Overview of Differentiated Instruction Frederick County Public Schools February 2008

“When a teacher tries to teach something to the entire class at the same time, chances are, one-third of the kids already know it; one- third will get it; and the remaining third won’t. So two-thirds of the children are wasting their time.” --Lilian Katz

The only person who behaves sensibly is my tailor. He takes my measure every time he sees me. All the rest go on with their old measurements. --George Bernard Shaw

Meeting the needs of diverse learners in the regular classroom is achieved by….. differentiating instruction!!!

“At its most basic level, differentiating instruction means ‘shaking up’ what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn. In other words, a differentiated classroom provides different avenues to acquiring content, to processing or making sense of ideas, and to developing products.” Carol Ann Tomlinson, 1995

The Guiding Principles for Differentiating Instruction

Know students’ abilities, interests and learning profiles and deliver instruction accordingly.

Allow students to explore their interests and to incorporate those interests into their learning activities.

Pre-assess students’ abilities and readiness to plan instruction accordingly.

Assess students often so that instruction may be modified to keep students challenged just beyond their level of comfort.

Facilitate learning activities so that students may become independent learners.

Engage students in meaningful, respectful tasks as they are learning.

Teach students the skills they need to pursue independent investigations based on their interests.

Extend and enrich curriculum based on students’ abilities, interests, and learning profiles.

Have a “toolbox” of instructional strategies so that the appropriate strategy can be used at the appropriate time with one student, a small group, or the whole class.

Strategies for… Differentiating InstructionDifferentiating Assessment Flexible Grouping Adjusting Questions Extension Menus Interest Centers/Interest Groups Mentorships Tiered Assignments Curriculum Compacting Independent Projects/Investigations Learning Contracts Learning Centers Observation Paper-pencil Quiz/Test Conferencing Performance Assessment Student Self-assessment Portfolio Interest Inventories KWL Chart Questioning “Most Difficult First”

Ways to Group Students  Whole Group  Small Group  Independently  Teacher-selected  Student-selected Based on: Readiness Interest Learning Profile