Curriculum Differentiation
Lynda Peters
TAS Head Teacher
Manly Selective Campus
Session 1: The needs of gifted
students in TAS
GAT Unit
Curriculum K-12
©
State of New South Wales through the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007
What does gifted mean ?
A gifted child is a child who has the ability
(potential) to perform in any domain of
human activity, at a level we would more
usually expect of students some years
older.
What does talented mean?
A talented child is a child who is actually
achieving or performing at a level we
would more usually expect of students
some years older.
In other words, giftedness is high
potential while talent is that high potential
translated into high performance.
Characteristics of gifted children
Learn basic skills easily, readily and with
fewer repetitions
Possess unusual imagination
Demonstrate a longer attention span
enabling concentration on and
perseverance in solving problems
Create, invent, investigate and
conceptualise enjoying the challenge
Additional characteristics that may be
displayed by gifted TAS students
Advanced management of problem
solving/ design processes
Advanced ICT skills
Reporting skills
Analysis of concepts
Pre-testing
Not all gifted learners develop to the same
level in all skill areas. Pre-testing to
identify levels of student achievement
(and avoid unnecessary repetition) and
recognition of prior learning are important
strategies to employ.
In order to set up a program to meet the
needs of gifted learners we must first
establish as best we can what those needs
are.
The pre-test
The pre-test is not designed to come up with a mark or
grade. It is not seeking to rank students across a range of
abilities.
Its sole function is to find out what gifted students already
know about a topic so they do not have repetition of what
they already know, can do and understand.
The “learn to” statements may be used as a guide to
setting the pre-test. The test does not need to be designed
for students of average ability. This makes it easier to set
as questions don’t need to be provided for students of
lower ability. The result of pre-testing will typically be to
allow compacting in order to increase time for more
complex tasks or self directed learning.
How can you pre-test?
Verbal questions, but it is important to record
student comments. Also you must ensure all
students participate. Teacher can use a laptop
and create a spread sheet of student abilities.
Short answer questions using “learn to”
statements. When creating questions ensure the
answers will contain useful information.
Explain to students the purpose of pretesting –
no marks but a way for you to gain information
for planning the direction for the unit of work.
Using the results
The test may not cover all the “learn to”
statements perfectly but you select the key ones.
It is simply designed to indicate what students
know and to assess their readiness to move to
another program.
In the other program students are still covering
the same material but at a different level so if
they cannot demonstrate total knowledge it does
not exclude them.
The results of the pre-test will guide the degree
of change to the curriculum undertaken by
students.
Activity 1
In pairs:
create a pre-test for a unit of work
or
share pre-test ideas.
Curriculum Differentiation
Session 2
Differentiation strategies in TAS
What is Curriculum Differentiation?
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.
Keirouz (1993) suggests typical procedures in the case of gifted
and talented students include:
deleting already mastered material from existing curriculum,
adding new content, process, or product expectations to existing
curriculum,
extending existing curriculum to provide enrichment activities,
providing course work for able students at an earlier age than
usual, and
writing new units or courses that meet the needs of gifted
students.
http://www.giftedchildren.com.au/link/resources/curriculum_differentiation
Activity 2
1. Speak to the person next to you and
share specific strategies that you use for
differentiating the curriculum.
2.
Feedback good strategies to the group.
Acceleration
Acceleration enables GAT students to
participate in learning based on their
performance.
Acceleration can be provided through:
ability groupings within the class
compacting the curriculum
individual or whole class acceleration.
Advantages and disadvantages ????????
Extension
Extension allows students to study an
area in more depth.
The most common form of differentiation
can be useful tool for making students
more analytical and reflective.
The rule of thumb here is no mots (more
of the same). The extension activity
should be more difficult in terms of skills
and levels of thinking or application and
should not need to add to their workload.
Extension activities include:
learning centre
contracts
mentors
peer teaching
using information technology
parallel programming.
Parallel programming
Involves individual or group of students
working on a theme or topic, but at a
range of ability levels.
Parallel programming should:
relate to normal classroom work
employ higher-order thinking skills
enable students to work on activities at
the same time as the rest of the class
be evaluated and recorded by student
and teacher.
Students who are to have individualised learning
may need to be trained in:
assuming some responsibility for their
learning
becoming independent learners
working at their own pace
making choices
evaluating their work
exercising judgement over a range of
resources available.
Enrichment
Enrichment broadens the range of
experiences for all GAT students.
Enrichment activities may include:
excursions, e.g. Houses of the Future
Competitions, e.g. Sustainable Challenge
or MYDA
using technology – online learning, web
board.
Enrichment assists students to improve
skills such as:
creative thinking
problem solving
questioning
independent research.
Fostering HOT in the classroom
Set up a classroom environment which is
conducive to high-level thinking:
multi-level materials
flexible groupings
accept and celebrate diversity
high expectations
teacher as co-learner
nurture risk-taking.
Fostering HOT in the classroom
Engage students in activities which foster
high-level thinking:
collaborative group activities
problem-solving activities
open-ended questions.
