1. Differentiated Instruction
What, Why, and How

2. What is Differentiation?
Differentiating Instruction means changing the pace, level, or kind of instruction you provide in response to individual learners’ needs, styles, or interests

3. Differentiated Instruction Is Not: Is:
One thing
A program
Adaptations “tacked on” to already developed lessons
Tracking- mixed ability grouping is very important
Changing parts of a lesson for one or two students
A chaotic classroom- though it can appear that way at times
The goal: the goal is student learnjng
An approach that benefits all students
Student centered
Different approaches for students, not different amounts of work
Creating diversity in instruction- mixing lesson formats, instructional arrangements, support, etc. for all learners
Something most teachers are doing already perhaps without realizing it, but also a different way of thinking about how we cover material;
A means to an end: and that end is student learning
Adapted from Tools for Schools, Kluth, Paula (2000)

4. Some Traits of Quality Differentiation
Rooted in student need
an extension of high quality curriculum
Derived from on-going assessment
Respectful of each learner
Builds community
Involves students as decision –makers
Demonstrates teacher-students partnerships in teaching & learning
Growth focused
Scaffolds growth for each learner
Supports successful collaboration
Stretches each learner
Promotes & rewards individual excellence
Addresses readiness, interest, & learning profile
Attends effectively to gender & culture
Spans content, process, & product
Effective & varied use of instructional approaches
Teaches students to take responsibility for own learning
Flexible use of time, space, materials, groupings
Maximizes opportunity to “show what you know”
Balances student & teacher choice
Planned (proactive) plus tailoring
Occurs when either teacher or student is on center stage
Includes whole class, small group, & individual instruction
Supports success for each learner & the class as a whole
Builds collaborations with parents

5. Differentiated Instruction is Based on the Following Beliefs
Students differ in their learning profiles
Classrooms in which students are active learners, decision makers and problem solvers are more natural and effective than those in which students are served a “one-size-fits-all” curriculum and treated as passive recipients of information.
“Covering information” takes a backseat to making meaning out of important ideas.
From How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms by Carol Ann Tomlinson

6. Why Differentiate
The past two decades have provided extraordinary progress in our understanding of the nature of learning. Never before have neuroscience and classroom instruction been so closely linked. Because advances in technology enable us to view the working brain as it learns, educators can now find evidence-based neuroimaging and brain-mapping studies to determine the most effective ways to teach.
Much suggests that differentiated instruction can maximize brain development

7. How Does Research Support DI?
Differentiated Instruction is the result of a synthesis of a number of educational theories and practices.
Brain research indicates that learning occurs when the learner experiences moderate challenge and relaxed alertness –readiness
Psychological research reveals that when interest is tapped, learners are more likely to find learning rewarding and become more autonomous as a learner.

8. Brain Cell Structure

10. Brain Plasticity and Pruning
A 2004 report in Nature found that people who learned how to juggle increased the amount of gray matter in their occipital lobes (visual memory areas). When they stopped practicing the juggling, the new gray matter vanished. A similar structural change appears to occur in people who learn—and then don't practice—a second language. The decrease in connecting dendrites and other supporting brain connecting cells that are not used is called pruning. The loss of native language ability, juggling skills, or learned academic material that is not practiced is the flip side of the brain's growth response to learning. It is the “use it or lose it” phenomenon. The process is called “pruning” because the brain pathways and connections that are used regularly are maintained and “hard-wired,” while others are eliminated, or pruned.
Pruning. Just as hedges are pruned to cut off errant shoots that don't communicate with many neighboring leaves, the brain prunes its own inactive cells. By the time we enter adolescence, our brain has chosen most of the final neurons it will keep throughout our adult life based on which cells are used and which are not.

11. Dendrite growth
Neuron growth stops after about age 20, but dendrite growth can continue throughout life
Dendrites increase in size and number in response to learned skills, experience, and information.
These neural networks, similar to electric circuitry, are the roadways that connect various parts of the brain.
the more alternative pathways there are to connect with a memory, the more efficiently the traffic will flow, and the more rapidly that memory will be retrieved when needed.
Like an exercised muscle, the more they are utilized, the more these circuits become more efficient and easier to access and activate.

12. Dendrite Growth (cont.)
Dendrites increase in size and number in response to learned skills, experience, and information. New dendrites grow as branches from frequently activated neurons. This growth is stimulated by proteins called neurotrophins. Nerve growth factor is one of these neurotrophins. Although the brain measurements of neurotrophins are highest during childhood (when the brain's connecting cells are undergoing their greatest growth and development), as students continue to learn, neurotrophin activity is elevated in the brain regions responsible for new learning

13. Oxygen Oxygen Oxygen
Heart rate increases with motion, challenge and recognition of novelty
Blood flow increases with heart rate
All cell processes- including dendrite growth- increases with blood flow
Ergo, increased heart rate grows dendrites so your students are likely to learn more if there is physical or mental motion and challenge in connection with your curiculum! (Gum anyone?)

