Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe
Content
Knowledge, skills and
routines we want
children to learn
Differentiating content
requires that students
are assessed so the
teacher can identify the
students who do not
require direct
instruction
PreAssessments help
determine what to
teach and which
materials to use.
Process
Varying learning activities/
strategies to provide
appropriate methods for
students to explore the
concepts
Give students alternative
paths to manipulate the ideas
embedded within the
concept. Ex:
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Graphic
organizers/Diagrams
Manipulatives
Questioning
Grouping Methods
Vary
experience/Anchor
Activities
Product
Varying the complexity of
the product that students
create to demonstrate
mastery of the concepts.
Students below grade
level may have different
performance expectations
than students above
grade level. Ex:

Tiered Assignments
 Menus
 Contracts
 Cubing
What is the role of informal and
formal assessment in
developing products?
The activity I would like to
know more about is
___________________.
According to Student: Readiness, Interest, Learning Style
Incorporating Multiple means of: engagement, representation, and expression.
 How you present information and how students show you what they know.
Reading
Pre-reading: that supply or activate relevant prior knowledge

Anchor instruction by linking to and activating relevant prior knowledge
(e.g., using visual imagery, concept anchoring, etc)

Highlight or emphasize key elements in text, graphics, diagrams
Scaffolds for reading
 have texts available in digital format and audio format
 provide books/passages/articles of different reading difficulty
 work in selected pairs/groups
 Use outlines, graphic organizers, unit organizer routines, concept organizer
routines, and concept mastery routines to emphasize key ideas and
relationships
 Teacher directed small group
 Highlight important concepts to be learned in text of material
Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe
How long do you lecture in a typical class period?
How many minutes of lecture can students handle?
Start with an “Energizer”
 A quick write
 A video/audio clip
 A quote
 5 minute game or activity
Provide Quality Visuals
 PowerPoint (embed your video & audio)
 SmartBoard/Mimio
 Models/visual examples
 Illustrations/art
 Props
 Integrate Music or Video Clips
Make lectures active
 Add humor
 Emphasize key points
 “Whip Around”-Ask students in turn to speak to a question or prompt
 Let them compare and Cheat-provides another viewpoint, opportunity for
verbal students to chat
 Create chants/songs/jingles
 Use a Question Jar: Stop 2-3 times and have students draw from the
question jar. Give us two key terms from this lecture.
 Incorporate a Brain Break
What purpose do notes serve in my class?
Note Taking
Teacher provides critical information for the lesson through oral presentation
and highlights key features in written form and monitors students to check their
focus on important points of the lesson. Teacher models what good note taking
looks like.

Provide templates, graphic organizers, concept maps to support note-taking

Prompt the use of mnemonic strategies and devices (e.g., visual imagery,
paraphrasing strategies, etc.)

Provide scaffolds that connect new information to prior knowledge (e.g.,
word webs, half-full concept maps)
 Embed new ideas in familiar ideas and contexts (e.g., use of analogy,
metaphor, drama, music, film, etc.)
Note Taking ideas
 Marzano Summarizing and Note taking
 Cornell Notes
 Concept Webs
 Venn Diagrams
 Cloze Notes
 Graphic notes
Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe
Give them a target
 What are they supposed to learn? What is most important?
How can I accommodate students that require notetaking assistance?
 Modify notes to include a few key points to support students with
disabilities that impact processing.

A strategy I will try to differentiate notetaking and lecture is…
Resources:
Activities to Activate Background Knowledge
Check out this post from the ELL Classroom blog for ideas on activities that will
activate students' background knowledge.
ESOL Online has a helpful list of strategies for activating prior knowledge that are
useful for multilingual or monolingual classrooms
Colorin Colorado provides blogs, assessment resources, instructional strategies, and
webcasts for teachers of ELLs.
TeacherVision provides teachers with a rationale for activating background
knowledge, ideas for classroom implementation, ways to measure success, and
lesson plans. Use this site as a way to enhance your own background knowledge!
Pacecar is an online reading tool, designed to increase reading rate and decrease
distractions. It masks the distracting elements on the page by creating a reading
window that follows the reader's mouse.
Readability is a simple tool that makes reading on the web more enjoyable by
removing the clutter around what you're reading.
The AutoSummarize feature in MS Word allows you to summarize a document and
add visual structure.
The Differentiated Classroom and How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability
Classrooms by Carol Ann Tomlinson
Classroom Intstruction that Works by Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock
Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe
PROCESS
Varying learning activities / strategies to provide appropriate methods for students to explore the
concepts; important to give students alternative paths to manipulate the ideas embedded within the
concept (different grouping methods, graphic organizers, maps, diagrams, or charts)
http://www.udlcenter.org/implementation/examples/examples3_2
Guideline 3: Provide options for comprehensionActivate or supply background knowledge
Information is more accessible and likely to be assimilated by learners when it is presented in a
way that primes, activates, or provides any pre-requisite knowledge. Barriers and inequities exist
when some learners lack the background knowledge that is critical to assimilating or using new
information. However, there are also barriers for learners who have the necessary background
knowledge, but might not know it is relevant. Those barriers can be reduced when options are
available that supply or activate relevant prior knowledge, or link to the pre-requisite information
elsewhere.

