Overview of Differentiated Instruction

1. Overview of Differentiated Instruction Differentiated Instruction Middle School Coaches February 3, 2011 Yoly McCarthy Curriculum Support

2. Purpose of this in-service The teacher will be able to- Know: What differentiated instruction is and how it can change the way a classroom is taught Understand: The look of a differentiated class and how to implement a few of the strategies Do: Develop an activity using differentiated strategies based on a subject specific benchmark.

3. If you always do What you’ve always done You’ll always get What you’ve always got

4. Agenda • Welcome: What is differentiation? • Quiet Share (Pre-Assessment) • Classroom building/ Research for DI • Having clear objectives (KUD) • Pre-Assessment • Writing samples, concept map, surveys, data • How to differentiate learning activities through • Content • Process • How to differentiate homework in class • Product • Multiple Intelligence Inventory • Create a Think-Tac-Toe • Writing choices: RAFT • Anchor Activities • Learning Centers • Reviewing and Assessing: Exit Cards

5. QUIET SHARE… 1. Pick a column 2.Write or think silently 3. Be ready to share when time is up Explain to a new teacher what you think differentiation is in terms of what he/she would be doing in the classroom and why. The definition should help the new teacher develop an image of what you think differentiation looks like in action. Develop a metaphor, analogy, or visual symbol that you think what differentiation is to you. Write a definition of what you think Differentiation Instruction is.

6. What is Differentiation? “What we call differentiation is not a recipe for teaching. It is not an instructional strategy. It is not what a teacher does when he or she has time. It is a way of thinking about teaching and learning. It is a philosophy.” Carol Tomlinson, September 2000

7. What is Differentiation? Differentiation, according to Sprenger (2003) is “offering students multiple ways of taking in and expressing information” Educators focus on “content, process, product, and environment” while addressing three basic tenets that students and teachers are both teachers and learners; everyone can learn, and that learning can be enjoyable (Sprenger, 2003, p.2).

9. Schools that promote and support DI include classrooms and programs that: • Respond to variations in students’ readiness • Respond to the myriad of students’ interest • Respect the various students’learning profiles Or differentiate according to • The content within a benchmark • The process in which a student may learn • The product the student may produce

10. CLASSROOM BUILDING • All of this depends on a safe, secure environment where students feel that they can share their interests, abilities, and opinions • Kids need to know that they can let their misconceptions be known without ridicule

11. Ask about yourClassroom Communities . . . • How do teachers begin and end class time with their students? • In what ways do students assume ownership of their learning? • How do teachers understand and celebrate students’ similarities? Differences? • How do teachers know that each student feels included in the community? What actions do they take to ensure this?

12. Connecting With Kids • Talk at the door • Early interest assessments • Small group instruction • Dialogue journals • Student conferences • Open room days • Ask for student input • Invite examples, analogies, experiences • Elicit input from students • Listen • Seek varied perspectives • Share own interests, questions, plans • Start class with kid talk • Go to student events • Watch before & after school, at lunch • Keep student data cards with interests and talents • Take notes during class • Use Socratic or student-led discussions

13. Successful DifferentiatedClassrooms 1. Build a climate of trust that allows students to express themselves in an open, non-judgmental, non-threatening manner 2. Ensure that respect is mutual 3. Create a sense of safety 4. Facilitate the building of supportive and accepting relationships

14. How Does Research Support DI? • Differentiated Instruction is the result of a synthesis of a number of educational theories and practices about teaching and learning modalities…to include: child psychology, behavior management, learning styles, multiple intelligences, assessment, ....... • Brain research indicates that learning occurs when the learner experiences moderate challenge and relaxed alertness –readiness • Psychological research reveals that when interest is tapped, learners are more likely to find learning rewarding and become more autonomous as a learner. • Because learning styles change slowly it is harder to change a child's way of learning than to adapt instruction to their learning style (Yilmaz-Soylu, & Akkoyunlu, 2009).

