Meeting the needs of all learners

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Is differentiated instruction new?
◦ Think of the one room school house.
◦ Can you remember how your elementary teachers differentiated instruction?

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DI is not…
◦ Writing to an IEP
◦ Letting students randomly choose what they wish to do
◦ Teaching/grouping without knowing student differences on the objective you are teaching
◦ Chaos
◦ Tracking students
◦ Making the curriculum too easy or too hard

I think differentiated instruction is…………..

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A differentiated classroom is one in which the teacher responds to the unique needs of students. Gregory/Chapman
Differentiation…is providing the opportunity for every student to succeed and reach his or her potential. Gregory/Herndon
Differentiated instruction makes it possible to maximize learning for all students. It is a professional and responsive mind-set where the teacher is proactively planning for the needs of diverse learners. SDE

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Differentiation does not happen without planning……

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How they learn best
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What interests them
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Readiness for the content

What are your learning preferences? Is this obvious in your choices of activities?

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Your students have different learning style preferences.
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All lessons should address the learning modalities: visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic.

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Interest inventories
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Learning styles inventories
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Observations by the teacher
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Parent/teacher collaboration

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Preassessment is key.
◦ Determine how to preassess the objective.
◦ When students miss questions, determine the reason.
◦ Design your instruction to meet the readiness needs of your students.

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Students that master the objective need to move on to a more challenging objective.
This is curriculum compacting.
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Occasionally, a student is close to mastering the objective and is not best served by following the unit of instruction as planned.
You can find ways to help this student fill in the missing pieces and master the objective at the pace s/he needs.

Think about how they learn……

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These are key to your success in teaching the lesson. Choose strategies carefully.
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Ask yourself, “Does this strategy ...
◦ …. Meet the readiness levels of the students,
◦ …. learning modalities of the students,
◦ …. Motivate students to learn (no one learns when they are bored)?”.

Focus activities
Graphic organizers
Role-playing
Pass the question
Tiered assignments
KWL
Think-pair-share
Four Corners
White Boards
ABCD cards
Jigsaw Pass the Question
Agree / Disagree Cards Projects
Flexible grouping
Centers
And a million more…………..

Frequent and ongoing assessment, completed en route to mastery; ongoing assessment could be considered as “checkpoints” on students’ progress and the foundation for feedback given – the most useful assessment teachers can provide for students, and for their own teaching decisions.
Rick Wormelli, Fair is Not Always Equal.

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Giving students feedback while they are doing the task or very shortly thereafter is instrumental to their understanding of the objective. This feedback has the greatest impact on their success.
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Do not give assignments without watching what they are doing, helping them as they learn, and correcting their errors in process.
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Returning an assignment with errors and not giving feedback can have a negative impact on their learning.
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Don’t miss the opportunity to teach after the test.

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As you teach, are you always checking to make sure each student understands?
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If a student does not understand, what do you do?
Sometimes it is not the content that is too difficult, but the modality or strategy in which you are presenting the content.

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When do you give a summative assessment?
◦ Only when your formative data shows you that the student is ready.
Remember, the assessment is only summative if the student masters the objective(s). If they did not, you now have an additional formative assessment.
You need to determine your next steps.

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Stage 1
◦ Begin learning about students’ interests and learning profiles
◦ Establish classroom management procedures for a
DI classroom
◦ Start using pre-assessment to find out students’ readiness levels
◦ Begin using formative assessments (to drive instruction)
◦ Experiment with flexible grouping

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Design activities to target students’ interests and learning profiles
Use data from pre-assessments to design lessons
Use data from formative assessments to guide instruction
Explore types of flexible grouping
Incorporate learning contracts for some students

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Target students’ interests and learning profiles regularly
Continue to use data from pre-and formative assessments to design lessons and guide instruction
Implement student-led formative assessments
Broaden use of flexible grouping
Experiment with tiered lessons

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Compact curriculum for some students
Create tiered activities regularly
Ensure all assessments are in alignment
Share responsibility of learning with students
Address grading questions/issues
Coach colleague who are at different levels of implementation
(continuum from Staff Development for Educators)

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Slide 5 has several definitions of DI. After reading these, write you own definition of differentiated instruction.
What do teachers differentiate?
Why is pre-assessment key to student success?
Why is the choice of instructional strategies key to student success?
Look at your lesson plans. What learning modality do they favor?
Looking at the DI continuum, what Stage are you in and where do you most want to improve?
How will your planning change after viewing this
PowerPoint?