Meeting the Needs of All Learners

1. Meeting the Needs of All Learners with Kate Ellis North Tonawanda City School District kellis@ntschools.org

2. Welcome! Today’s Agenda: • How do we prepare secondary students for life beyond high school? • Identifying the need for changing “the way we’ve always done it” • The changing demands of 21st Century Learning • What does learning look like in your classroom? • Parting words of inspiration from Taylor Mali

3. Are they Ready?

4. Today’s Reality: College Readiness • Only 51% of ACT-tested high school graduates were able to successfully perfom college-level reading tasks. • Students’ readiness for college-level reading is at its lowest point in more than a decade. (Reading Between the Lines, ACT, 2006)

5. Necessary 21st Century Skills “Literacy in the 21st Century will mean the ability to find information, decode it, critically evaluate it, organize it into personal digital libraries, and find meaningful ways to share it with others. Information is raw material — students will need to learn to build with it.” From: The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

6. But Literacy is also… • The ability to interpret graphics and visuals • The ability to speak properly in multiple situations and communicate ideas effectively • The ability to comprehend what is heard • The ability to navigate through a technological world • The ability to write effectively in multiple genres

7. Changing Literacy Demands • Between 1996 and 2006, the average literacy required for all American occupations increased by 14%. • The 25 fastest growing professions have far greater than average literacy demands, while the 25 fastest declining professions have lower than average literacy demands. (Barton, 2000; Reading Next, 2004)

8. TODAY, learning looks like this:

10. How do I meet the needs of all learners when student needs and talents vary so greatly?

11. Most-Effective Teachers J.W. Lloyd, E.J. Kameanui, and D. Chard (Eds.) (1997) Issues in educating students with disabilities.

12. DIFFERENTIATE!

13. What is Differentiated Instruction? • Write a definition of differentiated instruction on your ppt handout. • Share with a neighbor. • Revise your definition if necessary. • Share aloud.

14. Differentiation Defined “Differentiated instruction is a teaching philosophy based on the premise that teachers should adapt instruction to student differences….Teachers should modify their instruction to meet students’ varying readiness levels, learning preferences, and interests.” Carol Ann Tomlinson, Associate Professor University of Virginia

15. Differentiating Instruction… IS… is NOT… Individualizing instruction for each student Providing instruction to meet the range of student needs

16. Differentiating Instruction… is NOT… IS… Using varied strategies that address students’ readiness, interests, and learning styles Assigning all students the same activities all of the time

17. Differentiating Instruction… is NOT… IS… Using varied resources for varied learners Using the same instructional materials for all students

18. Differentiating Instruction… is NOT… IS… Using the text as a resource while teaching big ideas and critical concepts Teaching from the text cover-to-cover

19. Differentiating Instruction… is NOT… IS… Assessing all students’ learning in the same way Using multiple means of assessment

20. Differentiating Instruction… is NOT… IS… Promoting learning across varied settings: home, school, and community Limiting learning experiences to the classroom environment

21. Research Brain Research confirms what experienced teachers have always known: • No two children are alike. • No two children learn in the same identical way. • An enriched environment for one student is not necessarily enriched for another. • In the classroom, children should be taught to think for themselves. Marian Diamonds: Professor of Neuroanatomy at Berkeley

22. 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

23. Key Characteristic of a Differentiated Classroom An obvious feature of the differentiated classroom is that it is “student centered.” Shifting the emphasis from the "teacher and instruction" focus to the "student and learning" focus means redefining the role of the teacher.

24. 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 options for taking in information 2. Process: Multiple options for making sense of the ideas 3. Product: Multiple options for expressing what they know

25. Teachers Can Differentiate Content Process Product According to Students’ Interest Learning Profile Readiness Adapted from The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners (Tomlinson, 1999)

26. Elements and Characteristics of and Strategies for Differentiating Instruction Learning Environment (the context in which learning occurs) • Safe, challenging, and collaborative community • Access to resource-rich classrooms • Flexible movement and use of space • Multiple settings and environments • Flexible scheduling Content (strategies for delivering content) Process (strategies for engaged learning and sense-making) Assessing the Learner Assessing the Learners’ - readiness - interests - learning styles/ preferences • Planning for differentiation • Tiering • Compacting • Accelerating • Enhancing content for depth, complexity, and novelty • Flexible Grouping • Questioning for Critical Thinking • Problem-Based Learning • Contracting • Learning Centers A s s e s s i n g t h e L e a r n i n g A s s e s s i n g t h e L e a r n i n g Product/Performance (the means by which students will communicate understanding) • Open-ended tasks • Authentic/real world solutions • Extension, innovation, creation of new ideas and products • Multiple forms and formats using varied techniques and materials A s s e s s i n g t h e L e a r n i n g

27. Mapping a Route Toward Differentiated Instruction “Even though students may learn in many ways, the essential skills and content they learn can remain steady. Students can take different roads to the same destination.” -Carol Ann Tomlinson

28. Why Differentiate Instruction? • Society is changing and so should our classrooms • Family dynamics • Technology • Values & influences • Classrooms are diverse; different learners need a variety of avenues to learn • Today’s workforce demands more

29. Differentiating Instruction is a way of thinking about teaching and learning that seeks to recognize, learn about, and address the learning needs of all students. To that end, teachers use varied approaches to instruction and assessment that promote learning opportunities and outcomes across different learning environments.

30. Only teachers who utilize a variety of instructional approaches will be successful in maximizing the achievement of all students. Teachers need to “play to” students’ strengths and mitigate students’ learning weaknesses. This can be done only through the use of instructional variety. Source: Lasley, T., & Matczynski, T.

31. How We Teach Makes A Difference!

32. So… What can I do in my own classroom?

33. Use Technology! Differentiate by choice, interest, process, and product by allowing kids to use Web 2.0 tools: • Podcasting • Moviemaker • Wikis • Googledocs • Virtual Field Trips • Second Life

34. Web 2.0 Tools

36. Art Projects in the 21st Century

37. Vocab Projects in the 21st Century

38. Learning in the 21st Century

39. But before you begin… You must reflect on the content of your course AND identify the potential for using technology to engage and challenge your students.

40. What potential 21st Century Literacy Skills can be addressed in my content area? • What type of activities or tasksare required of students in my content area? • What type of textsdo students read in my content area? • What reading and writing skills will students need to use those texts proficiently? • What discussion and presentation skills will students need to verbalize understanding?

41. Reflection: What are the academic literacy demands of my content area? (continued) • What listening and viewing skills will students need to connect with the standards and objectives of my specific content area? • What higher-order thinking skills will students need to use to move beyond basic understanding of content text?

42. A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Learner Vincent Van Gogh Self Portraits In the most limited definition of the term, Impressionism as the objective study of light did not encourage so essentially a subjective study as the self-portrait but in the later expansion of the movement this self-representation was given renewed force by Cézanne and van Gogh. The latter has often been compared with Rembrandt in the number and expressiveness of his self-portraits but while Rembrandt's were distributed through a lifetime, van Gogh produced some thirty in all in the short space of five years --- from the end of the Brabant period (1885) to the last year of his life at St Rémy and Auvers. In each there is the same extraordinary intensity of expression concentrated in the eyes but otherwise there is a considerable variety. From the Paris period onwards he used different adaptations of Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist brushwork, separate patches of colour being applied with varying thickness and direction in a way that makes each painting a fresh experience. Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin 1888 (130 Kb); Oil on canvas, 60.5 x 49.4 cm (23 3/4 x 19 1/2 in); Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

43. A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Learner Oven Baked Macaroni and Cheese Ingredients: 1 8oz. box of elbow macaroni, cooked and drained 2 Tablespoons butter 2 Tablespoons flour 2 cups milk salt and pepper to taste 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar Directions: Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Prepare macaroni using directions on box and drain well. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and stir to remove lumps. Pour in milk and cook until thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Add cheese and stir until melted. Add macaroni and stir until all macaroni is incorporated. Pour mixture into 2 qt. casserole dish and bake for 20 minutes.

44. A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Learner Calculate Your Training Heart Rate Range Step1 Subtract your age from 220. (Example for an 18-year-old: 220 - 18 = 202.) Step2 Multiply the result by 0.55 to determine 55 percent of your estimated maximum heart rate. (For an 18-year-old: 202 x 0.55 = 111.1, or approximately 111 beats per minute). This is the low end of your training range, or the slowest your heart should beat when you exercise. Step3 Multiply the result from step 1 by 0.90 to calculate 90 percent of your estimated maximum heart rate. (For an 18-year-old: 202 x 0.90 = 181.8, or approximately 182 beats per minute). This is the high end of your training range, or the fastest that your heart should beat when you exercise. Step4 Use your answers from steps 2 and 3 to determine your training heart rate range. (An 18-year-old's training range is 111 to 182 beats per minute).

45. A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Learner

46. QUICK WRITE (1 minute) Think of a lesson you will teach Monday and jot down some ideas of how you could differentiate by process, product, or choice through use of technology.

49. 3 Steps to 21st Century Learning

50. Resources for your journey into the 21st Century: • www.twitter.com • http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers • http://webbackpack.wikispaces.com/ • http://www.slideshare.net/ • http://www.classroom20.com/ • http://nyscate.ning.com/ • http://21stcenturylearning.wikispaces.com/ • www.teachertube.com • http://curriculumcorner.wikispaces.com