Using Instructional Strategies for Differentiating Instruction Dr. Joseph Merhaut

1. Using Instructional Strategies for Differentiating Instruction Dr. Joseph Merhaut Dr. Robert Snyder Differentiation in the Classroom

2. Choice Boards & Menus • Also called Tic Tac Toe Boards or Learning Menus. • A type of learning that provides a “menu” of activities-some that all students must do, and some that allow students choices. • Ensures that each learner focuses on knowledge, understanding and skills designated as essential.

3. Think-Tac-Toe Money Unit Complete any three boxes. The products and assignments are due by ___________.

4. Choice Board ActivityLanguage/Level: English 7 Unit/Theme: Poetry: Literary Elements

5. Choice Board Ancient Egypt – Grade 6( You need to choose one topic from each row and one style from each column for your assessments in this chapter.) BUILD IT CREATE IT WRITE IT GEOGRAPHY IMPORTANT PEOPLE CONTRIBUTIONS

6. Choice Board OR Created by Julie Dill -Math Coach, Wicomico County, 2010

7. Dinner Menu Example • Main Dish (Complete all) • Measure the length of the objects in the measurement container using any of the nonstandard units we have used in class. • Use the large paper clips to measure the pictures of the objects on the worksheet R 17.1 • Complete the “Different Units of Measure” worksheet.

8. Dinner Menu Example • Side Dishes (Select at least 2) • Read the book The Biggest Fish. Measure the length of the fish in the fishing net to the nearest inch. Then glue them onto a sentence strip from shortest to longest. • Complete the “What’s My Length?” activity. • Use a ruler to draw and label lines for the following measurements: 10 inches, 5 inches, 3 centimeters, 15 centimeters, 1 foot, 1 inch, 3 inches, and 10 centimeters. • Organize the pictures of the objects in order from smallest to largest. • Complete the “How Far to the Dragon’s Lair?” activity sheet

9. Dinner Menu Example • Dessert (Optional- Select 1) • Draw a map. Label 4 locations on your map with a large dot. Using you ruler draw lines to connect these locations. Measure and label these lines on your map to the nearest inch. Write a story problem on an index card that can be solved using your map. • Read How Big is a Foot? Then pick 5 objects from the measurement container to measure using a small paper clip, an eraser, and a ruler. Complete the worksheet for this activity.

10. Cubing/Think Dots • Cubing is an instructional strategy that asks students to consider a concept from a variety of different perspectives. • The cubes are six-sided figures that have a different activity on each side of the cube. • A student rolls the cube and does the activity that comes up.

11. Cubing/Think Dots • Not all students receive the same cube. • You can differentiate cubes according to readiness, learning profile, or interest (see differentiated cubing examples included). • Cube Side Suggestions: Describe it * Compare it * Associate it *Analyze it * Apply it * Connect it * Illustrate it* Change it * Solve it* Question it *Rearrange it * Satirize it * Evaluate it * Relate it to something else * Contrast it * Investigate it * What is the significance of it? * Put it in historical perspective * What are the cause/effects of it * Cartoon it * Tell the parts of it * Argue for/against it *

12. Think DotsProbability and Statistics

13. Geometry Think DotsDirections: At your table group, take turns rolling the dice and complete the learning task from the corresponding dot. It is okay if more than one person rolls the same number as each person’s response will be individual.

14. THINK DOTS

15. RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) • Role of the Writer – Students choose a role they wish to emulate. Options may include a soldier, a chemist, a bird, a mayor, or a sheep. Writing from a different perspective helps students to develop critical thinking skills as they have to consider what would be important to the specific role they chose. • Audience – Writing for a specific audience also leads to high order thinking as the student will need to consider what the audience needs to know. An audience could be a person or a group of people and might include anything from zoo patrons to the United States Congress.  Reviewing informal and formal types of writing will be key when discussing how to address a specific audience. • Format – The writing format should correspond with the role of the writer, the audience, and the topic. Teachers will want to step away from regular reports and essays. Let students work on writing formats such as lyrics, raps, letters, speeches, journals, fables, flyers, or even political cartoons. • Topic – Topics can stem from the research students are doing within a subject, themes that are being studied in school, or subtopics within a unit that needs more clarification or enrichment. The goal is to make sure the topic is not too broad (Strayer & Strayer, 2007).