Anchor instruction by linking to and activating relevant prior knowledge (e.g., using
visual imagery, concept anchoring, or concept mastery routines)
Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe
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Use advanced organizers (e.g., KWL methods, concept maps)
Pre-teach critical prerequisite concepts through demonstration or models
Bridge concepts with relevant analogies and metaphors
Make explicit cross-curricular connections (e.g., teaching literacy strategies in the social
studies classroom)
Activities to Activate Background Knowledge
Check out this post from the ELLClassroom blog for ideas on activities that will
activate students' background knowledge.
ESOL Online has a helpful list of strategies for activating prior knowledge that
are useful for multilingual or monolingual cla ssrooms
TeacherVision provides teachers with a rationale for activating background
knowledge, ideas for classroom implementation, ways to measure success, and
lesson plans. Use this site as a way to enhance your own background knowledge!
Checkpoint 3.2 Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships
One of the big differences between experts and novices in any domain is the facility with which
they distinguish what is critical from what is unimportant or irrelevant. Since experts quickly
recognize the most important features in information, they allocate their time efficiently, quickly
identifying what is valuable and finding the right “hooks” with which to assimilate the most
valuable information into existing knowledge. As a consequence, one of the most effective ways
to make information more accessible is to provide explicit cues or prompts that assist individuals
in attending to those features that matter most while avoiding those that matter least.
Tell Me More!
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Highlight or emphasize key elements in text, graphics, diagrams, formulas
Use outlines, graphic organizers, unit organizer routines, concept organizer routines, and
concept mastery routines to emphasize key ideas and relationships
Use multiple examples and non-examples to emphasize critical features
Use cues and prompts to draw attention to critical features
Highlight previously learned skills that can be used to solve unfamiliar problems
Pacecar: Pacecar is an online reading tool, designed to increase reading rate and decrease distractions. It
masks the distracting elements on the page by creating a reading window that follows the reader's
mouse.
Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe
Readability is a simple tool that makes reading on the web more enjoyable by removing the clutter
around what you're reading.
The AutoSummarize feature in MS Word allows you to summarize a document and add visual structure.
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
Teacher provides critical information for the lesson through oral presentation and
highlights critical features in written form, then monitors students to check their focus on
important features of the lesson. Additionally, by having texts available in digital format,
the teacher or students may literally highlight critical features of the text in preparation of
lesson assignments.Provide multiple media and formats.The teacher located several (4–5)
resources, in this case books of different reading difficulty, containing the same science
constructs on seed life cycles. The books were then made available digitally as well as in
audio format for flexible accessibility. Thus, materials were available in a variety of
media and formats. Students had the option to work in selected pairs as they search for
answers to the science questions.
During guided practice and independent practice portions of each lesson, the teacher
provides supports by checking and prompting.
Anchor Activities
Stations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IjHGqOZEng&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Provide visual digraphic organizers, unit organizer routines, concept organizer routines, and concept
mastery routines to emphasize key ideas and relationships diagrams, charts,
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Provide checklists, organizers, sticky notes, electronic reminders
Prompt the use of mnemonic strategies and devices (e.g., visual imagery, paraphrasing
strategies, method of loci, etc.)
Incorporate explicit opportunities for review and practice
Provide scaffolds that connect new information to prior knowledge (e.g., word webs,
half-full concept maps)
Embed new ideas in familiar ideas and contexts (e.g., use of analogy, metaphor, drama,
music, film, etc.)
Provide explicit, supported opportunities to generalize learning to new situations (e.g.,
different types of problems that can be solved with linear equations, using physics
principles to build a playground)
Offer opportunities over time to revisit key ideas and linkages between ideas
Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe
Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe
Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe
Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe
Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe
Teachers can differentiate
Jennifer Brewer
Jessica Jolliffe