1. Differentiated Instruction
Today we will discuss differentiated instruction
We will define it, identify it and process how we can implement differentiated instruction as a daily practice in our classrooms.
Differentiated Instruction
Getting to the Core

2. Differentiated Instruction
Presented by
Dr. Maria Aida Alanis
July 2010

3. Differentiated Instruction
The process of addressing the needs of all learners in the classroom while accessing to a high standard based educational curriculum.
These are the teachers who strive to do whatever it takes to ensure that struggling and advanced learners, students with varied cultural heritages, and children with different background experiences all grow as much as they possibly can each day, each week, and throughout the year.

4. Learners in the Classroom
Struggling Learners
Advanced Learners
Students with varied cultural heritages and languages
Students with different background experiences

5. Teachers
Teachers in differentiated classrooms are more in touch with students and view teaching more as an art than as a mechanical exercise

6. Teachers Begin where students are
Understand that learners differ in important ways
Use different learning modalities
Use varied rates of instruction and varied degrees of complexity
Hold students to high standards

7. Teachers Use time flexibly Utilize a range of instructional strategies
Prescribe the best instruction to match the learner needs
Do not force fit learners to a standard mold

8. Teachers
Recognize that learners not only bring commonalities to the classroom but that they bring differences that distinguishes them as individuals

9. Principles of Differentiation
Respectful tasks
Flexible groups
Continuous assessment and adjustments

10. Differentiate In….. Content Process Product
Content is what the teacher wants students to learn and the materials or mechanisms through which that is accomplished.
Process describes activities designed to ensure that students use key skills to make sense out of essential ideas and information.
Product are vehicles through which students demonstrate and extend what they have learned.

11. Learner Considerations
Readiness
Interests
Learning Profiles
Readiness is a student’s entry point relative to a particular understanding or skill.
Students with less-developed readiness need
More opportunity for direct instruction or practice
More deliberate pace of learning
Someone to help them identify and make up gaps in their learning so they can move ahead
Interests: refers to a child’s affinity, curiosity, or passion for a particular topic or skill.
Learning Profiles: has to do with how we learn.
It may be shaped by intelligence preferences, gender, culture, or learning style.
Teachers may adapt one or more of the curricular elements ( content, process, products) based on one or more of the student characteristics (readiness, interest, learning profile) at any point in a lesson or unit. However, you need not differentiate all elements in all possible ways. Effective differentiated classrooms include many times in which whole-class, nondifferentiated fare is the order of the day.

12. Strategies
Teachers need a range of instructional and management strategies to differentiate instruction and meet the needs of all learners.

13. Instructional Multiple Intelligences Varied Texts Tiered Lessons
Small group instruction
Varied Organizers

14. Management Interest Centers Small-group Instruction Interest Groups
Compacting
Varied Journal prompts

15. Concluding Thoughts
“Differentiated instruction isn’t a strategy. It’s a way of thinking about all you do when you teach and all that kids do when they learn.”
The Differentiated Classroom
Carol Ann Tomlinson