A Quick Quiz True or False Student learning differences are real. “Fair” means treating all kids alike. Intelligence is fixed. Students don’t learn what the teacher doesn’t directly oversee. Before we differentiate, we must diagnose student readiness, interest, and learning profile. Every student deserves to make continuous progress.

What do you know about curriculum differentiation? What concerns or fears do you have regarding differentiation? What would you like to learn more about? List words or phrases that, in your mind, are linked to this term.

Differentiation is synonymous with good teaching. Differentiation is not a curriculum. It is a way of thinking about teaching and learning.

DIFFERENTIATION Curriculum: Content/Process/Product Student: Readiness/Interest/Learning Style

A differentiated classroom will have a combination of teacher directed, teacher selected activities, and learner centered, learner selected activities; whole class instruction, small group instruction, and individual instruction.

A Working Definition of Differentiation Differentiation has come to mean “consistently using a variety of instructional approaches to modify content, process, and/or products in response to learning readiness and interest of academically diverse students.” Tomlinson, Carol Ann. The Differentiated Classroom

When Differentiating Instruction, The Three Most Important Questions to Continually Ask Yourself... What do I want may students to know, understand, and be able to do? What will I do instructionally to get my students to learn this? How will my students show what they know?

Why Differentiate? Most students, even those involved in special programming, spend the vast majority of their time in regular classrooms. Starko, Alane J. Meeting the Needs of the Gifted Throughout the School Day: Techniques for Curriculum Compacting Students vary in readiness, interest, and learning profile. Tomlinson, Carol Ann. The Differentiated Classroom

Readiness is a student’s entry point relative to a particular understanding or skill. To help a student to grow, we must begin where the child is. Some children, particularly those who have had early learning opportunities, begin school with well-developed skills and considerable understanding of various topics; other students arrive as true beginners and need basic instruction and additional practice. Interest refers to a child’s affinity, curiosity, or passion for a particular topic or skill. The advantage to grouping by interest is that it allows students to attach what they have been learning in class to things that they already find relevant and interesting and appealing in their own lives. Learning profile has to do with how students learn. Some are visual learners, auditory learners, or kinesthetic learners. Students vary in the amount of time they need to master a skill or learn a concept. How students learn can be shaped by: environment social organization physical circumstances emotional climate psychological factors Carol Ann Tomlinson/ Diane Heacox

What goals are we trying to achieve through differentiation? Increased academic learning Increased confidence in learning Enhanced intrinsic motivation for learning Self-directed learning behaviors Burns and Purcell, 2002

Why does it work? Differentiation increases the match between where the student is and what they are to learn. –Zone of Proximal Development Vygotsky (1962) –Varying levels of scaffolding –Varying degrees of challenge –Varying degrees of autonomy –Optimal learning Burns and Purcell, 2002

Research supports differentiation We think, learn, and create in different ways. Intelligence is fluid, it is not fixed and therefore can be amplified. Learning is more natural. Burns and Purcell, 2002

What Gets Differentiated? The teacher can modify content, process, or product.

CONTENT is what we want students to: - know (facts and information) - understand (principles, generalizations, ideas) - be able to do (skills) Content is differentiated (a) when you preassess students’ skill and knowledge, then match learners with appropriate activities according to readiness; (b) when you give students choices about topics to explore in greater depth; (c) when you provide students with basic and advanced resources that match their current levels of understanding. Diane Heacox, Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom

Differentiating Content - multiple textbooks and supplementary print materials - varied videos and computer programs - learning contracts - interest centers - support systems audio tapes study partners and reading buddies mentors - compacting phase 1 - teacher assessment of student phase 2 - teacher sets up a plan phase 3 - teacher and student design a project

PROCESS is the “how” of teaching. Process refers to the activities that you design to help students think about and make sense of the key principles and information of the content they are learning. Process also calls on students to use key skills that are integral to the unit. When differentiating process, students are engaged in different activities, but each activity should be directed to the lesson’s common focus on what students should come to know, understand, and be able to do. All students are engaged in meaningful and respectful tasks. Carol Ann Tomlinson

Differentiating Process - tiered assignments - learning centers - interactive journals and learning logs - graphic organizers Carol Ann Tomlinson

PRODUCTS are the way students show what they have learned or extend what they have learned. They can be differentiated along a continuum: - simple to complex - less independent to more independent - clearly defined problems to fuzzy problems Carol Ann Tomlinson

As teachers, our goal is to make the curriculum accessible to all students. Differentiation makes this possible but before we can begin to differentiate, we must come to know our students. Discovering what your students already know before beginning a unit of study can be accomplished through the use of preassessments. The use of interest inventories and multiple intelligence checklists provides important information about students’ learning profile.

