Great Strategies For A Differentiated Classroom

1. Great Strategies For A Differentiated Classroom Facilitated by Instructional Supervisors Upper Merion Area School District

2. G You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

3. Welcome Agenda Group Norms

4. Today’s Objective: • Know: • Differentiated instruction requires teachers to match instruction to student need. • Understand • DI instruction is assessment driven, choice oriented, focused, and engaging. • Do: • Plan and implement instructional variety

5. DI and Me—Pre-assessment Red:Heard of it….couldn’t tell you much.. Yellow: Kinda Sorta got it… Green: I’ve got this down and could probably teach this workshop…. (Just here for the flex time, Ma’am)

6. Once I had a tennis coach who advised me that he had found a secret that would guarantee that I would win every time I played. The key, he said, was to play only opponents who were under 5 or over 90 years of age. “You’ll win every time,” he said. “Satisfied?” He wanted me to ask myself what I really wanted on the court. He was also showing that the value of competition depends on an even match.

7. From Attache Magazine

8. Fair vs Equal

9. Fair vs Equal Fair is not everyone getting the same thing. Fair is everyone getting what they need to succeed.

10. Fair vs Equal What if all you had was 11’s?

11. NORMAL IS ONLY A SETTING ON THE WASHING MACHINE

12. Readiness Interest Learning profile Content Process Product Key Principles Students Vary Teachers Vary

13. In A Nutshell... • Differentiated Instruction provides varied options to: • Take in information • Make sense of ideas • Demonstrate Knowledge

14. In a Nutshell… Differentiated Instruction : • Is valuable at every level and subject area • Helps students become successful learners • Stretches students in the learning process

15. Differentiation Models Same Input VARY Input VARY Input VARY Output VARY Output Same Output Rose and Urban, IU 13, 10/00

16. RAPID ROBERT The “Dreaded Early Finisher”

17. “I’m not finished” Freddie “It takes him an hour-and–a half to watch ’60 Minutes’”

18. Anchor Activities Anchor activities are ongoing assignments that students can work on independently throughout a lesson, unit, a grading period or longer.

19. One premise in a differentiated classroom: “ In this class we are never finished--- Learning is a process that never ends”

20. A Closer Look Differentiation: A Process that begins with ASSESSMENT

21. Assessment Yields an Emerging Picture of… Understanding of key ideas and targeted skills Level of proficiency Degree of interest ALL Students Making Progress Toward Instructional Goals

22. Assess the Student Level of proficiency Level of awareness Additional support needs Assess the Task/Objective Prerequisite skills General knowledge Activities to support needs Assessing In Order to Differentiate

23. Know, Do, Understand KNOW- Facts that are discrete pieces of information we believe to be true. • Freezing occurs at 32 degrees. • Humans should get 8 hours of sleep.

24. Know, Do, Understand DO - Skill or doing something with the knowledge gained • Writing a paragraph • Finding a main idea

25. Know, Do, Understand UNDERSTAND – includes big ideas, essential questions, and concepts. Big Ideas/Enduring Understandings: • Understanding a text’s structure helps one understand its meaning • Different numbers systems can represent the same quantities (e.g. Bases) • Warfare leads to changes in the way democratic governments relate to their citizens

26. KDU – 1st grade Math Know: • Shapes have names • Vocabulary: circle, triangle, square, rectangle Do: • Compare and contrast different shapes • Separate a mixture of shapes of different sizes into like categories Understand: Shapes • Objects have various characteristics which can be used to group them.

27. KDU - 3rd grade Science Know: • There are four seasons. • Trees lose their leaves in the fall. • Animals hibernate in the winter. Do: • Compare and contrast the seasons • Learn the scientific method – question/hypothesis Understand: Change • Natural and human made things change over time. • Change in one part of a system affects other parts of the system.

28. Grade 6Social Studies Students will: Know: Names and roles of groups in the feudal class system. Do: Research See events through varied perspectives Share research & perspectives with peers Understand: Roles in the feudal system were interdependent. A person’s role in the feudal system will shape his/her perspective on events.

