DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION

DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION

English and Social Studies November 8, 2005

Welcome & Introductions Anne Druzolowski, Ass’t Superintendent Patricia Hans, Literacy Facilitator Nikitoula Menounos, Principal Barbara St. Onge, Consultant Mary Skelly, Consultant

Mission Statement The mission of the Connecticut Technical High School System is to provide a unique and rigorous high school learning environment that: • Ensures both student academic success, and trade/technology mastery and instills a zest for lifelong learning • Prepares students for post-secondary education, including apprenticeships, and immediate productive employment; and • Responds to employers’ and industries’ current and emerging and changing global workforce needs and expectations through business/school partnerships.

CTHSS VisionSchool Year 2005-2006 THE BIG PICTURE Curriculum Strategic Learning Strategic Instructional Model Instructional Technology STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT ASSESSMENT QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE Character Development Flippen Training Teen Leadership Capturing Kid’s Hearts Leading the Way Behavioral Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) - Beck Behavioral Strategies for Improved Instruction - Knies Implementation

Objective of the Day: Teachers will be able to use the tools and strategies of differentiated instruction as they plan their instruction.

AGENDA A.M. SESSION • Welcome & Introduction • Myths & Realities of Differentiated Instruction • Curriculum Differentiation

AGENDA P.M SESSION IV. Breakout Group Work Session V. Wrap up & Evaluation

Schema Activator Think, Pair, Share • Locate the Teacher Reflection survey in the right side pocket of the folder. • Read, reflect & respond to the questions (10 minutes). • Share with a partner (5 minutes).

Myths & Realities of Differentiated Instruction Jigsaw Activity • Locate articles in the left side pocket of the folder: • Busting Myths about Differentiated Instruction • 11 Practical Ways to Guide Teachers Toward Differentiation • At each table, determine who has the most teaching experience.

Myths & Realities of Differentiated Instruction Jigsaw Activity 3. The person with the most teaching experience is the group manager. 4. The group manager needs to locate the group role cards in the center of the table & assign roles for the morning activities. 5. Teachers seated in tables numbered 1 – 10 read assigned sections of the Myths article. 6. Teachers seated in tables numbered 11 – 20 read assigned sections of the Practical Ways article.

Myths & Realities of Differentiated Instruction Jigsaw Activity 7. The manager will assign each member of the group a section of the article to read. 8. Read & summarize(5 minutes) 9. Share & record on flipchart (10 minutes) 10. One Myth group will report out. One Strategies group will report out.

Why differentiate? What do we want? What goals are we trying to achieve? • Increased Academic Learning • Improved Student Self-Efficacy for Learning • Enhanced Intrinsic Motivation for Learning • Self-Directed Learning Behaviors

The Basic Threes • Differentiation: The “What” (what is made different) • The Content: Material student uses to gain knowledge • The Process: Method/strategies used to gain knowledge/organize thoughts; gain access to content. • The Product: assessment piece to demonstrate mastery. • Differentiation: The “How” (student selection for tasks or flexible groups) according to: • Academic Ability: based on pre-assessment on content knowledge. • Interest: based on interest surveys, multiple intelligence surveys or student choice • Readiness Level: Student pacing based on readiness to work at a faster pace or more independently; based on past performance.

TTT: Things Take Time • One unit at a time • One lesson at a time • One student at a time • One strategy at a time • One grade level at a time

THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS • CONTENT • PREASSESSMENT What are the CRITICAL DIFFERENCES in my students? How can I MODIFY curriculum components to address differences? CHOICE ALTERNATIVES Adjusting the Breadth TIERING Adjusting the Depth MANAGEMENT OF FLEXIBLE, SMALL GROUPS POST ASSESSMENT LINK TO NEXT UNIT

Content Problems that Exist in Some Curriculum Units • Marketing appeal • Coverage • Fact-filled • Poor alignment with other curriculum components • Mention and move on • Patchwork quilt • Holiday curriculum • Activity-Oriented

What is Essential or Core Content? • Fundamental knowledge in a discipline* • Knowledge that reveals the nature of a discipline • Knowledge that is a constant within any discipline-related topic • Knowledge that provides a scaffold for novice and expert learners • Knowledge that spirals throughout the continuum of expertise • Knowledge that is of service to students and adults • Knowledge that adults decide students should learn *This term does not refer to fundamental knowledge valued within a culture or to the basic survival skills

Discipline Based Knowledge THEORY Process Skills, Methodologies of a Discipline GENERALIZATIONS PRINCIPLES CONCEPTS FACTS

Examples of Core Knowledge Categories Facts/Details A specific detail, verifiable information. • George Washington was the first President of the United States. • A,E,I,O,U, AND Y are vowels.

