1. State College Area School District1 Technology Tools and Strategies for Differentiating Instruction presentation available at www.scasd.org/one-to-one Click link for District Resources presentation available at www.scasd.org/one-to-one Click link for District Resources

2. State College Area School District2 Some of the Experts, RE: Differentiating Instruction Carol Ann Tomlinson Jay McTighe Rick Wormeli

3. State College Area School District3 What is DI? Rick Wormeli says “it’s doing what is fair for students.” best practices employed to maximize learning requires us to do different things for different students some, or a lot of the time, to meet the needs of students NOT individualized instruction, although that could happen at times whatever works to advance student learning

4. State College Area School District4 Tools and Strategies for Differentiating… Content- may vary in its level of vocabulary or conceptual complexity, or in its subject matter Process- students use different processes to learn Product- students demonstrate learning in different ways

5. State College Area School District5 Content Strategies Use online quizzes to pretest for content needs Use Internet content: infinite choices available at varying reading and sophistication levels Use Scaffolding Same objectives can be met, using content from multiple sources

6. State College Area School District6 Content Resources Quiz makers as part of a content management system Quiz Star http://quizstar.4teachers.orghttp://quizstar.4teachers.org Quia http://www.quia.comhttp://www.quia.com Nettrekker http://school.nettrekker.com/frontdoor/ Renzulli Learning http://renzullilearning.com

7. State College Area School District7 Process Strategies Interactive websites multiple modalities for learning anywhere, any time learning Graphic organizers Anchor activities can free teacher to work with pull-out groups vv

8. State College Area School District8 What is a vivid verb? 1)Use paper and pencil to record what you see…Your teacher will lead this activity. Close your eyes and imagine! 2)Discuss what you saw. What words were you able to visualize? What words could you NOT see? 3)Circle the vivid verbs on your paper. 4)Write your definition of a vivid verb on your paper. 5)Revise your narrative to make use of vivid verbs.

9. State College Area School District9 What is the difference between a vivid verb and an adjective?  First, lay out all of the cards available to you and your partner. Look over all of the cards, then ask yourself 1)is this an action? 2)Can I see what it looks like? If the answer is “yes,” you have a vivid verb! Lay all vivid verb cards in the “yes” pile. Lay all other cards in the “no” pile. What do you notice? Discuss with your partner what you see as the differences. Revise your narrative. Be sure all of your vivid verbs are red, and anything that is not a vivid verb is black. You may also continue to add vivid verbs during this time. You may talk to your partner about words in your essay if you are unsure about whether or not they are vivid verbs.

10. State College Area School District10 Time to take vivid verbs to the next level!  First, identify all of the forms of “to be” in your narrative. Forms of “to be: is, are, was, were, be, being, been, have, had, having. What happens when writers overuse forms of “to be” is that their stories involve less action and more explanation. That is, the writer is doing more telling than showing.  Your task is to eliminate as many of your forms of “to be” as you can. A rule of thumb for good writing is to use forms of “to be” only 3 or fewer times in a piece of writing. It is OK for you to talk with other members of your group for help with this task.  Revise your writing as you create ways to use vivid verbs to replace forms of “to be.” Good luck!

11. State College Area School District11 Process Resources Thinkfinity ( formerly known as MarcoPolo) http://www.marcopolo-education.org/ Shodor Education Foundation http://www.shodor.org

12. State College Area School District12 Process Resources Concept mapping Inspiration Cmap (free tool developed by an education consortium in Florida) http://cmap.ihmc.us NovaMind http://www.nova-mind.com/

13. State College Area School District13 Product/Assessment Strategies Use technology tools to somewhat level the playing field for students Allow students to choose how to demonstrate learning. Configure grading program to address standards

14. State College Area School District14 Product/Assessment Resources spreadsheet drawing word processing presentation photo management image editing video production music production concept mapping comic creation  Consider all software on student laptops http://rubistar.4teachers.org Generic Rubric

15. State College Area School District15 Where to Start Start with Standards Create pre-assessment Differentiate Content… or Process… or Product.

16. State College Area School District16 Questions/Discussion