1. Differentiated instruction work session
Exceptional Education Department

2. Who are you? Make a creative name tag/tent
You will have 10 minutes to make your own name tag.
Make sure you list hobbies, draw a picture or two, give a self profile,etc.
Don’t forget your name, years of teaching experience, and what you teach.
Introduce yourself and share out with the your table.
Make a name tag tent to display on your table. Fold a corner to make the tent stand better.

3. Quick View of the Day Workshop 8:30-3:30 AM Break 9:45-10:00 Lunch
11:00-12:30
PM Break
1:45-2:00

4. Think of a Time…
Turn to a partner at your table and talk about a time when you were really engaged in learning…
What did that look like?
What did that sound like?
Why do you think you were so engaged?
Give them about 8-10 mins to discuss. Share with others at your table. Share out.

5. What is differentiation?
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)

6. Teachers Can Differentiate
Content
Process
Product
According to Students’
Go through and talk about each box.
Content – What is being taught. You can differentiate the actual content being presented to students.
Process – How the student learns what is being taught. For example, some students need to interact with the material physically, some might prefer to read a book.
Product – How the student shows what he/she has learned. For example, students can write a paper or they can present information orally.
Readiness – Skill level and background knowledge of child. We try to stay away from the word “ability” because you don’t always know the ability level of a child if their readiness level is low.
Interest – Child’s interest or preferences – these can be interests within the curricular area (for example, they might be interested specifically in learning about folklore in a unit on volcanoes) or in general (for example, knowing a student’s favorite cartoon character could allow you to tie that into an example and might motivate the student)
Learning Profile – This includes learning style (is the student a visual, auditory, tactile, or kinesthetic learner), as well as preferences for environmental (such as level of distraction, exposure to light or noise) or grouping factors (small group, large group, or individual)
Readiness
Interest
Learning
Profile
Adapted from The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners (Tomlinson, 1999)

7. Pyramid of Learning 10 % READING 20% HEARING 30% SEEING 40%
DISCUSS WITH OTHERS
70%
90%
TALK/WRITE OR DO/APPLY

8. Differentiated or Different?
Have them read the article from Reading Rockets. Discuss at their tables

9. OPTIONS FOR DIFFERENTIATION OF INSTRUCTION
To Differentiate Instruction By Readiness
To Differentiate Instruction By Interest
To Differentiate Instruction by Learning Profile
equalizer adjustments (complexity, open-endedness, etc.
add or remove scaffolding
vary difficulty level of text & supplementary materials
adjust task familiarity
vary direct instruction by small group
adjust proximity of ideas to student experience
encourage application of broad concepts & principles to student interest areas
give choice of mode of expressing learning
use interest-based mentoring of adults or more expert-like peers
give choice of tasks and products (including student designed options)
give broad access to varied materials & technologies
create an environment with flexible learning spaces and options
allow working alone or working with peers
use part-to-whole and whole-to-part approaches
Vary teacher mode of presentation (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, concrete, abstract)
adjust for gender, culture, language differences.
useful instructional strategies:
- tiered activities
Tiered products
compacting
learning contracts
tiered tasks/alternative forms of assessment
interest centers
interest groups
enrichment clusters
group investigation
choice boards
MI options
internet mentors
multi-ability cooperative tasks
Triarchic options
4-MAT
CA Tomlinson, UVa ‘97

10. PIG Flexible Grouping TAPS T- Total Group A- Alone P- Partner
S- Small Group Or
P-Partner I-Individual G-Group
TAPS
By having flexible groups we allow our students to “TAP” into different readiness levels, interest, talents, and learning modalities
PIG

11. Benefits of Flexible Grouping
Teacher becomes more of a “facilitator” of knowledge and skills
Removes the negatives and stigma of “static” groups, i.e. “Once a buzzard, always a buzzard” syndrome
Students see that they can and will progress as they learn. Growth becomes a visible and expected part of the classroom culture