16. Possible Ideas for a RAFTChoose ideas that advance the learning goals.

17. Possible RAFT Formats to Differentiate by Learning Modality

18. Math RAFT

19. Fractions RAFT

20. Other Math RAFT Ideas

21. Analyzing a RAFT Lesson • What are the learning goals for this lesson and are they built into every choice? • How is this RAFT being differentiated? • Does it appeal to different learning styles? • Is there a range of difficulty in the: • Roles? • Formats? • Readiness levels? • Do the roles, formats or topics appeal to a variety of interests?

23. Structured Academic Controversy • Controversy can fuel some great discussions and cultivate rich thinking and language. Structured academic controversies (SAC) emphasize communication, perspective-taking, and problem-solving (Johnson & Johnson, 1995). • Unlike debates, students work together to collaborate on a resolution to the controversy after they have taken both sides of the issue. They are less competitive—there is no “winner” or “loser.”

24. SAC Example • US Metric Conversion • One position is: The metric conversion is necessary for the health of the US economy. • The other position is: The need for metric conversion is obsolete and would actually harm the economy if businesses were mandated to change.

25. SAC Example • Science: Acid Rain • Fact: Industries provide us with needs and wants that in some cases result in acid rain. • Team 1: The needs and wants of a community are more important than the effects of acid rain. • Team 2: The results of acid rain are more dangerous than limiting industries’ production of needs and wants.

26. SAC Example • To Drop or Not to Drop? • This structured academic controversy lesson is designed to teach students both sides of the debate surrounding the use of the Atomic bomb at the end of World War II. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the catalysts that caused the end of World War II and are the only two times that a nuclear weapon has been used in war. It is important that students learn about the circumstances leading to their use and understand the controversy that surrounds those events. It is also important for students to understand the magnitude and significant destruction caused by atomic weapons so that they can be informed participants in today’s world. The purpose of this lesson is to present students with arguments from both sides of the debate so that they may draw their own conclusions regarding the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

27. Curriculum Compacting • Curriculum compacting is a three-step process implemented by the teacher for one or more students who have mastered portions of the essential curriculum: • pre-assess to determine what a student knows about content/skills to be taught; • modify learning activities so that the student receives instruction only about what he/she does not already know provide alternative learning activities that offer acceleration of meaningful, challenging enrichment

28. Tiering • Tiered instruction is like a stairwell providing access within the large building called learning. The bottom story represents learning tasks for students with less readiness and fewer skills. The stairwell continues through enough levels to reach the appropriate challenge for advanced readiness students with very high skills and complex understanding.

29. WHAT CAN BE TIERED? • ASSIGNMENTS • ACTIVITIES • CENTERS & STATIONS • LEARNING CONTRACTS • ASSESSMENTS • MATERIALS • EXPERIMENTS • WRITING PROMPTS • HOMEWORK

30. What is Tiered Instruction? By keeping the focus of the activity the same, but providing routes of access at varying degrees of difficulty, the teacher maximizes the likelihood that: 1) each student comes away with pivotal skills & understandings 2) each student is appropriately challenged. Teachers use tiered activities so that all students focus on essential understandings and skills but at different levels of complexity, abstractness, and open-endedness.

31. Creating Multiple Paths For Learning Key Concept or Understanding Understand The Concept Struggling With The Concept Some Understanding READINESS LEVELS Reaching Back Reaching Ahead

32. IDENTIFY OUTCOMES WHAT SHOULD THE STUDENTS KNOW, UNDERSTAND, OR BE ABLE TO DO? THINK ABOUT YOUR STUDENTS PRE-ASSESS READINESS, INTEREST, OR LEARNING PROFILE INITIATING ACTIVITIES USE AS COMMON EXPERIENCE FOR WHOLE CLASS GROUP 1 TASK GROUP 2 TASK GROUP 3 TASK

33. Guidelines for Tiered Instruction • 1. Ensure that group membership is flexible.The word tiered is not a euphemism for stagnant low-middle-high groups that label who can learn and who is not learning. Tiered assignments denote all children as able to learn the same essential skills in different ways. The make-up of students working at each tier varies with the content, assignment, and quantity of tiers. • 2. Plan the number of levels most appropriate for instruction.Different quantities of tiers are needed for different curricula areas, concepts, and skills in relation to different learners' needs. Sometimes, two tiers are sufficient; at other times, three to five or more work better to match the wide range of learners. Changing the number of tiers is also a way to vitalize flexible groupings and ensure that students are not always in the same group.

