Katie McClain – English 9 & 11 (Inclusion) Julie Schuler – English 9 (Inclusion & Honors) Madison Comprehensive High School Mansfield, Ohio

Flexibility – Stretching Our Learning Differentiation + Standards Based Learning O Pre-assessment O Myths v. Facts of Differentiation O PowerPoint (the super boring lecture part) O Tiering Activity

Julie’s Strengths & Weaknesses Jules Version of Herself Katie’s Version of Jules O Weaknesses: O Procrastinates O Hard to focus on the task O Strengths: O Creative/ Imaginative O Knows students O Works well on the fly O Engages students through entertaining them O Weaknesses: O Struggle with being on topic/ noticing the details O Strengths: O Know your students O Stews over concepts and comes up with brilliant ideas O Hilarious O Big picture thinker

Katie’s Strengths & Weaknesses Katie’s Version of Herself Julie’s Version of Katie O Weaknesses: O Struggle to focus on lower level students O Too task oriented O Distracted easily O Strengths: O Assessment/Standards driven O Creative O Passionate about teaching O Weaknesses: O Struggles with distractions O Strengths: O Knows standards really well and uses them to drive instruction O Fun! O Explaining tasks to others

Co-teaching/ Collaboration

Differentiation: Myth vs Fact

Fact: Differentiation is Individualized Instruction O Differentiating = O Using the standards to drive your instruction O Responding to students’ needs O Creating a learning environment that encourages learning and promotes security O Making education more fun and interesting! O Getting to know your students and showing that you care

FACT: Learning environment is important when shaping a differentiated classroom O Get-to-know you worksheets—Facebook Page O Learning styles inventory, DOPE test O Greeting students daily O Varied instructional styles O Fostering learning with fun—Memes, personal stories

Myth: Differentiation instruction means expecting the same thing from each student O High expectations for all students O Meet the standard O Product/process/resources differ based on student skill

Myth: Pre-Assessments and standards are stressful for teachers and students O Pre-assessments should be based off the standards + using Bloom’s Verbs O Pre-assessments can be simple/informal: O “Heads up 7 up” / Hand signals O Index card O Exit slip O One-minute essay O Concept map O Kids are honest Just ask them!

More Pre-assessment Info… O Collaborate with others! O Previous year’s teachers O Co-teachers O Grade-level teachers

Fact: A differentiated classroom focuses on the students and provides choices for students O Tiering: O By Challenge O By Complexity O By Resources O By Outcome O By Process O By Product Example: Independent Reading Project + Vocab Choice Board

Myth: Differentiation means always grouping students homogeneously O Flexible Grouping: O Mixed ability O Ability grouping O Prepared for class or not O Choice O Classrooms O Station work O Student selected or teacher selected O Purposeful or random

Fact?: Differentiation means more work for some students O Yep! O If it’s done discretely, they have no idea! O If you do differentiation all the time and mixing kids differently, then they have no idea! O Keep ‘em guessing!

Fact: A differentiated classroom has assessments that are the same for all students O Standards + Bloom’s Verbs = O Rubrics – O 0 = 60% --- student attempts prompt but is not meeting standard O 1= 70% --- student partially shows understanding of basic skill from standard O 2 = 80% --- student shows understanding of basic skill from standard O 3= 90% --- student shows understanding of the standard (basic and complex parts) O 4 = 100% -- student shows understanding of the standard (basic and complex parts) and understanding of a higher level extension of the standard

Assessment continued… O Egg Horror Poem Assessment- mood, art, and tiered questions O SLO O Celebrating Success

Myth: Differentiation is tons more work for teachers! O Small ways to differentiate: O Choice boards O Extension Cards O Adjusting Questions O Work upfront – but will use again The more you differentiate, the more natural it is!

More Resources Follow us on Pinterest! - Katie = Katie McClain - Schoolie Stuff - Julie = Julie Ellen -Classroom Goodies -5 Boards based off Common Core Katie’s Teachers Pay Teachers Store Store/Katie-Mcclain-6437 Check out the resources on the OCTELA Ning under Katie McClain’s or Julie Schuler’s pages or US!