29. KDU - MS Mythology Know: • There were 12 primary Greek gods living on Olympia. • Zeus was the supreme Olympian god. • The structure of a story is called the plot (includes crisis and resolution). Do: • Punctuate dialogue • Interpret and use similes and metaphors Understand: Culture, hero • Our stories reflect our culture. • Who a person or culture designates as heroes tell about the person or culture. • Understanding someone else’s view of the world helps us clarify our own view.

30. KDU – HS Circulation Know: • 3 types of blood vessels—arteries, veins and capillaries. • Human heart has 4 distinct chambers. • Blood flows away from the heart in arteries and back to the heart in veins. Do: • Trace the blood flow through the heart and lungs • Analyze the effect of different chemicals on blood vessel Understand: Interdependence, health • Describe in detail how the circulatory system and other systems are interdependent. • Understand that heart health is an interaction of genetics and environment.

31. Let’s take a Stretch Break…

32. THE FLOW OF INSTRUCTION IN A DIFFERENTIATED CLASSROOM 1 3 5 7 9 Teacher and whole class begin exploration of a topic or concept Students and teacher come together to share information and pose questions The whole class reviews key ideas and extends their study through sharing The whole class is introduced to a skill needed later to make a presentation The whole class listens to individual study plans and establishes baseline criteria for success Students engage in further study using varied materials based on readiness and learning style Students work on varied assigned tasks designed to help them make sense of key ideas at varied levels of complexity and varied pacing In small groups selected by students, they apply key principles to solve teacher-generated problems related to their study Students self-select interest areas through which they will apply and extend their understandings 2 4 6 8 A differentiated classroom is marked by a repeated rhythm of whole-class preparation, review, and sharing, followed by opportunity for individual or small-group exploration, sense-making, extension, and production. Tomlinson, 1995

33. Learning Menus Look in your Handouts

34. What is a Learning Menu? A learning menu is an array of independent learning activities presented in a ‘choice’ or ‘menu’ format to provide students with options for extending or enriching the essential curriculum.

35. Why use a Learning Menu? • Promotes engagement, allows choice and offers challenge • Increases motivation- Students’ choices reveal their interests, abilities and learning styles • Allows teachers to provide for students at varying degrees of readiness

36. Advantages of Learning Menus • Strategy spans all curricular areas • Can target specific learning activities for an individual student or small group • Promotes higher level thinking skills • Encourages the development of independent thinking

37. Classroom Uses of Learning Menus • Follow-up activity • Culminating activity • Anchoring activity(defined by Carol Ann Tomlinson as, “meaningful work done individually and silently”) especially when children first begin a class or when they finish assigned work • Learning center • Independent activity

38. Guidelines for Development & Use(What and How) • Vary offerings (based on intent) • Structure accountability • Discuss the process and developmanagement guidelines • Provide early feedback

39. Menu by Content

40. Menu by Readiness

41. Menu by Learning Profile

42. Menu by Points to Earn Directions: You are to choose any combination of activities above to achieve a total point score of 80.

43. Computer Applications Menu You Decide

44. History/Language Arts Menu

45. Now YOU try it…… Follow Directions for YOUR menu activity.

46. UMASD

47. Think Dots/Cubing What are Think Dots/Cubing? • Designed to have students look at a topic or concept from multiple perspectives. • Incorporates thinking skills with chance and choice in a game-like format. • Provides for students to elaborate on a specific topic by going beyond basic facts Adapted form Gayle Gregory differentiated Instructional Strategies (2002)

48. How are Think Dots/Cubes developed? • Determine six (6) tasks that students could perform to demonstrate knowledge of the given topic/concept • they should focus on the important learning goals for the unit/lesson

49. How are Think Dots/Cubes developed? For each task: • Ask a question a prompt that requires a specific thinking level • What is differentiated instruction? • How can you differentiate instruction? • What is a Learning Menu. • What criteria would you use to create a learning menu that is best suited for your most challenging student? Or

50. How are Think Dots/Cubes developed? For each task create: • A directive (describe, draw, diagram, identify, compare, persuade, support, write, design, discuss, classify, apply, evaluate, etc.) AND • A prompt (description of the task the student should do related to the directive)