34. Guidelines for Tiered Instruction • 3. Recognize that complexity is relative.The complexity of a tiered assignment is relative because it is determined by the specific needs of the students and because learners' readiness levels vary in different curricula areas. In classes with below grade-level learners, the lowest tier would respond to those students. In classes in which all students are at or above grade level, the lowest tier would respond to grade-level or even above grade-level readiness. • 4. Promote high-level thinking in each tier.Avoid always allocating simple thinking tasks for students with the fewest skills. All students need opportunities to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information. • 5. Provide teacher support at every tier.Every tier requires teacher modeling and support for the students working at that tier. All learners benefit from a teacher's instruction, interaction, guidance, and feedback--even gifted children whom some educators perceive as always making it on their own.

35. Tiered Lesson Example • Tier I will be made up of students who I feel will benefit best from a simpler form of learning, such as defining and giving the significance of various key terms or people and answering basic questions.  Some of the terms they will be expected to identify will be:   • Slavery, Nat Turner, Elijah Lovejoy, William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionists, Henry Clay, John Calhoun, Stephan Douglas, popular sovereignty, Fredrick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Toms Cabin, John Brown and Harper’s Ferry, Dred Scott Case, Abraham Lincoln, republicans, democrats, Lincoln/Douglas debates, Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Presidential Nominating Conventions of 1860, etc.

36. Tiered Lesson Example • Tier II would be comprised of students that I felt capable of taking historical facts and analyzing them to show how these people/events led to the escalation of conflict that led to the civil war.  I would give these students various questions that asked them to link certain events to the causes of the civil war.  Some example questions that I may ask of these students are: • 1) How did the publishing of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Toms Cabin help lead to civil war? 2) What did the Dred Scott Case decide?  What did it mean for slaves and former slaves?  Did the Supreme Court overstep its constitutional limits in their decision? 3) What were the differing points of view in the Lincoln/Douglas debates? 4) What key figure in this time period favored popular sovereignty?  How did other key figures react to his ideas? 5) What were the views of the abolitionists?  What were the differences in views held by Lovejoy, Garrison, and Douglass?

37. Tiered Lesson Example • Tier III students will be those students who I feel have a good grip on the ideas presented and can think critically and explain how these key terms/figures/events eventually led to the civil war.  I would ask these students to present a 3-4 page essay on how the key points of the lecture and readings ended up causing the civil war.  These students will be expected to provide their own ideas on why these situations occurred and what the effects of these events were.  These students will be given more freedom to handle the material.  Their own ideas will shape their responses and mold the essay.

38. Tiered Lesson Example • Tier 1 • Students will illustrate the five geometric terms and create a book out of it. • Materials: Paper, stapler, colored pencils. • Procedures: • Students learn about the five geometric terms: point, line, line segment, ray, and angle using the Geometry Powerpoint. • Each student individually takes 3 sheets of paper and folds them in half to make a book. Secure the book by stapling the crease. • On each page a new term is written, and an illustration of that term is drawn using colored pencils. • Add a title to the book on the front.

39. Tiered Lesson Example • Tier 2 • Students will compare and contrast two of the five geometric terms. • Materials: Paper, pencil. • Procedures: • Students learn about the five geometric terms: point, line, line segment, ray, and angle using the Geometry Powerpoint. • Students will individually complete a Venn diagram on Inspiration choosing only two of the terms to compare/contrast.

40. Tiered Lesson Example • Tier 3 • Students create an argument for which of the five geometric terms is most important. • Materials: Paper, pencil • Procedures: • Students learn about the five geometric terms: point, line, line segment, ray, and angle using the Geometry Powerpoint. • Students either individually or in pairs create an argument about which of these five terms is the most important for the world of math. • Students can use the paper to plan for an oral presentation of their argument, or use the paper to prepare a written piece which can be typed in Microsoft Word.

41. Tiered Lesson Example • Tier 4 • Students will go on a scavenger hunt in the room of each of the five geometric terms. • Materials: Paper, pencil, classroom environment • Procedures: • Students learn about the five geometric terms: point, line, line segment, ray, and angle using the Geometry Powerpoint. • Students get into pairs. • Each pair is given a sheet of paper that is divided into 5 categories, one for each term. • Student pairs are given 10 minutes to find as many examples of each as they can, and then draw a picture or write about it in the correct category on the paper.

42. References • http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com • http://sciencespot.net/Pages/classbio.html • http://walch.com/station-activities-text-books/ • http://www.ltps.org/webpages/jpolakowski/files/Differentiated%20Instruction%20for%20Math.pdf • http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/enriched/giftedprograms/mathstations.shtm