1. Differentiation Power Up PD Module 6
This month, we are re-using tools we know and love, but in a different way.

3. Start with the End in Mind...
Take the first two minutes today to think of one of your class periods and brainstorm all of the different types of learners in that class. In what ways do they differ?
Some of the things we tend to hear are:
processing style
skill level
multiple intelligences
interests
maturity
ability

4. With a partner...
What are the challenges of creating lessons that reach all learners?
What have you already been doing to differentiate your instruction that is working?
Often times, our teachers talk about trying to find ways to support students in one of four ways: enrichment, reinforcement, interest, or learning difference.

5. Tools You Already Know for Gathering Student Data
Google Form
Nearpod Assessment
Socrative Exit Slip
PollEverywhere.com
Schoology Quiz
Flubaroo Quiz
At this point in the modules progression, these tools should be a review, and so we don’t spent a whole lot of time going through them.

6. Tools for Grouping Students & Delivering Materials with Dignity
Simple Spreadsheet
This spreadsheet will automatically create heterogeneous or homogenous groups using student data.
Delivering Materials via LMS
When adding an assignment, click “individually assign” and add students!
Often, our teachers talk about wanting efficient ways to group students and send out tiered materials to students based on the type of support they need. These groups may be for enrichment, reinforcement/remediation, learning differences/processing style, or interest. The spreadsheet will help teachers easily group their kids. The delivery tools will allow teachers to deliver differentiated materials invisibly to student devices so that students can retain their dignity.

7. Plug In
Set up the simple grouping spreadsheet with your students’ names and class period to facilitate tiering tailored assignments.
Log in to Schoology [or your school’s LMS] and find how you would “individually assign” work to students by area of need.
Plug in challenges are small tasks teachers can usually accomplish quickly, in the workshop, to get more familiar with the tools. These are suggestions, but you can change and adapt them to work for your staff.

8. Ways We Differentiate
Content: the material the teacher wants students to learn, and how that material is delivered.
Process: the activities that engage students in processing content, using key skills, and making sense out of essential ideas and information.
Product: the vehicle through which students demonstrate and extend what they have learned.
Taken from The Differentiated Classroom, Tomlinson (1999). This might mean making groups of students, or providing appropriate scaffolding to just a couple of students. Differentiation can be a whole-class scenario, or a couple of students scenario.

9. Classroom Example: Differentiation by Content
In this lesson, the teacher gave students a choice of what they might review in class (and how) for their essay editing workshop. Then, they were grouped accordingly.

10. Classroom Example: Process
In this lesson, students were asked to participate in the discussion in two different ways, supporting students who struggled to jump into the conversation for fear of sounding “stupid.” First, every student asked a question and posted it to the Padlet wall (this could have been done anonymously). Then, during the class discussion, each student had to ask someone else’s question in their small groups -- something they were interested in exploring. Ideas were validated by being up on the wall, but no one was embarrassed to try to formulate a question on the spot. This lesson differentiates support for introverted and extroverted students, as well as for verbal vs. nonverbal processors.

11. Classroom Example: Product
At the core of differentiating by product is the belief that there are many ways for students to demonstrate learning, and that assessments do not have to be identical for each learner. We both use a “mastery menu” for our assessments, drawing upon the ever-popular RAFT acronym for guidance (changing the student’s Role, the assignment Audience, or Format, and either the Topic or Technology).

12. Tools for Differentiating by Content, Process, and Product
YouTube Channel
Schoology “Individually Assign”
Schoology or Drive for review/support modules
Differentiated Nearpod Lesson
Online groups (Google Groups) for collaboration
Audio (Garage Band, VoiceThread, SoundCloud)
Video (Explain Everything, iMovie)

13. Power Up
Take a closer look at your students’ interests and readiness levels by creating an online survey to collect and organize their data. Use that data to target your redesign (below).
Pick a lesson prime for redesign. Group your students and tier your delivery of either content, process, or product.
Suggested challenges that you can adapt to the specifics of your situation.