Burns and Purcell, 2002

Flexible grouping is at the heart of differentiated instruction

Flexible grouping: A Definition Flexible small groups are within class grouping in which membership varies according to ability (same ability, mixed ability), interest or questions, learning style or processing style, product style, group longevity, group size (2-10). Groups can be teacher-selected, student- selected, purposeful or random. Jeanne H. Purcell, Ph. Caroline S. Cohen, Ph.D

Why is flexible instructional grouping a hallmark of the differentiated classroom? It is a critical management strategy in the differentiated classroom. It allows a better instructional match between students’ needs and what you want students to know, understand, and be able to do. It lets you tailor learning activities according to students’ needs and learning preferences, and, in the process, gives you time to provide additional instruction or extend learning experiences to particular students or groups. Diame Heacox

Do I need to use flexible groups? If after analyzing preassessment data, no powerful differences exist among students, flexible grouping is not necessary. Flexible grouping is necessary if, after analyzing preassessment data, significant differences exist among students with respect to: interests learning style preferences expression style preferences prior knowledge/readiness to learn In a flexibly grouped classroom, the teacher is trying to ensure that students work in many different grouping arrangements even over a relatively short period of time. Besides creating an optimal learning experience for all students, flexible grouping prevents the bluebird/buzzards phenomenon. Carol Ann Tomlinson Jeanne Purcell

Designing Differentiated Learning Activities for Flexible Groups Open-ended activities and assignments Purposefully designed choices to accommodate learning or expression style differences Purposefully designed tiered assignments Purcell

Tiered Assignments are designed to maximize each student's growth by challenging students with learning experiences that are slightly above their current level of knowledge and performance. Tomlinson

Designing a Tiered Assignment A six step process Identify the content Consider your students’ needs Create an activity Chart the complexity of the activity Create other versions of the activity Match one version of the task to each student Tomlinson

Start with material you already have then: –analyze the degree of challenge and variety in your current instructional plans. –modify, adapt, or design new approaches to instruction in response to your students’ needs, interests, and learning preferences. –work with others whenever possible to design differentiated instruction –share what you have developed with fellow teachers Where do I begin?

Lesson introduction Initial teaching Locating or designing a pretest format based on observed or anticipated differences Pretesting Analysis of pretest results Decision making and planning Formation of flexible groups Differentiated teaching and learning activities Instructional Sequence in a Differentiated Classroom NRC/CT, University of Connecticut, 1997

Recall a familiar learning task, lesson, or unit. Identify the ways that students differed during the course of this task, lesson. or unit. Which student difference was most powerful? How did you differentiate to accommodate the difference? How did this accommodation impact their learning? An Example… Burns and Purcell, 2002

Some Student Differences: Think Back _________________ Burns and Purcell, 2002

Our Learning Community We will teach, guide, and support each other I see in these…endeavors the concept of the school as a community of learners; a place where all participants—teachers, principals, parents, and students—engage in learning and teaching. School is not a place for big people who are learned and for little people who are learners, for important people who do not need to learn and unimportant people who do. Instead, school is a place where students discover and adults rediscover the joys, the difficulties, and the satisfaction of learning (Barth, 1990, p. 43). Barth, R. (1990). Improving schools from within. San Francisco: CA: Jossey-Bass.

What do you already know about differentiation? What do you already do with regard to differentiation? What additional changes would be called for in your classroom to provide broader or richer differentiation? What do you want to learn about? What do you want to learn how to do? What will you do with what you learn? What are some benefits of differentiation to you (personally and professionally) and to your students that might encourage you to invest time and effort in providing differentiated instruction? What are some factors that might discourage your investment of time and effort in providing differentiated instruction? What changes do you expect to see in instruction? Students? JUMP-STARTING OUR THINKING our needs assessment Burns and Purcell, 2002