Differentiated Instruction
What, Why, and How
What is Differentiation?
• Differentiating Instruction means
changing the pace, level, or kind of
instruction you provide in response to
individual learners’ needs, styles, or
interests
Differentiated Instruction
Is Not:
Is:
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One thing
A program
Adaptations “tacked on” to
already developed lessons
Tracking- mixed ability grouping
is very important
Changing parts of a lesson for
one or two students
A chaotic classroom- though it
can appear that way at times
The goal: the goal is student
learnjng
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An approach that benefits all
students
Student centered
Different approaches for students,
not different amounts of work
Creating diversity in instructionmixing lesson formats, instructional
arrangements, support, etc. for all
learners
Something most teachers are doing
already perhaps without realizing it,
but also a different way of thinking
about how we cover material;
A means to an end: and that end is
student learning
Adapted from Tools for Schools, Kluth, Paula (2000)
Some Traits of Quality
Differentiation
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Rooted in student need
an extension of high quality curriculum
Derived from on-going assessment
Respectful of each learner
Builds community
Involves students as decision –makers
Demonstrates teacher-students
partnerships in teaching & learning
Growth focused
Scaffolds growth for each learner
Supports successful collaboration
Stretches each learner
Promotes & rewards individual excellence
Addresses readiness, interest, & learning
profile
Attends effectively to gender & culture
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Spans content, process, & product
Effective & varied use of instructional
approaches
Teaches students to take responsibility for
own learning
Flexible use of time, space, materials,
groupings
Maximizes opportunity to “show what you
know”
Balances student & teacher choice
Planned (proactive) plus tailoring
Occurs when either teacher or student is on
center stage
Includes whole class, small group, &
individual instruction
Supports success for each learner & the
class as a whole
Builds collaborations with parents
Differentiated Instruction is Based
on the Following Beliefs
• Students differ in their learning profiles
• Classrooms in which students are active learners,
decision makers and problem solvers are more
natural and effective than those in which students are
served a “one-size-fits-all” curriculum and treated as
passive recipients of information.
• “Covering information” takes a backseat to making
meaning out of important ideas.
From How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms by Carol Ann Tomlinson
Why Differentiate
• The past two decades have provided extraordinary
progress in our understanding of the nature of
learning. Never before have neuroscience and
classroom instruction been so closely linked.
Because advances in technology enable us to view
the working brain as it learns, educators can now find
evidence-based neuroimaging and brain-mapping
studies to determine the most effective ways to teach.
• Much suggests that differentiated instruction can
maximize brain development
How Does Research Support DI?
Differentiated Instruction is the result of a
synthesis of a number of educational theories and
practices.
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.
Brain Cell Structure
Brain Plasticity and Pruning
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A 2004 report in Nature found that people who learned how to juggle increased
the amount of gray matter in their occipital lobes (visual memory areas). When
they stopped practicing the juggling, the new gray matter vanished. A similar
structural change appears to occur in people who learn—and then don't
practice—a second language. The decrease in connecting dendrites and other
supporting brain connecting cells that are not used is called pruning. The loss of
native language ability, juggling skills, or learned academic material that is not
practiced is the flip side of the brain's growth response to learning. It is the “use
it or lose it” phenomenon. The process is called “pruning” because the brain
pathways and connections that are used regularly are maintained and “hardwired,” while others are eliminated, or pruned.
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Pruning. Just as hedges are pruned to cut off errant shoots that don't
communicate with many neighboring leaves, the brain prunes its own inactive
cells. By the time we enter adolescence, our brain has chosen most of the final
neurons it will keep throughout our adult life based on which cells are used and
which are not.
Dendrite growth
• Neuron growth stops after about age 20, but dendrite
growth can continue throughout life
• Dendrites increase in size and number in response to
learned skills, experience, and information.
• These neural networks, similar to electric circuitry,
are the roadways that connect various parts of the
brain.
• the more alternative pathways there are to connect
with a memory, the more efficiently the traffic will flow,
and the more rapidly that memory will be retrieved
when needed.
• Like an exercised muscle, the more they are utilized,
the more these circuits become more efficient and
Dendrite Growth (cont.)
• Dendrites increase in size and number in response to
learned skills, experience, and information. New
dendrites grow as branches from frequently activated
neurons. This growth is stimulated by proteins called
neurotrophins. Nerve growth factor is one of these
neurotrophins. Although the brain measurements of
neurotrophins are highest during childhood (when the
brain's connecting cells are undergoing their greatest
growth and development), as students continue to
learn, neurotrophin activity is elevated in the brain
regions responsible for new learning
Oxygen Oxygen Oxygen
• Heart rate increases with motion, challenge and
recognition of novelty
• Blood flow increases with heart rate
• All cell processes- including dendrite growthincreases with blood flow
• Ergo, increased heart rate grows dendrites so your
students are likely to learn more if there is physical or
mental motion and challenge in connection with your
curiculum! (Gum anyone?)
Three Principles of How
the Brain Learns
• Learning environments must feel
emotionally safe for learning to take
place.
• To learn, students must experience
appropriate levels of challenge.
• Each brain needs to make its own
meaning of ideas and skills.
http://www.ascd.org/pdi/demo/diffinstr/tomlinson.html
How the Brain Learns, Carol Ann Tomlinson and M. Layne Kalbfleisch
How to Differentiate
• 4 basic ways:
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By content
By process
By product
By learning environment
The Key
The Key to a differentiated classroom is that all
students are regularly offered CHOICES and
students are matched with tasks compatible
with their individual learner profiles.