14. Three Principles of How the Brain Learns
Learning environments must feel emotionally safe for learning to take place.
To learn, students must experience appropriate levels of challenge.
Each brain needs to make its own meaning of ideas and skills.
How the Brain Learns, Carol Ann Tomlinson and M. Layne Kalbfleisch

15. How to Differentiate 4 basic ways: By content By process By product
By learning environment

16. 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

17. Differentiating Content
Using reading materials at different readability levels
Putting text on tape
Using spelling or vocabulary lists at readiness level of students
Presenting information through visual and auditory means
Using reading buddies/reading partners
Think-Pair-Share/Preview-Midview-Postview
Meeting with small groups to re-teach ideas or skills for struggling learners or extend the thinking or skills of advanced learners
Excerpted from: Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000) Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.

18. Differentiating Process
Using tiered activities- all learners working with same understandings and skills, but with different levels of support or challenge
Creating interest centers that encourage students to explore parts of the class topic of particular interest to them
Providing agendas- task lists containing whole class work and work addressing individual needs of students
Providing manipulatives or hands-on materials
Varying length of time to complete tasks
Excerpted from: Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000) Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.

19. Differentiating Products
Giving options on how to express required learning (make a mural, write a letter, create a puppet show, etc.)
Using different rubrics to match and extend students’ skill levels
Allowing students to work alone or in groups to complete product
Encouraging students to create own product as long as it contains the required elements
Excerpted from: Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000) Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.

20. Products Map Diagram Sculpture Discussion Demonstration Poem Profile
Chart
Play
Dance
Campaign
Cassette
Quiz Show
Banner
Brochure
Debate
Flow Chart
Puppet Show
Tour
Lecture
Editorial
Painting
Costume
Placement
Blueprint
Catalogue
Dialogue
Newspaper
Scrapbook
Questionnaire
Flag
Graph
Museum
Learning Center
Advertisement
Book List
Calendar
Coloring Book
Game
Research Project
TV Show
Song
Dictionary
Film
Collection
Trial
Machine
Book
Mural
Award
Recipe
Test
Puzzle
Model
Timeline
Toy
Article
Diary
Poster
Magazine
Computer Program
Photographs
Terrarium
Petition Drive
Teaching Lesson
Prototype
Speech
Club
Cartoon
Biography
Review
Invention

21. Differentiating Learning Environment
Allowing for places to work quietly without distraction, as well as places for students to work collaboratively
Setting clear guidelines for independent work
Developing routines for students to get help when teacher busy working with other students
Allowing for those students who need to move around when learning, while others need to sit quietly
Excerpted from: Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000) Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.

22. Where to Start?

23. Guidelines to remember when aspiring to differentiate:
Clarify key concepts and generalizations to ensure that all learners gain powerful understandings that serve as the foundation for the future learning.
Use assessment as a teaching tool to extend versus merely measure instruction. Assessment should occur before, during, and following the instructional episode.
Emphasize critical and creative thinking as a goal in lesson design. The tasks, activities, and procedures for students should require that students understand and apply meaning.
Engaging all learners is essential.
Provide a balance between teacher-assigned and student-selected tasks. Teachers should assure that students have choices in their learning.

24. Begin Slowly – Just Begin!
Low-Prep Differentiation
Choices of books
Homework options
Use of reading buddies
Varied journal Prompts
Orbitals
Varied pacing with anchor options
Student-teaching goal setting
Work alone / together
Whole-to-part and part-to-whole explorations
Flexible seating
Varied computer programs
Design-A-Day
Varied Supplementary materials
Options for varied modes of expression
Varying scaffolding on same organizer
Let’s Make a Deal projects
Computer mentors
Think-Pair-Share by readiness, interest, learning profile
Use of collaboration, independence, and cooperation
Open-ended activities
Mini-workshops to reteach or extend skills
Jigsaw
Negotiated Criteria
Explorations by interests
Games to practice mastery of information
Multiple levels of questions
High Prep Differentiation
Tiered activities and labs
Tiered products
Independent studies
Multiple texts
Alternative assessments
Learning contracts
4-MAT
Multiple-intelligence options
Compacting
Spelling by readiness
Entry Points
Varying organizers
Lectures coupled with graphic organizers
Community mentorships
Interest groups
Tiered centers
Interest centers
Personal agendas
Literature Circles
Stations
Complex Instruction
Group Investigation
Tape-recorded materials
Teams, Games, and Tournaments
Choice Boards
Think-Tac-Toe
Simulations
Problem-Based Learning
Graduated Rubrics
Flexible reading formats
Student-centered writing formats

25. What you will see in the Successfully Differentiated Classroom
Learning experiences are based on student readiness, interest, or learning profile.
Assessment of student needs is ongoing, and tasks are adjusted based on assessment data.
All students participate in respectful work.
The teacher is primarily a coordinator of time, space, and activities rather than primarily a provider of group information.
Students work in a variety of groups configurations. Flexible grouping is evident.
Time use is flexible in response to student needs.
The teacher uses a variety of instructional strategies to help target instruction to student needs.
Clearly established criteria are used to help support student success.
Student strengths are emphasized.

26. THE BOTTOM LINE:
At the most basic level, differentiation
consists of the efforts of teachers to
respond to variance among learners in
the classroom.
Whenever a teacher reaches out to an
individual or small group to vary his or her
teaching in order to create the best learning
experience possible, that teacher is
differentiating instruction.
Carol Ann Tomlinson

27. Next class
differentiation activities that can be done in any classroom
Resources- on line and text
Testimonials from teachers using it effectively