15. Consider this… • When a teacher tries to teach something to the entire class at the same time, chances are… • 1/3 of the kids already know it • 1/3 of the students will get it • 1/3 of the kids won’t get it • SO, 2/3 of the students are wasting their time. • Lillian Katz

16. What are the kids saying? When I feel lost in class… • I play with my hair. • I wish the teacher would know how I feel and would help me. • I want to go home and watch TV. • I get mad. • I feel scared. Sometimes I try to listen harder but mostly it doesn’t work. • I get some much needed rest When classes move too slowly… • I color my nails with a pen. • I listen to music in my head or to think back to a movie, to its funny parts.

17. Principles of a Differentiated Classroom All students participate in respectful work. Teacher and students work together to ensure continual engagement & challenge for each learner. The teacher coordinates use of time, space, and activities. Flexible grouping which includes whole class learning, pairs, student-selected groups, teacher selected groups, and random groups.

18. Is this a student in your class?

19. Consequences of NOT Differentiating • Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock. • Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half-German, half-Italian, and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf, he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this. • I am not sure how clouds get formed. But the clouds know how to do it, and that is the important thing.

20. Have a Clear Objective K.U.D. • Know: Topic you want the student to know • Understand: Characteristics of the topic you want the student to understand • Be Able to Do: Objectives and skills you want the student to be able to complete or become proficient at (McTighe and Wiggins, 2005)

21. Create a KUD Choose any benchmark from the item specifications and write a KUD that would form a lesson (Backwards Design with the end in mind) • Know • Understand • Do Example from Social Science: • Know: Facts, Definitions, Dates, Names, Places- The Holocaust occurred from 1938-1945; genocide, concentration camps; Hitler • Understand: Concepts, Abstract Big Ideas, Makes learning meaningful to students, Connects topic to other topics- Tolerance, Injustice, Survival • Do: Skills, Actions, Performance Analyze Elie Wiesel’s choices during his experiences in the Holocaust

22. Once That is Done: Differentiate According to Students’… Readiness (Pre-assessments, Diagnostic assessments)– • Refers to readiness for a given skill, concept, or way of thinking • Use data and pre-assessments to determine this and guide instruction Interests and Attitudes – • Have to do with those thingsthat learners find relevant, fascinating, or worthy of their time • Done through surveys and discussions Learning Profiles and Need – • Refer to things such as learning styles, intelligence preferences, and how the learner sees himself in relation to the rest of the world

23. Pre-Assessments Need to pre-assess, assess, and re-assess throughout the curriculum • Writing samples • Concept Maps • Surveys • Data • Intelligences • Formative assessment probes • Free form maps/ group drawing • Listening in on student talk

24. Concept Map With your group, DRAW everything you know about this topic to show us your understanding of it Objects in the Universe

25. What Do We Differentiate? • Content (What) • Varied texts, learning contracts, mini-lessons, pre-highlighted learning materials, note-taking organizers, high interest topics within the content • Process (How) • Multiple intelligence inventory with an activity for each kind (Sternberg), interest groups, flexible grouping, Jigsaw, Think-Pair-share, dialogue journals, math journals • Product • Process Logs, Writing samples, Exit Cards, Concept Maps, 3-2-1 summarizer

26. It doesn’t have to be difficult

28. Multiple Intelligence Inventory • Students complete the Multiple Intelligence Inventory independently • After they have determined their multiple intelligence level, they can draw or describe their profile on their class folder, journal, etc • Intelligences can change and be strengthened

29. Who are you? * • Linguistic • Logical/ Mathematical • Spatial • Bodily/ Kinesthetic • Musical • Interpersonal • Intrapersonal • Naturalistic

