Differentiated Instruction
Without diversity,
there is no creativity.
What’s Fair
Daniel was born with legs that won’t carry him.
What’s fair about that?
Juan’s dad doesn’t smile because his back is too tired
from picking beans or apples or whatever is growing
in somebody’s field in the next place.
Roy doesn’t have a dad, smiling or not.
What’s fair about that?
Elise doesn’t talk. She doesn’t know the language of the
lunchroom table, so she has no voice. No friends.
Lavon doesn’t talk because he is afraid. His mom is sick
and maybe won’t get well.
He is silent but his eyes get darker every day.
Jessie has a head full of ideas that should make him
happy and probably would if there were someone to
talk to about them.
All those ideas make a wall between him and the people
who step back when he talks.
Matthias is sixteen now. He’s been an indentured servant
to the alphabet for over a decade.
There is no end to his bondage in his view.
“The conversation between the fox and The Little
Prince is so simple, so basic. Yet it is the root system
of responsive or ‘differentiated’ teaching, because it
is the core of high-quality teaching – and high-quality
teaching and responsive teaching are really one and
the same. It rests on this. What is essential in learners
is difficult for teachers to see. Teachers accept
responsibility for students about whom they genuinely
care.”
Carol Ann Tomlinson
They Are All So Different…
Children come to us in a variety
of shapes, sizes, intellectual
abilities, creative abilities,
inter/intra personal skills, and a
myriad more characteristics that
makes each child we deal with
unique and special.
Carol Ann Tomlinson
The biggest mistake of 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 all the same subjects in
the same way.
Howard Gardner
What is Differentiation?
“In a way, it’s just shaking up the
classroom so it’s a better fit for
more kids.”
Carol Ann Tomlinson
What is Differentiation?
“Differentiation is a philosophy
– not a bag of tricks!”
Differentiation
Curriculum tells us what to
teach. Differentiation shows
us how.
Differentiation is not new! It occurred
in the one room school house and before:
“The real teacher teaches all the children.”
Confucius
“Educate the child according to his way.”
Jewish saying
“Teach each one according to his abilities.”
Mohammed
Differentiated Instruction
What Differentiated
Instruction…
IS
•Differentiated instruction is
more QUALITATIVE than
quantitative.
•Differentiated instruction
provides MULTIPLE approaches
to content, process, and product.
•Differentiated instruction is
STUDENT CENTERED.
•Differentiated instruction is a
BLEND of whole-class, group and
individual instruction.
•Differentiated instruction is
“ORGANIC.”
IS NOT
•Individualized instruction
•Chaotic
•Just another way to provide
homogeneous instruction
(inflexible grouping)
•Just modifying grading systems
and reducing workloads
•More work for the “good”
students and less and different for
the “poor” students
Tame the Foxes
Flexible Use of
Appropriate
Instructional Strategies
High Quality
Curriculum
Differentiation
Is a teacher’s response to learner’s needs
Guided by general principles of differentiation
Respectful tasks
Flexible grouping
Continual Assessment
Teachers Can Differentiate Through
Content
Process
Product
Environment
According to Students’
Readiness
Interest
Learning Profile
Through a range of strategies such as:
Adjusting Questions... Reading Buddies… Graphic Organizers…
RAFTS…Compacting… Cubing… Flexible grouping…
Learning Centers
Differentiating Instruction:
Rules of Thumb
• Be clear on the key concepts, principles, and
generalizations that give meaning and structure to the
topic, chapter, unit, or lesson you are planning.
• Lessons for all students should emphasize critical
thinking.
• Lessons for all students should be engaging and
respectful.
• In a differentiated classroom, there should be a balance
between student-selected and teacher-assigned tasks
and working arrangements.
Differentiation of Instruction
is a teacher’s response to learners’ needs
guided by general principles of differentiation, such as
respectful tasks
ongoing assessment and
adjustment
flexible grouping
clarity of learning goals
appropriate challenge
Key Principles of a
Differentiated Classroom
• The teacher is clear about
what matters in subject
matter.
• The teacher understands,
appreciates, and builds
upon student differences.
• Assessment and
instruction are
inseparable.
• All students participate in
respectful work.
Source: Carol A. Tomlinson
• Students and teachers are
collaborators in learning.
• Flexibility is the hallmark of
a differentiated classroom.
• Goals of a differentiated
classroom are maximum
growth and individual
success.
• The teacher adjusts content,
process, and product in
response to student
readiness, interests, and
Differentiation
What does it look like?
RAFTs
RAFT
Role
Audience
Format
Topic
RAFT: “My Mistress’ Eyes” (MS)
ROLE
AUDIENCE
FORMAT
TOPIC
Mistress
Herself
Diary Entry
How that poem
made me feel…
You
Fifth Graders
Illustrated
Children’s Book
“My Mistress’
Eyes…”
Shakespeare
Young people
Letter
What true love
REALLY means
Mistress
Shakespeare
Poem
Your breath isn’t
so hot, either…
Oprah
Mistress
Talk Show
Interview
Willy: Love him
or lose him?