12. Curriculum should be differentiated in three areas:
The Key
The Key to a differentiated classroom is that all students are regularly offered CHOICES and students are matched with tasks compatible with their individual learner profiles.
Curriculum should be differentiated in three areas:
1. Content:
Multiple option for taking in information
2. Process:
Multiple options for making sense of the ideas
3. Product:
Multiple options for expressing what they know

13. MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
Logical-
Mathematical
Naturalist
Musical-
Rhythmic
Visual-
Spatial
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Interpersonal
Verbal-Linguistic
Intrapersonal
Learning Styles
VISUAL
AUDITORY
KINESTHETIC 13

14. -CHOICE- The Great Motivator!
Requires children to be aware of their own readiness, interests, and learning profiles.
Students have choices provided by the teacher. (YOU are still in charge of crafting challenging opportunities for all kiddos – NO taking the easy way out!)
Use choice across the curriculum: writing topics, content writing prompts, self-selected reading, contract menus, math problems, spelling words, product and assessment options, seating, group arrangement, ETC . . .
GUARANTEES BUY-IN AND ENTHUSIASM FOR LEARNING!

15. Choice Boards
Choice Boards are a great way to have the students have choices in there learning.

16. Primary Consideration:
What is your learning target?
What must ALL students:
Know
Understand
be able to Do

17. Purpose of Choice Boards
Homework
After Reading or Problem Solving
Learn a vocabulary word
Projects for a certain topic or book
Presentation or Demonstration
Independent Work
Demonstrate a Skill

18. Fractions Choice Board
Learning Goals: Students will…
KNOW: Fractions show parts of a whole and can be expressed numerically.
UNDERSTAND: Fractions represent equal sized portions or fair shares.
Be able to DO: Use different materials to demonstrate what the fraction looks like.
Turville, J. (2007) Differentiating by Student Interest

19. Turville, J. (2007) Differentiating by Student Interest

20. THINK-TAC-TOE Book Report Differentiation Strategy: STUDENT CHOICE
Draw a picture of the main character.
Perform a play that shows the conclusion of a story.
Write a song about one of the main events.
Write a poem about two main events in the story.
Make a poster that shows the order of events in the story.
Dress up as your favorite character and perform a speech telling who you are.
Create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the introduction to the closing.
Write two paragraphs about the main character.
Write two paragraphs about the setting.

21. GRAFITTI FACTS
Discuss at your table for 2 minutes what is differentiated instruction.
Pick someone from your table to go Graffiti on the chart what you agree to share.

22. Let’s Get to work! Choice Boards
You have time now to work as you please (Partners, Individually, Group). Take this time to work on
Choice Boards
There are some examples for you to look at around the room and supplies for you to use.
Choice+Boards

23. TIERED ACTIVITIES

24. WHAT CAN BE TIERED? ASSIGNMENTS ACTIVITIES CENTERS & STATIONS
LEARNING CONTRACTS
ASSESSMENTS
MATERIALS
EXPERIMENTS
WRITING PROMPTS
HOMEWORK
With a little thought, almost any classroom activity can be tiered.
Two or three tiers is usually best for implementation. However, a teacher who is experienced and comfortable with the strategy may have more tiers if it facilitates the instruction or better meets the needs of the students.

25. What is Tiered Instruction?
By keeping the focus of the
activity the same, but
providing routes of access at
varying degrees of difficulty,
the teacher maximizes the
likelihood that:
1) each student comes away with
pivotal skills & understandings
2) each student is appropriately
challenged.
Teachers use tiered activities so that all students focus on
essential understandings and skills but at different levels of complexity, abstractness, and open-endedness.
No student should look at the task and say to themselves, : I guess I’m in the dumb group.”
The key to developing good tiered activities is to design them so that they are just above the level of the learner. This helps students stretch and build from where they are. Challenging and supporting students at their levels of understanding will help them become successful learners.