30. Think-Tac-Toe

31. Think – Tac - Toe • Students should pick three according to three in a row

33. Think-Tac-Toe Steps: 1. Identify the outcomes and instructional focus of a unit of study. 2. Use assessment data and student profiles to determine student readiness, learning styles, or interests. 3. Design nine different tasks. 4. Arrange the tasks on a choice board. 5. Select one required task for all students. Place it in the center of the board. 6. Students complete three tasks, one of which must be the task in the middle square. The three tasks should complete a Tic-Tac-Toe row. Adaptations: • Allow students to complete any three tasks—even if the completed tasks don’t make a Tic-Tac-Toe. • Assign students tasks based on readiness. • Create different choice boards based on readiness. (Struggling students work with the options on one choice board while more advanced students have different options.) • Create choice board options based on learning styles or learning preferences. For example, a choice board could include three kinesthetic tasks, three auditory tasks, three visual tasks.

34. Think – Tac - Toe • Meet with your group choose a Florida standard and come up with nine varied activities students can do to learn the content.

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

36. The Purpose of an Anchor Activity Provide meaningful work for students when they… • Finish an assignment or project • When they first enter the class • When they are “stumped” Provide ongoing tasks that tie to the content and instruction. Free up the classroom teacher to work with other groups of students or individuals

37. Some Examples of Anchor Activities • Brain busters • Learning packets • Activity box • Learning / interest centers • Vocabulary work • FCAT Explorer • Investigations • FCAT Practice activities • Magazine articles • Jason Project • Research questions or projects • Commercial kits and materials • Journals or Learning Logs • Silent reading; Discovery articles • Websites; GIZMOS, Discovery Learning

38. Make a RAFT • Role- You as a teacher leader • Audience- Science teachers in your school • Format- Your choice • Topic- Changing what we do to ensure all our kids succeed

42. Learning Centers • Should contain materials that promote the individual growth of the individual students • Include activities that vary from simple to complex, concrete to abstract • Provides clear directions for the students • Uses materials and activities which address a wide range of reading levels, learning profiles and student interests

43. Learning Centers cont… Example: Cell Structure and Function Center (Creative) 1: Draw a cell and label all its organelles and their functions. Now make up your own cell with its own “organelles”. Center (Analytical) 2: Develop a metaphor for the cell using an organization in real life such as a city, school, etc. Draw and describe all parts and what each one does. Center (Practical) 3: Write a RAFT for the cell in which -the roles are the major organelles of the cell -the audience is the cell -the format is a plea -the topic is the reasons they should keep their job and why Center (Teacher) 4: Listen to a mini lecture about the structure of the cell and be able to ask questions of the teacher. Fill out an exit card of what you learned and why it is important. Center (Technology) 5: Use a Gizmo to learn the parts of the cell and the purposes for each.

44. Learning Centers cont… • With your partner create 5-10 centers that students can do (remember not all centers should be needed to learn the topic) based on a science topic to be learned • For each center determine and describe: • Specific goals • Way it is differentiated • A “HOT” activity to be included • Materials needed at each

45. REVIEW“Talk a Mile a Minute” • Can be used to pre-assess or review about a topic in science • Wonderful tool to review vocabulary • Fun game that incites interest and healthy competition • Used at the end of a unit in order to review and assess concepts learned • Pair up and face each other with one partner facing away from the board

46. Elements Hydrogen Oxygen Nitrogen Sulfur Neon Magnesium Mercury Carbon

47. DNA Replication Adenine Cytosine Hydrogen bonds Nucleus Double Helix Chromosome Deoxyribose

48. How Do We Assess? • General rubrics for differentiated assignments • Response cards • Exit cards • Group quizzes • Checklists of objectives • Formal assessments • Student writing samples

49. Response Cards Response cards are another form of quick assessment. Each student has a card and indicates their understanding of a topic by holding up the appropriate response. Response cards: • Increase participation level of all students • Increase on-task behavior • Provide immediate feedback • Are highly motivating and fun! If response cards were used instead of hand raising for just 30 minutes a day, each student would make more than 3,700 additional academic responses during the school year. Just Think...

50. Types of Response Cards Preprinted Student-made Write-on boards