RAFT: “My Mistress’ Eyes” (HS)
ROLE
AUDIENCE
FORMAT
Shakespeare
Mistress
Sonnet
Mistress
Shakespeare
Sonnet
Romeo
Mistress
Sonnet
Speaker of
“Mistress…”
Romeo
Sonnet
Free Choice
Free Choice
Free Choice
TOPIC
In plain
English, this is
what I mean…
Your breath
isn’t so hot,
either…
The sonnet you
deserve…
My love goes
deeper than
yours…
Free Choice
RAFT: Love that Dog & Poetic Form
ROLE
AUDIENCE
You
Jack
Sky
Jack
Jack
Police
FORMAT
TOPIC
Tribute poem
Love that ---,
too
Concrete poem Jack
Rhyming
poem
Haiku
Run-away
drivers
Miss Stretch- Next year’s
This boy I
berry
class
taught…
Free-verse
Rhyming
Free-verse
Who’s harder
poetry
poem
poem
to write?
CREATE
CREATE
CREATE
CREATE
YOUR OWN! YOUR OWN! YOUR OWN! YOUR OWN!
RAFT: Romeo & Juliet
ROLE
AUDIENC
E
FORMAT
TOPIC
Love
The Capulets and
Montagues
Collage of words
and images
I am stronger than
hate
Juliet
Self
Diary entry
Was Romeo really
worth it?
Friar Lawrence
People of Mantua
Apology letter
I’ve let you down
Traveling minstrel
Whomever will
listen
Ballad
The sad story of
Romeo and Juliet
Psychologist
Conference
Attendees
Conference
Presentation
Romeo & Juliet:
True love? Or
teenage rebellion?
Prince of Mantua
People of Mantua
Speech
Civic
responsibility vs,
private desires
Romeo
His family
Shakespearean
monologue
What I learned
Learning Centers
Learning Contracts
Make a Clear
Practice
Improves
Play
Distinction Between
Good Curriculum
and Instruction
and Differentiated
Curriculum and Instruction
Low-Prep Differentiation
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Choices of books
Homework options
Use of reading buddies
Varied journal prompts
Varied pacing with anchor options
Student-teacher goal setting
Flexible grouping (WG-SG-IWG)
Varied supplementary materials
Strategies by readiness, interest,
learning profile
Open-ended activities
Negotiated criteria
Explorations by interest
High-Prep Differentiation
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Tiered activities and labs
Tiered products
Independent studies
Multiple texts
Alternative assessment
Multiple-intelligence options
Compacting
Varying graphic organizers
Tiered learning centers
Literature Circles
Choice Boards
Graduated rubrics
Personal agendas
Stations by readiness,
interest,
Source: Carol A.
Tomlinson
Why Differentiation?
• Increased diversity in classrooms
• High stakes testing and related
expectations
• More inclusive education models
(e.g. special education, gifted
education)
• Others?
Roadblocks to Differentiation
• Complacency
• Lack of Understanding (i.e.
good instruction vs.
differentiated instruction)
• Fear
• Lack of Patience
• Poor Coaching
• One-Size-Fits-All Staff
Development
Differentiation of instruction is a teacher’s response to a learner’s needs
Guided by general principles of differentiation, such as
Respectful tasks are learning experiences matched to
the needs of the student. Tasks that are respectful of the
learner honor the differences among students’ readiness
levels (appropriately rigorous), areas of interest (engage
the learner), and learning profile (attends to learner
processing).
Flexible grouping is characterized by the
combination of whole group, small group, and
independent work. Learners’ readiness, interests, and
learning profiles serve as the basis for groups.
Student groups remain flexible because they are
responsive to changes in students’ readiness, interests,
and learning profile.
Ongoing assessment and adjustment
involves the use of pre-, ongoing, and postassessment data on learner readiness, areas of
interest, and learning profile to make adjustments
in curriculum and instruction.
With high quality curriculum for all learners as the foundation, teachers can differentiate
Content
Process
Product
Content is the what. Content is defined
by the Virginia Beach Instructional
Objectives and the Virginia Standards
of Learning. The content is what
students will know, understand, and be
able to do as a result of the sequence
of teaching and learning.
Process is the how. Process is
how students will make sense of
the content. The process is
made up of the strategies and
methods that form the sequence
of teaching and learning.
Products are the vehicles by which
students demonstrate their
knowledge, understanding, and
skills. They are the tools teachers
use to assess student progress
toward the content goals.
Learning Environment
Learning environment is the where. The
learning environment is the organization of
time, space, and resources for teaching and
learning. It is the context in which teaching
and learning take place. Developing a strong
community of learners is essential to
effective differentiation.
According to student’s
Readiness
The goal of differentiating by learner readiness is growth. Readiness is
the point at which knowledge, skills, attitudes, and preparedness for
learning converge so that the student is able to meet the demands of
an educational experience. Readiness is constantly evolving and
changing. If all learners are to progress toward content goals, the
varying degrees of readiness for a given objective must be honored.
Differentiation according to learner readiness provides an appropriate
level of challenge.
Interests
The goal of differentiating by student interest
is motivation. If students are going to persist
in rigorous content, they must be engaged.
Differentiation according to student interest
provides guided choices based upon content
standards (VBOs/SOLs) where such choices
are both appropriate and motivating.
Learning Profile
The goal of differentiating by learner
profile is efficiency. Identifying the ways
in which students best learn helps
organize curriculum and instruction so
they learn things in a more efficient
manner. A student’s learning profile is
the combination of ways in which
he/she best processes information.
Adapted by VIRGINIA BEACH CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS from The Differentiated Classroom by Carol Ann Tomlinson, 1999
When I See Differentiation,
What Will I See?
A Continuum of Development
NOT
You Do Differentiation or You Don’t
No
Differentiation
Micro
Differentiation
Macro
Differentiation
How Do I Begin??
“Come to the edge, he said.
“We are afraid,” they replied.
“Come to the edge,” he said.
THEY DID.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.
Apolonaire