Examples of Core Knowledge Categories Concepts A general idea or understanding, especially a generalized idea of a thing or class of things, a category or classification. • A (president) is the national leader of the executive branch of a democratic government. • (Vowels) sounds are made with uninterrupted air vibrations.

Examples of Core Knowledge Categories Principles Fundamental truth, law, doctrine, rule, or generalization that explains the relationship. • Currently, in the U.S., (president) may only be (re-elected) once. • Every (syllable) has only one (vowel) sound.

Examples of Core Knowledge Categories Skills (Cognitive, Research, Communication, and Methodological) Proficiencies, abilities, techniques, strategies, methods, or tools. • Debate, leadership, delegation, time, management, oratory. • Spelling, poetry writing, rhyming, reading, pattern finding.

Examples of Core Knowledge Categories Dispositions Inclinations, beliefs, states of mind, appreciations, attitudes. • I would never want to be President of the United States. • Paying attention to vowel sounds in my spelling is really worthwhile.

Examples of Core Knowledge Categories Application/Problem Solving The ability to use knowledge to address an aim that was not immediately understood. • I’d like to work on a project for campaign finance reform. • I’d like to create some “tricks” to help students spell better with vowel sounds.

Discipline Based Knowledge THEORY Process Skills, Methodologies of a Discipline GENERALIZATIONS PRINCIPLES CONCEPTS FACTS

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ASSESSMENT AND CURRICULUM STANDARDS Content Knowledge PREASSESSMENT and resulting modifications, if warranted, are based upon critical differences among students TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND FEEDBACK ON-GOING & POST ASSESSMENT

The Lesson or Unit Components That Could Be Differentiated • Content/Knowledge • Assessment • Grouping formats • Introduction • Teaching activities • Learning activities • Resources • Products • Extensions • Time

The Basic Threes • Differentiation: The “What” (what is made different) • The Content: Material student uses to gain knowledge • The Process: Method/strategies used to gain knowledge/organize thoughts; gain access to content. • The Product: assessment piece to demonstrate mastery. • Differentiation: The “How” (student selection for tasks or flexible groups) according to: • Academic Ability: based on pre-assessment on content knowledge. • Interest: based on interest surveys, multiple intelligence surveys or student choice • Readiness Level: Student pacing based on readiness to work at a faster pace or more independently; based on past performance.

ACADEMIC Prior knowledge Reading level Core content Concepts/skills COGNITIVE Developmental readiness Schemas Working memory Thinking skills Learning rate Critical Student Differences We Can Attend • SOCIAL/ EMOTIONAL • Interests • Learning styles • Motivation • Self-efficacy

One Possible Instructional Sequence: • Class meeting , overview, or introduction • Pre-assessment • Large group teaching and learning activities • Small group activities • Small group instruction • Differentiated learning activities • Anchoring activities (differentiated) • 5. Large or small group problem solving and application activities • 6. Debriefing and reflection • 7. Extension activities

Examples of Grouping Formats

Civics Students will demonstrate knowledge of the rights and responsibilities of citizens to participate in and shape public policy, and contribute to the maintenance of our democratic way of life. EXAMPLE 1 Mr. Rowland loved teaching his students about the Constitution. He especially liked the simulations he had collected over his career that dealt with the debates that occurred between the Federalists and the Antifederalists over the ratification of the Constitution. Another of his favorites was the interdisciplinary, culminating activity in which students were required to take on the role of a responsible citizen and voice their opinion about a local matter. Each had to compose a letter to the editor of a local newspaper and express their opinion about a community issue. EXAMPLE 2 As she began the unit on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Ms. Bysiewicz realized that she had students with widely differing reading abilities in her classrooms. She designed a simple plan to scaffold for her students. She divided her class into two groups based upon her knowledge of their reading comprehension. For the struggling learners, she developed a one sheet, two-column table that listed each of the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights in the left-hand column and definitions of troublesome words in the right-hand column. Using this information, students were asked to write down their own understanding of the meaning of the first ten amendments. Ms. Bysiewicz provided her more advanced readers with the original text of each amendment and asked them to derive, in their own words, the meaning of each. At the conclusion of the lesson, students reconvened as a whole group to share their new understandings about the Bill of Rights.