Curriculum should be differentiated in three areas:
1. Content:
Multiple option for taking in information
2. Process:
Multiple options for making sense of the ideas
3. Product:
Multiple options for expressing what they know
Differentiating Content
• Using reading materials at different readability levels
• Putting text on tape
• Using spelling or vocabulary lists at readiness level of
students
• Presenting information through visual and auditory
means
• Using reading buddies/reading partners
• Think-Pair-Share/Preview-Midview-Postview
• Meeting with small groups to re-teach ideas or skills
for struggling learners or extend the thinking or skills
of advanced learners
Excerpted from: Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000) Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC
Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.
Differentiating Process
• Using tiered activities- all learners working
with same understandings and skills, but with
different levels of support or challenge
• Creating interest centers that encourage
students to explore parts of the class topic of
particular interest to them
• Providing agendas- task lists containing
whole class work and work addressing
individual needs of students
• Providing manipulatives or hands-on
materials
• Varying length of time to complete tasks
Excerpted from: Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000) Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC
Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.
Differentiating Products
• Giving options on how to express required
learning (make a mural, write a letter,
create a puppet show, etc.)
• Using different rubrics to match and
extend students’ skill levels
• Allowing students to work alone or in
groups to complete product
• Encouraging students to create own
product as long as it contains the required
elements
Excerpted from: Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000) Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC Digest.
ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.
Possible
Products
Map
Diagram
Sculpture
Discussion
Demonstration
Poem
Profile
Chart
Play
Dance
Campaign
Cassette
Quiz Show
Banner
Brochure
Debate
Flow Chart
Puppet Show
Tour
Lecture
Editorial
Painting
Costume
Placement
Blueprint
Catalogue
Dialogue
Newspaper
Scrapbook
Lecture
Questionnaire
Flag
Scrapbook
Graph
Debate
Museum
Learning Center
Advertisement
Book List
Calendar
Coloring Book
Game
Research Project
TV Show
Song
Dictionary
Film
Collection
Trial
Machine
Book
Mural
Award
Recipe
Test
Puzzle
Model
Timeline
Toy
Article
Diary
Poster
Magazine
Computer Program
Photographs
Terrarium
Petition Drive
Teaching Lesson
Prototype
Speech
Club
Cartoon
Biography
Review
Invention
Differentiating Learning
Environment
• Allowing for places to work quietly without
distraction, as well as places for students
to work collaboratively
• Setting clear guidelines for independent
work
• Developing routines for students to get
help when teacher busy working with other
students
• Allowing for those students who need to
move around when learning, while others
need to sit quietly
Excerpted from: Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000) Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC Digest.
ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.
Where to Start?
Guidelines to remember when
aspiring to differentiate:
• Clarify key concepts and generalizations to ensure that
all learners gain powerful understandings that serve as
the foundation for the future learning.
• Use assessment as a teaching tool to extend versus
merely measure instruction. Assessment should occur
before, during, and following the instructional episode.
• Emphasize critical and creative thinking as a goal in
lesson design. The tasks, activities, and procedures for
students should require that students understand and
apply meaning.
• Engaging all learners is essential.
• Provide a balance between teacher-assigned and
student-selected tasks. Teachers should assure that
students have choices in their learning.
http://www.cast.org/ncac/index.cfm?i=2876
Begin Slowly – Just Begin!
Low-Prep Differentiation
Choices of books
Homework options
Use of reading buddies
Varied journal Prompts
Orbitals
Varied pacing with anchor options
Student-teaching goal setting
Work alone / together
Whole-to-part and part-to-whole explorations
Flexible seating
Varied computer programs
Design-A-Day
Varied Supplementary materials
Options for varied modes of expression
Varying scaffolding on same organizer
Let’s Make a Deal projects
Computer mentors
Think-Pair-Share by readiness, interest, learning profile
Use of collaboration, independence, and cooperation
Open-ended activities
Mini-workshops to reteach or extend skills
Jigsaw
Negotiated Criteria
Explorations by interests
Games to practice mastery of information
Multiple levels of questions
High Prep Differentiation
Tiered activities and labs
Tiered products
Independent studies
Multiple texts
Alternative assessments
Learning contracts
4-MAT
Multiple-intelligence options
Compacting
Spelling by readiness
Entry Points
Varying organizers
Lectures coupled with graphic organizers
Community mentorships
Interest groups
Tiered centers
Interest centers
Personal agendas
Literature Circles
Stations
Complex Instruction
Group Investigation
Tape-recorded materials
Teams, Games, and Tournaments
Choice Boards
Think-Tac-Toe
Simulations
Problem-Based Learning
Graduated Rubrics
Flexible reading formats
Student-centered writing formats
What you will see in the Successfully
Differentiated Classroom
• Learning experiences are based on student readiness,
interest, or learning profile.
• Assessment of student needs is ongoing, and tasks are
adjusted based on assessment data.
• All students participate in respectful work.
• The teacher is primarily a coordinator of time, space, and
activities rather than primarily a provider of group
information.
• Students work in a variety of groups configurations.
Flexible grouping is evident.
• Time use is flexible in response to student needs.
• The teacher uses a variety of instructional strategies to
help target instruction to student needs.
• Clearly established criteria are used to help support
student success.
• Student strengths are emphasized.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
At the most basic level, differentiation
consists of the efforts of teachers to
respond to variance among learners in
the classroom.
Whenever a teacher reaches out to an
individual or small group to vary his or her
teaching in order to create the best learning
experience possible, that teacher is
differentiating instruction.
Carol Ann Tomlinson
Next class
• differentiation activities that can be done
in any classroom
• Resources- on line and text
• Testimonials from teachers using it
effectively