Differentiated Instruction
What is it and what does it look like in a CTE
classroom?
Definition:
Differentiated instruction is:
• An instructional theory
• Takes diverse student factors into account
when planning and delivering instruction.
• Based on this theory, teachers can structure
learning environments that address the variety
of learning styles, interests, and abilities found
within a classroom.
How does it work?:
Differentiated instruction is based upon the
belief that:
• Students learn best when they make
connections between the curriculum and their
diverse interests and experiences.
• The greatest learning occurs when students are
pushed slightly beyond the point where they
can work without assistance.
What does it mean for
teachers?:
Teachers DO
• Provide several learning options, or different paths to learning,
which help students take in information and make sense of
concepts and skills.
• Provide appropriate levels of challenge for all students,
including those who lag behind, those who are advanced, and
those right in the middle.
Teachers DON'T
• Develop a separate lesson plan for each student in a classroom.
• “Water down" the curriculum for some students.
What is Program Standard
Fifteen?
Standard 15 Teaching English Learners
• Candidates know and apply specially designed
academic instruction in English (SDAIE) to
make curriculum content comprehensible to
English learners.
Is SDAIE the same as
Differentiated Instruction?:
Yes! For example:
From California Standards for the Teaching
Profession (CSTP)
• Standard 1: Engaging and Supporting All
Students in Learning
• Specifically 1.4:
Using a variety of instructional strategies,
resources, and technologies to meet students’
diverse learning needs
No, really, is it?
Yes, again !
From the Teacher Performance Expectations
(TPE’s)
TPE 4 –Making Content Accessible
• Incorporating specific strategies that motivate
students to learn (meeting student academic learning
needs in a variety of ways.)
TPE 7 - Teaching English Learners (in part)
• Designs lesson to make learning strategies explicit
Learning Inventories
• Understanding how the students in the
classroom learn and what kind of learners they
are is important to know.
• One learning style inventory is VARK. The
VARK inventory lets the students learn how
they learn best by answering a series of
questions.
Learning Inventories
• Teachers can conduct a learning style interest
inventory by completing the inventory in the
computer lab, allow the students to use their
mobile devices, or use Poll Everywhere as a
guided classroom activity or assign it as
homework.
• VARK Learning Style Inventory
The Basics
Content
Content (what students learn)
• Includes curriculum topics, concepts, or themes.
• Reflects state or national standards.
• Presents essential facts and skills.
• Differentiates by pre-assessing student skills and
understandings, then matching learners with
appropriate activities.
• Provides students with choices in order to add depth to
learning.
• Provides students with additional resources that match
their levels of understanding.
Process
Process (how students learn)
• Refers to how students make sense or understand
the information, ideas, and skills being studied.
• Reflects student learning styles and preferences.
• Varies the learning process depending upon how
students learn.
Product
Product (the end result of student learning)
• Tends to be tangible: reports, tests, brochures,
speeches, skits.
• Reflects student understanding.
• Differentiates by providing challenge, variety,
and choice.
Differentiated Instruction in
the CTE Classroom
Preparing Lesson Plans:
• CTE courses are by their very nature, lend
themselves hands-on, project-based learning.
• One way to approach differentiation is the
KUD Method (Know, Understand, Do)
Example:
KUD Samples from High School Teachers
Patrick Johner, Todd County High School
Land and Water of North Africa and Southwest and Central Asia, 9th
grade unit
• K: Students will know the land and water features of the region.
• U: Students will understand how the region’s major rivers are
important to the region and why
• much of the world is economically dependent upon the region.
• D: Students will build a layered-look book on the land and water of
the region.
Strategies
Menus
• A menu offers students a way to make
decisions about what they will do in order to
meet class requirements. A menu could be for
a single lesson, a week-long lesson, or even a
month-long period of study. Once the teacher
has decided on what the essential
understanding and/or skills are, she/he can
begin to create a menu.
Strategies
Tic-Tac-Toe
• Tic-Tac-Toe choice boards give students the
opportunity to participate in multiple tasks that
allow them to practice skills they’ve learned in
class or to demonstrate and extend their
understanding of concepts. From the board,
students either choose or are assigned three
adjacent or diagonal tasks to complete
Websites To Explore
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A Different Place
http://www.adifferentplace.org/
4teachers.org
http://www.4teachers.org/
Odds ‘n Ends: More Ways to Differentiate
http://www.gp.k12.mi.us/ci/diff/diff/oddsends.htm
Layered Curriculum®
http://help4teachers.com
ASCD: Education Topics/Differentiation Instruction
http://www.ascd.org/
Differentiated Instruction Resources
http://www.sde.com/Conferences/DifferentiatedInstruction/DIResources.htm
References
• Teaching Today Differentiated Instruction
Retrieved March 4, 2013 from
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subjec
t/di_meeting.phtml
• Benjamin, Amy. Differentiated Instruction: A
Guide for Middle and High School Teachers.
Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education, 2002.
• Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Caroline Cunningham
Eidson. Differentiation in Practice: A Resource
Guide for Differentiating Curriculum, Grades 59. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2003.