Transcript Differentiated Instruction

Meeting the needs of all learners
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Is differentiated instruction new?
◦ Think of the one room school house.
◦ Can you remember how your elementary teachers
differentiated instruction?
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DI is not…
◦ Writing to an IEP
◦ Letting students randomly choose what they wish to
do
◦ Teaching/grouping without knowing student
differences on the objective you are teaching
◦ Chaos
◦ Tracking students
◦ Making the curriculum too easy or too hard
I think differentiated instruction is…………..
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A differentiated classroom is one in which the
teacher responds to the unique needs of
students.
Gregory/Chapman
Differentiation…is providing the opportunity
for every student to succeed and reach his or
her potential.
Gregory/Herndon
Differentiated instruction makes it possible to
maximize learning for all students. It is a
professional and responsive mind-set where
the teacher is proactively planning for the
needs of diverse learners. SDE
 Content
 Assessment
 Strategies
 Products
methods
Differentiation does not happen without
planning……
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How they learn best
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What interests them
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Readiness for the content
What are your learning
preferences? Is this obvious in
your choices of activities?
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Your students have different learning style
preferences.
All lessons should address the learning
modalities: visual, auditory, and
tactile/kinesthetic.
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Interest inventories
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Learning styles inventories
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Observations by the teacher
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Parent/teacher collaboration
How will you determine how each of your
students learn best?
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Preassessment is key.
◦ Determine how to preassess the objective.
◦ When students miss questions, determine the
reason.
◦ Design your instruction to meet the readiness
needs of your students.
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Students that master the objective need to
move on to a more challenging objective.
This is curriculum compacting.
Occasionally, a student is close to mastering
the objective and is not best served by
following the unit of instruction as planned.
You can find ways to help this student fill in
the missing pieces and master the objective
at the pace s/he needs.
Think about how they learn……
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These are key to your success in teaching the
lesson. Choose strategies carefully.
Ask yourself, “Does this strategy ...
◦ …. Meet the readiness levels of the students,
◦ …. learning modalities of the students,
◦ …. Motivate students to learn (no one learns when
they are bored)?”.
Focus activities
KWL
Graphic organizers
Think-pair-share
Role-playing
Four Corners
Pass the question
White Boards
Tiered assignments
ABCD cards
Jigsaw
Pass the Question
Agree / Disagree Cards
Projects
Flexible grouping
Centers
And a million more…………..
Frequent and ongoing assessment, completed
en route to mastery; ongoing assessment could
be considered as “checkpoints” on students’
progress and the foundation for feedback
given – the most useful assessment teachers
can provide for students, and for their own
teaching decisions.
Rick Wormelli, Fair is Not Always Equal.
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Giving students feedback while they are doing the task or
very shortly thereafter is instrumental to their understanding
of the objective. This feedback has the greatest impact on
their success.
Do not give assignments without watching what they are
doing, helping them as they learn, and correcting their errors
in process.
Returning an assignment with errors and not giving feedback
can have a negative impact on their learning.
Don’t miss the opportunity to teach after the test.
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As you teach, are you always checking to
make sure each student understands?
If a student does not understand, what do
you do?
Sometimes it is not the content that is too
difficult, but the modality or strategy in which
you are presenting the content.
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When do you give a summative assessment?
◦ Only when your formative data shows you that the
student is ready.
Remember, the assessment is only summative if the
student masters the objective(s). If they did not,
you now have an additional formative assessment.
You need to determine your next steps.
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Stage 1
◦ Begin learning about students’ interests and
learning profiles
◦ Establish classroom management procedures for a
DI classroom
◦ Start using pre-assessment to find out students’
readiness levels
◦ Begin using formative assessments (to drive
instruction)
◦ Experiment with flexible grouping
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Design activities to target students’ interests
and learning profiles
Use data from pre-assessments to design
lessons
Use data from formative assessments to
guide instruction
Explore types of flexible grouping
Incorporate learning contracts for some
students
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Target students’ interests and learning
profiles regularly
Continue to use data from pre-and formative
assessments to design lessons and guide
instruction
Implement student-led formative
assessments
Broaden use of flexible grouping
Experiment with tiered lessons
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Compact curriculum for some students
Create tiered activities regularly
Ensure all assessments are in alignment
Share responsibility of learning with students
Address grading questions/issues
Coach colleague who are at different levels of
implementation
(continuum from Staff Development for Educators)
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Slide 5 has several definitions of DI. After
reading these, write you own definition of
differentiated instruction.
What do teachers differentiate?
Why is pre-assessment key to student success?
Why is the choice of instructional strategies key
to student success?
Look at your lesson plans. What learning
modality do they favor?
Looking at the DI continuum, what Stage are you
in and where do you most want to improve?
How will your planning change after viewing this
PowerPoint?