1. Reach Every Student Through DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION
Grades 7/8 Training
Getting to the core of teaching and learning
Education Centre
January 21, 22, 2008

2. Welcome and Meet the Team
Suzanne Cholasta – Curriculum Services
Tina Elliott – Queen Elizabeth, Trenton
Pearl Hucul – Curriculum Services
Richard Long – Curriculum Services
Cathy Portt- Special Education Services
Carla Ross – Prince Charles, Trenton
Mandy Savery-Whiteway – Student Success
Christine Zaporzan – Susanna Moodie

3. Bernard B. (2004) Resiliency: What We Have Learned
Three important characteristics of a learning community that assist teachers and students in developing resiliency include:
caring relationships,
opportunities for participation and contribution, and
opportunities to use strengths and interests as starting points for learning.
Bernard B. (2004) Resiliency: What We Have Learned

4. Context Provincial focus on Student Success Grade 7 & 8
Spring 2007 – Regional Project Teams
Fall 2007 – Ministry training for HPEDSB team
Winter 2008 – HPEDSB Phase 1 and 2 implementation
Spring/ Fall 2008 – Grades 9 & 10

5. Why Differentiated Instruction?
Grade 7 & 8 – a time of complex student growth
Teachers supporting students through developmental changes
Student interests, preferred ways of learning and specific learning needs
Reach every student
Success for all students

6. Getting Started… Jan.21/22
improving student learning by recognizing and addressing the diverse learning needs of the students
understanding Differentiated Instruction
seeing the value of Differentiated Instruction
recognizing that Differentiated Instruction does not mean doing everything differently
taking new instructional actions, small or large, beyond current level of implementation

7. Agenda Review Differentiated Instruction – What? Kits
Knowing your students – Who?
Planning for Learning and Making Instructional Decisions – How?
Exit Cards
Phase 2 opportunities

8. What have you brought in your backpack?
Who is a Grade 7 teacher? Grade 8 teacher? French teacher? ISRT? Administrator? Other?
Who has attended an in-service / workshop on DI?
Who has read a book related to DI?
Who has watched a webcast on DI?
Who has students with different abilities in their classroom?
Who knows students that are at risk?

9. Differentiated Instruction
Essential Question
Enduring Understandings
How can differentiated instruction support success for all students?
Differentiation is a prerequisite to effective curriculum planning, instruction and assessment.
Differentiation is teaching with student differences in mind.
In a differentiated classroom we choose to do what is fair, not what is equal.
Pages 2 to 7 in DI Teacher’s Guide

10. Page 18-20 in DI Teacher’s Guide
Creating an Effective
Learning Environment
A Sense of Community
positive, respectful, collaborative classroom environment
organization, routines and visible learning supports
students feel safe to take risks
students learning styles are accepted and respected
Page in DI Teacher’s Guide

11. Learning About the Learner Pages 8 -14 in DI Teacher’s Guide
Know your Students
Teachers can differentiate according to student’s:
Readiness
Interest
Learning Profile / Preferences
Students learn better if tasks are a close match for their skills and understanding of a topic (readiness), if tasks ignite curiosity or passion in a student (interest), and if the assignment encourages students to work in a preferred manner (learning profile).
Pages in DI Teacher’s Guide

12. Pages 15 – 17 Teacher’s Guide
Plan for Learning
Know the Curriculum
Framework for designing instruction, assessment and evaluation:
What do I want students to learn?
How will I know they have learned it?
How will I design instruction and assessment to help them learn
(Wiggins and McTighe – Understanding by Design)
What helps us differentiate instruction, assessment and evaluations is the knowledge we develop about our students’ learning preferences, interests, and readiness to learn new concepts.
Pages 15 – 17 Teacher’s Guide

14. Ongoing Assessment
Teachers use ongoing assessment to gather information to inform decisions about their students, their instructional approaches and the assessment forms they use before, during and after learning.
“The teacher does not try to differentiate everything for everyone everyday…Instead, the teacher selects moments in the instructional sequence to differentiate, based on formal and informal assessment.”
Tomlinson, The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners

15. Differentiating Content
The “WHAT” of teaching.
awareness and use of essential skills to make sense of, think about, communicate and apply key concepts and principles
multiple materials are provided
multiple perspectives on ideas & events sought
“In differentiated classrooms, teachers begin [teaching] where students are, not at the front of a curriculum guide.”
Tomlinson, The Differentiated Classroom, 2000

16. The “HOW” of teaching and learning.
Differentiating
Process and Product
The “HOW” of teaching and learning.
based on student readiness, interest and learning preferences
varied approaches, resources and instructional arrangements
proactive and thoughtful planning
flexibility in choice and time
alternate ways for students to demonstrate knowledge and skills

17. Differentiating for Process and Product means…the ‘how’
Reciprocity
PROCESS
How of Teaching
PRODUCT
How of Learning
Student Learning
Adjusting instructional approaches to match the needs of the learner using high yield strategies
Offering a variety of ways to represent knowledge and skills
Pages DI Teacher’s Guide

18. Help students demonstrate and learn from their learning
Self Assessment and Evaluation OF
FOR
Assessment AS Learning
Self, diagnostic and formative assessment are essential to helping us differentiate instruction to meet the learning needs of all students in our classroom.
Pages in DI Teacher’s Guide

19. Celebrate Individual and
Group Successes

20. Content - and Learner-Centered Planning, Teaching, and Assessing
“If I am uncertain of the precise outcomes of a unit… I am also unable to pre-assess students’ proximity to those outcomes effectively – and thus I am not certain how to craft the start of the journey for students whose proficiencies vary.”
Tomlinson and McTighe, Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design

21. Bringing it all Together! Are my students learning?
Learning Environment
Differentiated
Instruction
Assessment
Shared Reading
Who am I teaching?
What am I teaching?
How am I teaching?
Are my students learning?

22. As you work towards implementation of differentiation remember
to set realistic and attainable goals...
Pages in DI Teacher’s Guide

23. Knowing Your Students What came first, the chicken or the egg?
Here is an easier question…What comes first in Differentiated Instruction?

24. Knowing Your Students - The Pillars
Readiness
Prior knowledge
Social/Emotional
Interest
Curiosity or passion
Learning Preferences
How do they learn best?
Your Task – “Connect the Cards”
Connect the “Know Your Students” activity to the “Readiness, Interests and Preferences” organizer using the Green Cards. Sort the information on your “Know Your Students” into:
Learning Preferences – Learning Styles
Interests
Readiness
When you are done, read pages 10 and 11 of the Differentiated Instruction Teacher’s Guide.

25. “Connect the Cards” Readiness Interests Preferences Interests
Learning Preferences
Readiness
Interests
Preferences

26. Connect the Cards Consolidation
Think
Pair
Share

27. Minds On Strategy Focus: Metaphor Purpose of the Strategy:
Establish a positive learning environment
Connect to prior learning and/or experiences

28. Go to the picture/corner that most represents your best lesson

29. ACTION Strategy Focus: Jigsaw Purpose of the Strategy:
Introduce new learning
Provide opportunities for practice and application of learning

30. Expert Groups Core Questions, pp. 15-17
Learning Environment, pp
Key Features of Diff. Instruction, pp
Structures, pp and the Yellow Structures companion cards
Strategies, pp , and Red Strategy companion cards
Assessment and Evaluation, pp
Experts return to Home Groups so that experts can present their summary in the Home Groups, while others record the information in the appropriate section of the Jigsaw summary chart.

31. CONSOLIDATION & CONNECTIONS
Strategy Focus:
Exit Cards
Purpose of the Strategy:
Provide opportunities for consolidation and reflection

32. Exit Cards Reflect on the four guiding questions at your table:
What I learned/had confirmed about differentiated instruction .….
I wonder ……
What I plan to try in my classroom/school related to differentiated instruction ……
What I want/need to make this plan happen ……

33. Phase 2
Opportunities to be part of Professional Learning Community on Differentiated Instruction
Teachers will select their own focus area for further implementation
Four meeting sessions from February to May
Small teams – Minimum of two teachers from individual schools including ISRT’s
Please join us ……