What is an open-ended task?
Typically an open-ended question has
more than one answer and usually there
are different ways of recording answers.
(Sullivan & Clarke, 1992)
Differentiating product
Gifted students require high expectations
and deep knowledge:
– real-world problems and products
– variety of production requirements and
alternatives
– open-ended product alternatives that
encourage creative responses
– a reason for sharing their findings
– realistic corrective feedback.
Activity 3
What could you do tomorrow to help
differentiate the curriculum?
What could you do next week?
What could you set up next year?
Curriculum differentiation
Session 3
Assessment of a differentiated
program
Why do we assess?
Assessment for learning
Assessment of learning
Assessment for learning
is an essential and integrated part of
teaching
reflects a belief that all students can
improve
involves setting learning goals with
students
helps students know and recognise the
standards they are aiming for.
Assessment for learning
involves students in self-assessment and
peer assessment
provides feedback that helps students
understand the next steps in learning and
plan how to achieve them.
Board of Studies - Technology (Mandatory) Syllabus page 60
Assessment of learning
Teachers can use evidence gathered from
assessment to extend the process of
assessment for learning into their
assessment of learning.
In a standards-referenced framework this
involves teachers in making professional
judgements about student achievement at
key points in the learning cycle.
Board of Studies - Technology (Mandatory) Syllabus page 62
Creating assessment tasks
Assessment tasks that provide feedback
help students to learn better.
Questions need to be designed so that
they do not provide obvious answers and
encourage rote learning.
Tasks must require students to extend
and/or apply their knowledge.
BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY
Creating
Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things
Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing.
Evaluating
Justifying a decision or course of action
Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging
Analysing
Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships
Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding
Applying
Using information in another familiar situation
Implementing, carrying out, using, executing
Understanding
Explaining ideas or concepts
Interpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining
Remembering
Recalling information
Recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding
Technology (Mandatory) – Textiles Technologies
Complete 3 activities from the following chart:
Learning Style
Verbal/ Linguistic
Logical/
Mathematical
Activity
Using narrative text, describe a day in the
life of a cotton boll, going from fibre to
fabric.
Find out the total cotton production in
Australia for the last ten years. Present
your findings in graphical or table form.
Visual/ Spatial
Design a poster showing the end uses of
polyester fibre, yarn and fabric in a variety
of textile domains.
Bodily/ Kinaesthetic
Create a textural chart showing cotton and
polyester in fibre, yarn and fabric form.
Musical
Compose a jingle for any textile item to be
advertised on the radio. Play your jingle to
the class.
Interpersonal
With a partner research and write whether
natural or synthetic fibres are better for
the environment.
Intrapersonal
Do a personal PMI of the Fabric Mosaics unit
of work.
Naturalist
What effect does the growing of cotton
have on the environment and how can this be
overcome?
Technology (Mandatory)
Unit 1 Design Related Content – Common
Assessment Task 1
Using ICT skills create your own graphical
representation of the design process. You
must identify a specific problem and use
the design process to solve the problem.
The diagram will be displayed in the
classroom, so make it creative and
interesting.
Marking guidelines
Very High
Displays all stages of the design process
Uses highly developed ICT skills including the use of
graphics, layout, text, colour
Using a specific design problem shows detailed
understanding of design process showing the links between
all stages
High
Displays all stages of the design process
Uses ICT skills including the use of graphics, layout, text,
colour
Using a specific design problem shows clear understanding
of design process showing some links between stages
Marking guidelines
Satisfactory
Displays all stages of the design process
Uses ICT skills including the use of graphics,
layout, text, colour
Shows basic understanding of design process
Working Towards
Displays design process
Work is either not computer generated or lacks
organisation and/or presentation
Shows little understanding of design process
Unsatisfactory
No work attempted
Standards for Design Solutions
Interior design
Very High
Clear vision of interior design
in 2030
Highly functional room with
quality finish
Shows accurate scale and
proportion
Model contains a minimum of
3 model making materials
Majority of furnishings
created from recycled
materials
Evidence of advanced model
making techniques
Very High
High
Clear vision of interior design
in 2030
Functional room with quality
finish
Shows scale and proportion
Model contains a minimum of
3 model making materials
Majority of furnishings
created from recycled
materials
Some evidence of advanced
model making techniques
Satisfactory
Limited vision of interior
design in 2030
Function of room not clearly
evident
Satisfactory finish of room
Shows limited scale and
proportion
Model contains less than 3
model making materials
Some furnishings created
from recycled materials
Little evidence of advanced
model making techniques
Working Towards
No clear vision of interior
design in 2030
Function of room not clearly
evident
Poor quality finish of room
Little evidence of scale and
proportion
Model contains less than 3
model making materials
Some furnishings created
from recycled materials
Minimal evidence of advanced
model making techniques
Activity 4
1. Review an existing assessment task does
the task meet the needs of GAT
students?
2. What changes could you make to
improve the task?