Differentiating Instruction

Differentiating Instruction A Teacher Development Workshop by Lynn, Sona, Jan, Elsa, Kim, and Karina Sponsored by Nanaimo District Teachers’ Association, BCTF, & SD68

Why differentiate instruction? When a teacher tries to teach something to the entire class at the same time, chances are, one-third of the kids already know it; one-third will get it and the remaining third won’t. So two-thirds of the children are wasting their time. - Lillian Katz

Brain Research… Current research on intelligence and the brain suggests that we learn best when we are engaged in meaningful classroom learning experiences that help us discover and develop our strengths and talents. (Silver, Strong, Penini 1997)

What is differentiation of instruction? Differentiating instruction means creating multiple learning paths in order that students of different abilities, interests or learning needs experience equally appropriate ways to absorb, use, develop, and present concepts as part of the daily learning process.

What are the benefits of differentiating instruction? • It allows students to take greater responsibility and ownership for their own learning. • It provides opportunities for peer teaching and cooperative learning. • It fosters student independence.

What differentiation of instruction is not…. • expecting all students to accomplish the same tasks; • grading some students harder than others; • letting students who finish early play games; • giving more of the same work to advanced learners who have already mastered the concept.

The teacher’s attitude can make all the difference… Teachers who showed the greatest ability to move toward differentiated classrooms were inquirers about students and saw school as an organic enterprise in which disequilibrium or disturbance was a catalyst for growth. - Carol-Ann Tomlinson

How to Differentiate Instruction • Differentiate by LEVELS • Differentiate by PACING • Differentiate by ENVIRONMENT • Differentiate by CONTENT • Differentiate by PROCESS • Differentiate by PRODUCT

LEVELS: Prior Knowledge The key to differentiated instruction is to assess students’ prior knowledge before planning the details of a lesson. What are the different points of entry? The teacher can then avoid planning a lesson that is way above or below the students’ capabilities.

LEVELS: Readiness “What are the key concepts that all students must learn for this course? This task?” “How do I assess what they already know?” “How do I assess whether students are ready for this task?”

LEVELS: Readiness Readiness / Ability • Use a variety of assessments • To assess readiness, to assess ability, to assess whether students are working below or above grade level, to assess whether students may simply be missing necessary prerequisite skills. • Accept that readiness is constantly changing • Permit students to move between different groups (see flexible grouping); • Activities for each group are often differentiated by complexity; • Those students whose reading level is below grade level will benefit by reading with a buddy or listening to stories and instructions using a tape recorder so that they receive information verbally. • Vary the level of questioning (and consequent thinking skills) • Compact or extend the curriculum as needed

LEVELS: Core Concepts Begin with the “Big Idea” • What are the core learning outcomes? • What are the essential understandings? • The major concepts or “Big Ideas” serve as the anchors for the unit/lesson you are planning to differentiate. • Vary the paths of learning so students will all end up with a core understanding of the learning outcome.

LEVELS: Benchmarks Assessment is based on B.C.’s • IRP’s (Integrated Resource Packages) • PLO’s (Prescribed Learning Outcomes) BC Ministry of Education http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/ Of the 400+ learning outcomes for each grade level, consider which outcomes are life-long learning skills – these become the core “Big Ideas.”

LEVELS: Aim higher! The starting point is what you need to do to challenge the highly able student. What you’re then doing is insuring that all kids get the best-practice instruction. Whenever you have teachers doing that, it reshapes how they teach all kids. - Carol-Ann Tomlinson

LEVELS: Assessment Assessment does not occur at one specific time during a unit. Teachers who differentiate instruction are constantly assessing or gathering information about their students. They then adjust the activities in their lesson/unit according to what they find out about how their students are doing.

To learn a particular concept, “some children need days; some, ten minutes,” but the typical lockstep school schedule ignores this fundamental fact. -Marilyn Hughes

“How do I plan and organize and pace the learning in my classroom?”