Concept Map: Migration Movement across time and space Goods Ideas LIVING THINGS Migration The study of interactions among people and other life forms located in different places, times, and different environments Animals People Barriers Effects/Changes Cultural Reasons People Land Push Factors Pull Factors Economic Cultural Physical Lack of Freedom Famine Land Wealth People Leaving New Land Indigenous People Former Land Speech Religious Political Refugees Assimilation Innovation Diffusion Acculturation Dissension Conflict

Determining Cause and Effect Leader: ______________ Colony: ______________ • Reasons for leaving Europe: • _____________________________________ • _____________________________________ • _____________________________________ • _____________________________________ • Effects of the migration: • _____________________________________ • _____________________________________ • _____________________________________ • _____________________________________ • _____________________________________

Making Generalizations-Causes/Effects of Migration (Colonization) Generalization (s): Evidence to support the generalization (s):

It’s Your Turn… Content Standard 1: Reading and Responding 1.9-10.12 Students will use the literary elements (theme, symbolism, imagery, etc.) to draw conclusions about a text 1.9-10.13 Students will understand that a single text may elicit a wide variety of responses

Stopping By Woods • on a Snowy Evening • by Robert Frost • Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow. • My little horse must think it queerTo stop without a farmhouse nearBetween the woods and frozen lakeThe darkest evening of the year. • He gives his harness bells a shakeTo ask if there is some mistake.The only other sound's the sweepOf easy wind and downy flake. • The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

EXAMPLE 1 Mr. Johnson spent a bit more than a week on Robert Frost’s poetry, including “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.” He wanted his students to appreciate the “down hominess” of Frost’s poetry. He had students read selected poems aloud to appreciate the sounds and cadence of each selection. With respect to “Stopping,” he asked students to write responses to the following questions: How do you interpret the speaker’s attraction to the woods? What do the last three lines suggest about everyone’s life? Why did Frost repeat the last line? What is the effect of the repetition? EXAMPLE 2 Ms. Mody wanted her students to understand that poetry can evoke many viable interpretations from the skillful use of literary elements by the author. At the same time, she knew that her juniors were at very different levels with respect to abstract thought. For one group of learners, she provided a list of symbols (the owner of the land, the horse, the woods. promises, sleep), some possible interpretations for each, and asked them to interpret the poem from their point of view in a one-page essay. For a second group of learners, she provided the poem only. She asked them to identify the symbols, think about how they interact within the poem, and generate a reflective essay about its meaning to their lives. For the sophisticated learners, she provided them with a copy of the poem and carefully selected quotations by Frost reflecting on his art. She asked them to select one or two of Frost’s quotations and explain,in a short essay, how there can be so many irreconcilable interpretations of “Stopping,” the poem that Frost called his “best bid for remembrance.” 11th Grade American Lit Content Standard 1: Reading and Responding 1.9-10.12 Students will use the literary elements (theme, symbolism, imagery, etc.) to draw conclusions about a text 1.9-10.13 Students will understand that a single text may elicit a wide variety of responses

Selected Quotations “It should be the pleasure of a poem itself to tell how it can. The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom.” The Figure a Poem Makes, 1939 [Metaphor]: saying one thing and meaning another, saying one thing in terms of another, the pleasure of ulteriority*. Poetry is simply made of metaphor.” The Constant Symbol, 1946 “Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.” The Figure a Poem Makes, 1939 *Ulteriority: Lying beyond what is evident or revealed)

The Teaching Strategies Continuum Direct • Lecture • Drill and recitation • Direct instruction • Strategy-based instruction • Coaching • Concept attainment • Demonstration • Socratic Questioning • Visualization • Role playing • Cooperative learning • Simulation • Inquiry-based instruction • Problem-based learning • Shadowing experiences • Mentorships • Independent study • Independent investigations Indirect

Evidence of Differentiation

DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION