks or projects that a student will work on independently and with some freedom. Contracts often provide some degree of choice regarding specific tasks to be completed and the order in which they will be accomplished. This element of choice can help teachers address differences in students' interests and learning profiles. Effective contracts address key understandings and skills while focusing on criteria for quality work.

Learning style This is one facet of a student's learning profile and refers to personal and environmental factors that may affect learning. There are many tools for surveying and identifying students' learning style. Answers to the following questions help identify a particular learning style: How does my child think through a new process? How does my child make sense of new information? Where does my child learn best? What methods of presentation (visual, oral, kinesthetic, verbal, technological, direct, indirect, etc.) maximize my child's learning?

Multiple Intelligences

Problem-based learning tasks This is a teaching method in which the teacher presents students with an authentic problem that is less structured, undefined, and complex. Students collaboratively investigate and solve the problem using their knowledge and understanding to apply consistent patterns of reasoning.