PACING: Paths to learning If two students can reach the same understanding, what does it matter if one student takes a shortcut and another takes the long way? • Sometimes students are equipped with the prior knowledge that prepares them for the fast track toward understanding. • Other times students will need to take the slower paced scenic path. How to Differentiate Instruction St. Mary's College, Maryland

PACING: Provide options • A list of agreed upon activities that a student can go to when they have completed present assignments. • Activities assigned for a short period at the beginning of class as students prepare for work. These may relate to specific needs or enrichment opportunities, including problems to solve or journals to write. • Students can work at different paces but always have meaningful work they can do. These activities must be worthy of a student’s time and appropriate to their learning needs.

PACING: Change pacing Accelerating or Decelerating Changing the pace that students move through curriculum is another method of differentiating instruction. Students demonstrating a high level of competence can work through the curriculum at a faster pace. Students experiencing difficulties may need adjusted activities that allow for a slower pace in order to experience success.

PACING: Compacting Compacting: A 3-Step Process • Assess what student knows about material to be studied and what is required for mastery; • Plan for learning what is not known and excuse from what is known; • Plan for freed up time to be spent in enriched or accelerated study.

PACING: Compacting Compacting Curriculum • Assess a student’s knowledge, skills and attitudes • Providing alternative activities for the student who has already mastered curriculum content This can be achieved by pre-testing basic concepts or using performance assessment methods. Students who demonstrate that they do not require instruction move on to tiered problem-solving activities while others receive instruction.

“How do I manage different students doing different things without chaos?”

ENVIRONMENT: Motivation Boredom and failure are often at the root of most students’ acting out. Most kids want to learn. Misbehavior is a child’s response to a frustrating educational environment. Once teachers start differentiating, they’ll find the behavior they feared most has stopped. The work itself has become motivating. It’s a payoff. - Carol Ann Tomlinson

ENVIRONMENT: Motivation Student Motivation Students are motivated by: • Collegiality -Provide opportunities for students to work together and celebrate accomplishments • Competence – Assess whether or not task is at student’s instructional level (Frustration is not motivating) • Relevance – ensure students are aware of relevance this learning will have to their future

ENVIRONMENT: Aims What should you aim for? • Trust: Make sure that you are open with your students about your decisions. For example:Why have you chosen to put a student in a particular group? • High Expectations: Always insist on high quality work from every student. Explain why something is or is not meeting your expectations. • A Community of Learners: Convey the message that every student is an important part of your classroom. “We are all in this together.”

ENVIRONMENT: Routines Establish Routines • Teach independent routines for learning that students are to follow when teacher is busy with another group. What else can you do while you are waiting for assistance? • Teach independent routines for entering/exiting and washroom breaks when teacher is busy with another group.

ENVIRONMENT: Procedures Establish Procedures • Teach effective plans for: • Materials distribution • Transitions/interruptions • Instructional time • Handing in work (where and when)

ENVIRONMENT: Hands-on Tasks have to be "respectful of kids, hands-on, engaging and thought-provoking." A differentiated class is a workshop environment where teachers can get to each group. A differentiated room may look chaotic, but it’s a workshop."

ENVIRONMENT: Engaging An actively engaged classroom provides the teacher with time to give individual lessons and small group instruction to students requiring additional help to get started.

ENVIRONMENT: Learning Styles Learning Modalities and Styles Another filter for assigning students to tasks is by learning style or learning modality: • auditory (learns best by hearing information) • visual (learns best through seeing information in charts or pictures) • kinesthetic preferences (learns best by using concrete examples, or may need to move around while learning)

ENVIRONMENT: Interests Student Interests Interest surveys are often used for determining student interest. Brainstorming for subtopics within a curriculum concept and using semantic webbing to explore interesting facets of the concept is another effective tool. This is also an effective way of teaching students how to focus on a manageable subtopic.

“How do I organize the students in groups for instruction and projects?”

