Reaching all Children in the Classroom: An Overview of Differentiation Strategies Presented by Rebec

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Reaching all Children in the Classroom An
Overview ofDifferentiation StrategiesPresented
by Rebecca L. Mannrlmann_at_purdue.edu
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• That students differ may be inconvenient, but it
  is inescapable. Adapting to that diversity is
  the inevitable price of productivity, high
  standards, and fairness to the students.
• Theodore Sizer
• Sizer, T. (1984). Horaces Compromise The
  Dilemma of the American High School (p. 194).
  Boston Houghton-Mifflin

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What is Differentiation?

• Curriculum differentiation is a process used to
  maximize student learning by improving the match
  between a student's individual needs and the
  curriculum.
• A general term used to describe the range of
  strategies, which are used to ensure childrens
  needs are met.
• Curriculum differentiation is a broad term
  referring to the need to tailor teaching
  environments and practices to create
  appropriately different learning experiences for
  different students.
• Adapting the curriculum to meet the unique needs
  of learners by making modifications in
  complexity, depth, and pacing.

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Why Differentiate?
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Differentiation of Instructionis a teachers
response to learners needs

• Guided by general principles of differentiation
  such as

Respectful Tasks
Flexible Grouping
Assessment and adjustment
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• Teachers can differentiate by
• Content Process Product
• Curriculum Depth (what) Instructional
  Techniques (how) End Product

According to students Readiness
Interests Learning Style
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Differentiation Strategies

• Curriculum Compacting
• Independent Projects
• Tiered Assignments
• Flexible Grouping
• Learning or Interest Centers
• Varying Questions
• Mentorships
• Learning Contracts
• Cluster Grouping

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The Value of Assessment or ... You cant figure
out what to teach em if you dont know em!

• Ensure the Mastery of Basic Skills
• Mastery Not Mastery

Recognition of situation requiring repeated
addition, uses multiplication to shorten solution
process Uses variety of basketball passes
depending on best strategy for the
moment Explain role of any word in sentence
explain how role changes based on placement
Can automatically recite multiplication
facts Primarily uses the bounce pass in
basketball regardless of its potential
effectiveness Can match parts of speech to its
definition Wormeli, 2006
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Preassessment Options

• Textbook Pretest
• Student/Teacher Conference - as short as a 5
  minute talk
• K-N-W Chart - What do I Know, Need to know Want
  to know
• Journal - Write what you know about...
• List - If I say ...
• What does it make you think of?
• Product - Draw a bar graph...
• Use the graphing calculator to plot...
• Concept Map...

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Ive mapped out the concepts Ive already grasped
to save you time.
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Questions to ask when planning Learning
Experiences

• Does this learning experience enable these
  particular students to learn this material well?
• Whose needs are not being met with this learning
  experience?
• Is this learning experience necessary for all
  students?
• How am I meeting the needs of students who
  already understand this material or who learn
  quickly?
• How will I know that students have mastered this
  material?

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• Tic
• Tac
• Toe

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Flexible Grouping

• A hallmark of an effective differentiated
  classroom.is the use of flexible grouping, which
  accommodates students who are strong in some
  areas and weaker in others. Carol Tomlinson

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Questioning

• "I have no answers, only questions."
• Socrates, c. 300 BC
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln Study
• Of questions teachers ask approximately
• 60 require only recall of facts
• 20 require students to think
• 20 are procedural in nature

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Open Ended Questions

• have no right answer
• can be discussed and debated
• provoke and sustain student inquiry
• raise other important questions
• address the conceptual or philosophical
  foundations of a discipline
• stimulate vital, ongoing reflection of big ideas
  and assumptions

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Anchoring Activities

• Self-paced, purposeful, content-driven activities
  that students can work on independently
  throughout a unit, a grading period, or longer
• Meaningful ongoing activities related to the
  curriculum
• A list of activities that a student can do at any
  time
• A long-term project
• An activity center/learning station located in
  the room
• These activities must be worthy of a students
  time and appropriate to their learning needs

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Management Suggestionsfor Anchor Activities

• Explain the activity and the procedures
• with the whole class
• Make expectations clear develop ground rules
  for
• Behavior
• Performance
• Use tasks that require time and thinking this
  is not an extension of the seat-work concept
• Provide clear instructions, materials,
  responsibilities, check points, and expectations
  (rubrics)

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Curriculum Compacting

• Used to modify and/or streamline the regular
  curriculum to eliminate repetition of previously
  mastered material, upgrade the challenge level of
  the regular curriculum, and provide time for
  enrichment
• and/or acceleration
• activities.

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Eight Compacting Steps

• Identify objectives
• Pretest
• Identify students to Pretest
• Administer Pretest
• Eliminate content in areas of mastery
• Streamline instruction
• Offer enrichment or acceleration activities
• Keep records of progress

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Learning Contracts

• A Learning Contract is
• A written agreement between the student and the
  teacher which includes opportunities for the
  student to work relatively independently on
  primarily teacher-directed material.
• The student has
• Some freedom in acquiring skills and
  understandings
• Responsibility for learning independently
• Guidelines for completing work
• Guidelines for appropriate behavior
• Expectations tailored to readiness level

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Mentorships

• An arrangement in which a student works with an
  adult who shares the students interest in a
  hobby or career orientation.

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Tiered Activities

• Tiered Instruction features
• Whole group introduction and initial instruction
• Identification of developmental differences
• Increase or Decrease the
• Abstraction
• Extent of Support
• Sophistication
• Complexity of goals,
• resources, activities
• products

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Beginning Probability

• Task 1
• Its early Monday morning and your mother has
  laid out the following clothing items for you to
  choose from a red shirt, a blue shirt, a white
  shirt, blue jeans, and khaki pants. How many
  different outfits can you make with the clothes
  your mother has provided?
• Task 2
• You are making cupcakes for a class celebration.
  Your classmates have indicated that they would
  like a choice of different cupcakes. You have
  chocolate and yellow cake batter strawberry,
  white, and caramel icing and green and blue
  sprinkles. How many different types of cupcakes
  can you offer your classmates?
• Task 3
• You are trying to determine your schedule for
  next year at Leonard Middle School. First
  period, you can take art, chorus, or band.
  Second period, you can take technology or
  creative writing or be an office assistant.
  Third period, you can take a foreign language
  German, Spanish, French, or Latin. Figure out
  how many different schedules are possible based
  on these options.

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Grade Level Middle School Unit Dinosaurs

• Objective Content Process Process
• In their study of dinosaurs, the students
  will be able to research and identify various
  theories of dinosaur extinction.
• Tiered Assignment
• Task 1 - After researching and identifying
  various theories of dinosaur extinction, students
  will be able to create their own theory and draw
  a picture or diagram illustrating that theory.
• Task 2 - After researching and identifying
  various theories of dinosaur extinction, students
  will be able to create a visual representation of
  their theory (i.e. diorama, timeline, or three
  dimensional model).
• Task 3 - After researching and identifying
  various theories of dinosaur extinction, students
  will be able to create a visual representation of
  their theory and defend their theory during a
  class debate.

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What Is This Thing Called Differentiation A Quiz
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Summers over kids! Now, all you round pegs
get back into your square holes!
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• The biggest mistake we have made in past
  centuries in teaching has been to treat all
  children as if they were variants of the same
  individual and thus to feel justified in teaching
  them the same subjects in the same ways.
  Howard Gardner