A Perfect Match: Differentiated Instruction and the School Library

1. A Perfect Match: Differentiated Instruction and the School Library Sharon Mills and Karen Beutler Instructional Leaders, Toronto District School Board Evelynne Bernstein, Teacher, Toronto District School Board

2. Agenda • Overview of Differentiated Instruction (DI) • Multiple Intelligences, Learning Styles, and Brain Theory • DI Strategies and the Library Environment • DI in Practice

3. Enduring Ideas • Not new teaching, new planning and facilitating • Teacher acknowledges and celebrates multiple intelligences and learning styles • Students understand and take responsibility for pursuing own learning • Choice is key factor for motivation and learning

4. Find Your Teenage Brain Partners Find three people who will be your partners for activities during this workshop Write their names on the Teenage Brain – Partners handout

5. Brain Theory • Window to Wire • Sleep deprivation • What helps one….helps all (Word Wall) • Reticular Activating System – Novelty! Kathie Nunley, A Student's Brain: The Parent/Teacher Manual, 2003

6. Determine your Multiple Intelligence Howard Gardner Activity Intelligences Graph - Pink

7. Meet Your Hypothalamus Partner to consolidate MI Share your MI graph with your partner and reflect on its accuracy

8. http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/mi/w1_interactive1.htmlhttp://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/mi/w1_interactive1.html

9. http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/index.htmhttp://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/index.htm

10. http://surfaquarium.com/MI/intelligences.htm

11. Learning Styles • Auditory • Sound out words • Enjoy listening • Visual • Prefer pictures, diagrams, concept maps • Enjoy face-to-face conversation/demonstration • Kinesthetic/Tactile • Expressive movements • Jump right in and try it

12. http://www.berghuis.co.nz/abiator/lsi/lsitest2.html

13. Average Retention Rates for Instructional Methods Based on the work of William Glassner Adapted from research y the national Training Laboratories, Methel, ME Presented by Heather Clayton, November 2007 Lecture 5% Reading 10% Audio Visual 20% Teacher Demonstration 30% Discussions 50% Practise by doing 75% Practise by doing/teach others 90%

14. Where does DI occur? Content – What are students going to learn? Process – What activities will students do and what skill sets will they acquire? Products – What method will students choose to demonstrate their learning? Carol Ann Tomlinson

15. Where does the Teacher-Librarian include DI? Plagiarism Activity: Visual Kinesthetic/Tactile Auditory

16. DI Opportunities in the Library Add to the DI Opportunities recording sheet addressing the following questions alone and then with your Pre-frontal Cortex Partner: What are the common skill areas you address? How could you build DI into the delivery?

17. Differentiated Instruction in Action Evelynne Bernstein

18. Background • Decision to implement DI was based on the fact that student effort (English 4U) had declined once University acceptances were received • Marked decline in students handing in work • Goals: • increase the number of students handing in final Culminating Activity of the course • provide a CA that would engage students - media • Using DI seemed a perfect fit

19. Action Research “If I differentiate from the standard literary essay oral assignment based on the novels under study and assign a creative media assignment instead, will my students have more success in completing their assignment and earning their credit?” Librarianship AQ Specialist Course requirement

20. Project • Task: define a social issue stemming from the two novels they had studied and compare its treatment in three different forms of media • Process: convey analysis in the form of a graphic organizer • Assessment: small group structured sharing • Evaluation: rubric/checklist

21. Sample Projects

22. Teacher Observations • Differentiating the product had a positive effect on number of students completing the Culminating Activity • Simplicity of the product in some cases belied the depth of analysis • Quality of student work was WAY beyond expectations • Students felt pressure to prepare in order to share • Most impressive demonstration of learning was in student reflections

23. Student Reflection “I found this media assignment very insightful to the serious issue of elder abuse and neglect. This opened my eyes to the amount of elder neglect that goes on in professional centres. I thought this was a refreshing way to complete a media assignment compared to past years.” Sara G.

24. Student Reflection “I liked being able to express my ideas visually. I could take what I was thinking and organize it in a visual way. It is appealing to the eye to be able to look at something visual instead of having to read an essay. It was also good to be able to explain my interpretation with a write-up that allowed everyone to understand how I was feeling.” Kathleen R.

25. Library Support • Variety of resources (articles, music, lyrics, artwork) • Access to media • Graphic organizer support • Support for struggling students

26. Questions

27. Differentiated Strategies to Share Read one DI strategy and share with your Amygdala Partner Carol Ann Tomlinson, Differentiated Instruction in the Mixed Ability Classroom

28. You ask, “What’s in my backpack?” My teacher wants to plant a seed, Get my “love of learning” to sprout. She wants it to last a lifetime- That’s what school is all about. Written by: Donna Whyte, 2002

29. Here’s the site for the stopwatch…. http://www.online-stopwatch.com/download-stopwatch/