ENVIRONMENT: Groups • Keep groups from becoming stagnant (Tomlinson, 2001). Students need to work with a variety of peers in groups based on interests, readiness, or self-selected groups. • Without changing the groups in your classroom, students will quickly find a relationship between how they are grouped and the type of work they receive.

ENVIRONMENT: Groups As student performance will vary it is important to permit movement between groups. Student readiness varies depending on personal talents and interests, so we must remain open to the concept that a student may be below grade level in one subject at the same time as being above grade level in another subject. Flexible grouping allows students to be appropriately challenged and avoids labeling a student's readiness as static. Students should not be kept in a static group for any particular subject as their learning will probably accelerate from time to time.

ENVIRONMENT: Flexible Groups Even highly talented students can benefit from flexible grouping. Often they benefit from work with intellectual peers, while occasionally in another group they can experience being a leader. In either case peer-teaching is a valuable strategy for group-work.

ENVIRONMENT: Flexible Groups Flexible groups are also necessary because students’ abilities vary from time to time. A student who is struggling with one concept may excel in another. - Tomlinson, 1995

ENVIRONMENT: Flexible Grouping

ENVIRONMENT: Peer-Teaching Occasionally a student may have personal needs that require one-on-one instruction that go beyond the needs of his or her peers. After receiving this extra instruction the student could be designated as the "resident expert" for that concept or skill and can get valuable practice by being given the opportunity to re-teach the concept to peers. In these circumstances both students benefit.

ENVIRONMENT: Reading Buddies This strategy is particularly useful for younger students and/or students with reading difficulties. Children get additional practice and experience reading away from the teacher as they develop comprehension and fluency. It is important that students read with a specific purpose in mind and then have an opportunity to discuss what was read. It is not necessary for reading buddies to always be at the same reading level. Students with varying word recognition, word analysis, and comprehension skills can help each other be more successful. Adjusted follow up tasks are also assigned based on readiness level.

ENVIRONMENT: Buddy-Studies A buddy-study permits two or three students to work together on a project. The expectation is that all may share the research, analysis, and organization of information, but each student must complete an individual product to demonstrate learning that has taken place and be accountable for their own planning, time management, and individual accomplishment.

ENVIRONMENT: Learning Centres Learning Centres have been used by teachers for a long time and may contain both differentiated and compulsory activities. However a learning centre is not necessarily differentiated unless the activities are varied by complexity taking in to account different student ability and readiness. It is important that students understand what is expected of them at the learning centre and are encouraged to manage their use of time. The degree of structure that is provided will vary according to student independent work habits. At the end of each week students should be able to account for their use of time.

ENVIRONMENT: Learning Contracts • A learning contract is a written agreement between teacher and student that will result in students working independently. • The contract helps students to set daily and weekly work goals and develop management skills. • It also helps the teacher to keep track of each student’s progress. • The actual assignments will vary according to specific student needs.

ENVIRONMENT: Contract Learning • Contract learning allows each student some ownership over what they study, and their progress in learning. • Each learning contract is developed with the student’s input. • Contract learning allows students to work at their own pace to accomplish their own goals.

ENVIRONMENT: Contract Learning How to do it: • Decide on when students need whole group instruction, and when to allow more freedom. • Introduce the unit as a whole group. Plan times for whole group lessons that target the major concepts • Provide choices for students to research topics of their interest that are related to the unit. • Require students to report their progress throughout. • Let parents know about the contracts.

ENVIRONMENT: Contracts • Have specific goals set by both students and teacher. • Include criteria for successful completion of goals. • Specify how each student will be evaluated and the methods of evaluation are chosen by both teacher and student.

ENVIRONMENT: Independent Studies Independent studies are research projects where students learn how to develop the skills for independent learning. The degree of help and structure will vary between students and will depend on their ability to manage ideas, time, and productivity. A modification of the independent study is the buddy-study.

Differentiating Instruction