26. Let’s Get to work! Tiered Activity
You have time now to work as you please (Partners, Individually, Group). Take this time to work on a
Tiered Activity
There are some examples for you to look at around the room and supplies for you to use.
Bill of Rights Example
Template

27. Just a different approach
Think dots
Just a different approach

28. STUDENTS USE THINKDOT’s
Students begin ThinkDots by sitting with other students
using activity cards of the same color.
Students roll the die and complete the activity on the
card that corresponds to the dots thrown on the die.
If the first roll is an activity that the student does not want
to do a second roll is allowed.
Teachers can create an Activity Sheet to correspond to
the lesson for easy recording and management.

29. THINK DOTS Describe… Apply… Question… Argue for or against… Satirize…
Compare and/or contrast…

30. THINK DOTS
Application:
1.Use “ThinkDOTS” to lead students into deeper exploration of a concept.
2.Use “ThinkDOTS” for review before assessment.
3.Use “ThinkDOTS” as an assessment.

31. Cubing+and+Think+Dots
Let’s Get to work!
You have time now to work as you please (Partners, Individually, Group). Take this time to work on
Think Dots
There are some examples for you to look at around the room and supplies for you to use.
Cubing+and+Think+Dots
Template

32. WHY WOULD YOU USE CUBING/THINK DOTS?
To engage your students in idea and information processing activities.
To match your students learning profiles and current needs.
To engage your students forward on many learning continuums.
To identify the students readiness levels, interests, learning styles.
To use an on-going assessment process.
Trainer will lead a discussion on the various reasons of why Cubing/Think Dots is an effective strategy for differentiated instruction.

33. Social Studies Level 1
Trainer will discuss the example and make reference to the use of levels of questioning.

34. Social Studies Level 2
Continue with example.

35. Social Studies Level 3
Continue with example.

36. Cubing with Charlotte’s Web
Basic Cube
1.Draw Charlotte as you think she looks.
2.Use a Venn diagram and compare Charlotte and Fern.
3.Use a comic strip to tell what happened in this chapter.
4.Shut your eyes and describe the barn. Jot down your ideas.
5.Predict what will happen in the next chapter using symbols.
6.In your opinion, why is Charlotte a good friend?
Abstract Cube
1.Use a graphics program on the computer and create a character web for Wilbur.
2.Use symbols on a Venn diagram to compare Wilbur and Charlotte.
3.Draw the farm and label the items, people, and buildings.
4.Use a storyboard to show the progress of the plot to this point.
5.What is the message that you think the writer wants people to remember? Draw a symbol that illustrates your ideas.
6.When you think of the title, do you agree or disagree that it is a good choice? Why or why not?

37. Example: Onomatopoeia
Side One/Dot 1
Find an example of
onomatopoeia in a poem
from our anthology
Side Two/Dot 2
Make a list of all the examples of onomatopoeia
that you can think of in two minutes. Have your partner time you.
Side Three/Dot 3
Write a letter to Webster’s Dictionary from
onomatopoeia on the topic, “We are words, too! Include us!”
Side Four/Dot 4
Write a limerick, concrete poem, or haiku using at
least one example of onomatopoeia.
Side Five/Dot 5
Why do you think writers use onomatopoeia? What purpose does it serve?
Side Six/Dot 6
Research the origin of the word “onomatopoeia.”
Where does it come from? What do its parts mean?

38. Differentiated Lesson Plan

39. Differentiated Lesson Plan
Let’s Get to work!
You have time now to work as you please (Partners, Individually, Group). Take this time to work on a
Differentiated Lesson Plan

40. Walkaway thought… - Carol Ann Tomlinson
“In the end, all learners need your energy, your heart, and your mind. They have that in common because they are young humans. How they need you, however, differs. Unless we understand and respond to those differences, we fail many learners.”
- Carol Ann Tomlinson

41. Instructional Facilitators with the Exceptional Education Department
Thanks for your time
and attention!
We hope you enjoyed the presentation and learned something you can take back to your classroom/school!
Instructional Facilitators with the Exceptional Education Department

42. Kristi Coggin kristi. coggin@mnps. org www. mnpsteacher
Kristi Coggin