Doable Differentiation Understanding how the brain works and how differentiating instruction helps students learn

GAME Plan Goals Activities Measurement Evaluation

Goals Participants will: Gain a better understanding of differentiating instruction Participate in several strategies for whole- class differentiation. Learn how the brain works and how this supports the philosophy of differentiating instruction.

Activities Appointment Clock Think, Pair, Share Hands-on Sort Baggage Claim 10+2 Memory Song ABA Numbered Heads Together

Measurement Participation in Activities Response Card Activity Mind Map

Evaluation Plus/Delta on post-its at the conclusion of the workshop

14 years sp ed resource room teacher 3 years intervention specialist, inclusion 12 years teacher trainer for co-teaching, inclusion strategies 21 years high school math teacher 23 years district administrator 2 years as educational consultant Nearly 75 years! Bonny Buffington

Robert Hutchins The Conflict in Education in a Democratic Society “Perhaps the greatest idea that America has given the world is education for all. The world is entitled to know whether this idea means that everybody can be educated or simply that everyone must go to school.”

Appointment Clock Activity Think of one personal comment that comes to your mind when you read the Hutchins quote. Go around the room and share your comment with others as you make “appointments” to fill in your appointment clock. You may revise your comment as you listen to others’ opinions.

Robert Hutchins The Conflict in Education in a Democratic Society “Perhaps the greatest idea that America has given the world is education for all. The world is entitled to know whether this idea means that everybody can be educated or simply that everyone must go to school.”

Differentiated Instruction Awareness Differentiated Instruction: What it is, What it’s not

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, director of ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education

DI: What it is; What it’s not Traditional ClassroomDifferentiated Classroom 1. Assessment at the end of a unit of study 1. Assessment is ongoing, diagnostics and influences instruction 2. Dominance of whole class instruction 2. Variety of instructional strategies used within a classroom 3. Adapted textbooks are the main instructional resource 3. Multiple types of materials are utilized as resources 4. The teacher is the main problem solver 4. Students are actually engaged in solving problems 5. Quantitative focus to assignments 5. Qualitative focus to assignments (Based on C Tomlinson, 2000)

As a student, what kind of classroom did you experience? As a teacher, what kind of classroom did you practice? Think of an experience you had with an excellent teacher. What kind of classroom did he/she maintain? Discuss your responses with your 6:00 appointment Reflect on DI: What it is; What it’s not Think, Pair, Share Activity

DI: What it is; What it’s not Traditional ClassroomDifferentiated Classroom 1. Assessment at the end of a unit of study 1. Assessment is ongoing, diagnostics and influences instruction 2. Dominance of whole class instruction 2. Variety of instructional strategies used within a classroom 3. Adapted textbooks are the main instructional resource 3. Multiple types of materials are utilized as resources 4. The teacher is the main problem solver 4. Students are actually engaged in solving problems 5. Quantitative focus to assignments 5. Qualitative focus to assignments (Based on C Tomlinson, 2000)

Differentiated Instruction Awareness Defining Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated Instruction Defined “Differentiated instruction is a teaching philosophy based on the premise that teachers should adapt instruction to student differences. Rather than marching students through the curriculum lockstep, teachers should modify their instruction to meet students’ varying readiness levels, learning preferences, and interests. Therefore, the teacher proactively plans a variety of ways to ‘get at’ and express learning.” Carol Ann Tomlinson

Key Principles of Differentiation High quality curriculum Ongoing assessment Respectful tasks Varied learning styles Flexible grouping Teacher/student collaboration Student choice

Differentiation is: responsive teaching rather than one-size-fits-all teaching.

Differentiated Instruction Awareness Differentiated Instruction: How?

Differentiation of Instruction Is a teacher’s response to learner’s needs guided by general principles of differentiation Respectful tasksFlexible groupingOngoing assessment Teachers Can Differentiate Through: Content ProcessProduct According to Students’ ReadinessInterestLearning Profile

Get with your 3:00 appointment. Match the given activity cards with the correct space on the differentiated grid. Hands-On Sort Activity

Differentiated Instruction Awareness Differentiated Instruction: Why?

Differentiation is classroom practice that looks eyeball to eyeball with the reality that kids differ, and the most effective teachers do whatever it takes to hook the whole range of kids on learning. Tomlinson 2001 Why differentiation?

Research Support for Differentiation Research for differentiating by readiness: Vygotsky (1978), Fisher (1980) Research for differentiating by interest: LeDoux (1996), Abrantes, Seabra, and Lages (2008) Research for student choice: Renate and Caine (1994), Glasser (1999) Research for using multiple learning styles: Torrance and Ball (1978), Edelman (1992), Restak (1994)

Differentiated Instruction Awareness How Brain Research supports Differentiated Instruction

Baggage Claim Activity On an index card, LEGIBLY write your response to these questions: What do students need in order to learn? What can teachers do to facilitate student learning?

When I say “GO,” find a partner to share what you have written. Explain your responses to your partner, and then give your index card to that person. He/she will explain his/her responses to you and then give his/her index card to you. Repeat after 60 seconds when I say “GO” again Rules for Baggage Claim

Differentiated Instruction Awareness The Brain Stem

Involuntary actions – blinking, breathing, heartbeat Also called “reptilian brain” Collects and delivers sensory information to higher brain

Differentiated Instruction Awareness The Limbic System Cerrebellum Hippocampus Amygdala

Gatekeeper Three levels of attention The need to BELONG The need to be SAFE

The Hippocampus Transferring memories Making new memories Inhibition Smell Location

The Cerebellum Movement Balance

“It's like a math co-processor. It's not essential for any activity... but it makes any activity better. Anything we can think of as higher thought, mathematics, music, philosophy, decision-making, social skill, draws upon the cerebellum....” Dr. Jay Giedd, National Institute of Mental Health The Cerebellum

Activity On a piece of paper, write down as much as you remember about the 2 parts of the brain that we have discussed. Try not to peek! Share what you remembered with your 12:00 appointment Look at your notes and add whatever you forgot to include

Differentiated Instruction Awareness Frontal lobe Temporal lobe Parietal lobe Occipital lobe Cerebellum The Cerebrum

The Frontal Lobe How we interact with our surroundings. Our judgments on daily routines. Our expressive language. Assigns meaning to words we choose. Involves word association. Memory for habits and motor activities

The Parietal Lobe Location for visual attention. Location for touch perception. Goal directed voluntary movements. Manipulation of objects. Integration of different senses that allows for understanding a single concept.

The Occipital Lobe Vision

The Temporal Lobe Hearing Memory Visual perceptions. Categorizing of objects. T

Memory Song Activity Sung to the tune of “10 Little Indians” Touch the appropriate area of your brain as you sing: Temporal, Occipital, Parietal Frontal, Cerebellum

Response Cards Activity Which lobe(s) would students mainly use when: Sorting colors into primary, secondary, tertiary Playing spelling Twister Typing vocabulary words Copying notes from the board Listening to teacher lecture Role playing an event from history Completing a word find Discussing the pros and cons of a proposal

Differentiated Instruction Awareness A NEURON

Higher Level Thinking Can actually generate NEW neurons (neurogenesis) Adds dendrites Increases the thickness of the myelin sheath Using the Gray Matter!

Stimulating Environment Affects Learning A child's ability to learn can increase or decrease by 25 percent or more, depending on whether he or she grows up in a stimulating environment.

Two times of ENORMOUS brain growth and pruning: During the first month of life, the number of connections or synapses increases from 50 trillion to 1 quadrillion. If an infant's body grew at a comparable rate, his weight would increase from 8.5 pounds at birth to 170 pounds at one month old. Overproduction ends, pruning begins until about age 3

Second cycle of growth and pruning Dendritic growth spurt at age 11 in girls, 12 in boys Pruning phase during adolescence Age 13 – 18 lose 1% of gray matter per year If you don’t use it, you lose it!

The Teacher Effect Quality of classroom instruction is most significant factor in students’ brain development. Didactic instruction – teacher directed Interactive instruction – student actively engaged Which type do you think grows dendrites?

Sad Fact: Failing to engage students actively can actually make students dumber. Use it or lose it: If dendrites are not being used, they will be pruned.

ABA activity Stand up for REVIEW! Grab a partner Decide who will be A and who will be B A speaks for 60 seconds, nonstop B speaks for 90 seconds, nonstop A speaks for 30 seconds, nonstop

Firing those neurons: Memory Encoding: Establish meaning Storage: Attach to other memories Retrieval: Stimulate relationship

Memorize the following:  

Write the phrase on your paper.

Memorize the following: Bog je ljubav

Write the phrase on your paper.

Memorize the following: God is love.

To encode: The brain must be able to make meaning out of the stimulus. A student’s brain cannot make meaning if the content is beyond his skill level. Differentiating by student readiness increases the likelihood of encoding occurring.

To store: Information is “stored” in the brain according to the modality used to encode. We want to stimulate as many neurons as possible to form relationships. Differentiating by student learning style increases the number of places the information is stored in the brain.

To retrieve: If information is encoded and stored in many places in the brain with many related networks of neurons firing, the likelihood of retrieval is increased. Differentiating instruction by student interest stimulates previously established networks and improves retrieval.

Numbered Heads Together Activity In groups of 4, number each person 1, 2, 3, and 4 Come to consensus on a response for the question. I will draw a number and call on the person with that number to give the group’s response.

Match the following items to the correct percentage. What we hear95% What we see80% What we see and hear70% What we read50% What we discuss30% What we teach others20% What we personally experience10%

10% of what we read 20% of what we hear 30% of what we see 50% of what we see and hear 70% of what we discuss with others 80% of what we personally experience 95% or what we teach others - Edgar Dale Correct answers:

Automaticity: Key to Higher Levels As pattern of neural stimulation develops by use, less electrochemical activity is needed in order to accomplish a task. More electrochemical activity is devoted to frontal cortex in a more efficient way.

Differentiated Instruction Awareness

Newborns Distinguish Speech Children as young as four days old can distinguish the vowel sounds of the language in their natural environment from those of a foreign language.

Pretty Weird Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn”t mttaer in what oredr the ltteers in a wrd are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a tatol mses and you can still raed it wouthit porbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

How do we gain automaticity? Active engagement increases automaticity. Students become actively engaged when we differentiate instruction.

Mind Map Activity Get with your 9:00 appointment. Review what you have learned about differentiating instruction. Create a mind map to summarize the most important points you have learned.

Using the Strategy Ring:

Bonny Buffington Knox County ESC Q and A