Welcome!
As you arrive, please take 2 sticky
notes.
•Write on one something that you know
about differentiated instruction.
•Write on the other something that you
want to know about differentiated
instruction.
•Place the sticky notes on the KWL
chart.
•Student
needs:
•
readiness
•
learning styles
•
interests
•Combined
classes
Strategies for Juggling
•Anchor Activities
•Agendas
•Folder Systems
•Learning Centers in a Coffee
Can or on a clothesline
•Grouping for Manageability
•Scaffolding struggling learners
 Reinforce
learning and/or previously learned
concepts
 Engage students in meaningful activities
 Keep students actively involved in learning at
time when they might otherwise be waiting.
 Require little teacher-preparation or
involvement
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Magnetic Poetry
Bananagrams
Scrabble
Card games
WordArt
Flashcards
Brainstorming (vocabulary in categories, concepts
studied, etc.) in mind-map form
Creating a song or poem
Drawing a scene with labeled vocabulary items
Creating words using only the letters in a given word
Scanning a reading passage for…nouns, vocabulary in
a certain category, verbs (tenses, imperatives),
adjectives of color/character/size, etc…and listing.
•A
secure foundation in common
standards
•Opportunities
for exposure to a
wider array of language
•Modeling
of skills from more
skilled students
•Maintenance
the classroom
of community in
Old
question: How will every
student reach the standard?
New question: How far can we
move everyone in the direction
of the standard?
DI is about…
Valuing Growth
 The
Standards are an important guideline,
but…
 It’s not all about the standards.
 “A” for “effort” doesn’t cut it either.
 The question is, “How much can each child
grow?”
DI is about…
Finding Synergies &
Efficiencies
 Grouping
vs. Individual Lessons
 Evaluating what’s important enough to
spend time differentiating
 Pre-assessing so you know where the
needs are and don’t waste time on
assumptions
 It’s
different. But it’s really about thinking
flexibly.
 Until you get used to it, it’s harder.
 Like any new skill, it becomes easier with
practice.
 And…like any new skill, it is perfected over
time.
 Support
levels
student success at varying readiness
 Variety
of topics covered
 Variety of question structures used
 Idiomatic language
Fair
What is good for me
is not necessarily
what’s good for you.
 I’ll get what I need,
and so will you.
 There’s enough for
everyone if we work
together.
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Equal
We all have to do the
same thing.
 We’ll all get the same
thing. Sometimes
you’ll get too much,
and sometimes you’ll
go hungry.
 Resources are
limited, so we have
to compete.
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DI Strategy: RAFT (Let’s go to Paris & its museums!)
Role
Audience
Format
Topic
Student traveler to Paris
Your French class back
home
PowerPoint scrapbook
Using photos to
illustrate, tell your class
about your trip. Include
what you did and what
you saw. Describe and
compare several things
that you saw.
Tourist & Parisian Native
Each other
Skit
I’m lost & need
directions
Docent at an art museum
Students on a field trip
Art talk comparing 2
works of art
Describe & compare the
works of art while giving
their history and your
opinion.
Collect
Teach
Draw
Judge
Facts or ideas which are
important to you.
(Knowledge)
A lesson about your topic
to our class. Include as
least one visual aid.
(Synthesis)
A diagram, map or
picture of your topic.
(Application)
Two different viewpoints
about an issue. Explain
your decision.
(Evaluation)
Photograph
Demonstrate
Graph
Create
Videotape, or film part of
your presentation.
(Synthesis)
Something to show what
you have learned.
(Application)
Some part of your study to
show how many or how
few.
(Analysis)
An original poem, dance,
picture, song, or story.
(Synthesis)
Dramatize
Survey
Forecast
Build
Something to show what
you have learned.
(Synthesis)
Others to learn their
opinions about some fact,
idea, or feature of your
study.
(Analysis)
How your topic will
change in the next 10
years.
(Synthesis)
A model or diorama to
illustrate what you have
learned.
(Application)
Create
Memorize
Write
Compare
An original game using the
facts you have learned.
(Synthesis)
And recite a quote or a
short list of facts about
your topic.
(Knowledge)
An editorial for the student
newspaper or draw an
editorial cartoon.
(Evaluation)
Two things from your
study. Look for ways they
are alike and different.
(Analysis)
A GOOD ACTIVITY is something students will
make or do…
 Using an essential skill(s) and essential
information
 In order to understand an essential idea /
principle or answer an essential question
--Tomlinson, C. How to Differentiate
Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms.
Alexandria: ASCD 2001.
A GOOD DIFFERENTIATED ACTIVITY is something
students will make or do…
 In a range of modes at varied degrees of
sophistication in varying time spans
 With varied amounts of teacher or peer support
(scaffolding)
 Using an essential skill(s) and essential
information
 In order to understand an essential idea /
principle or answer an essential question
--Tomlinson, C. How to Differentiate Instruction in
Mixed-Ability Classrooms. Alexandria: ASCD 2001.
Focus on just one key concept.
Adjust…
 Complexity
 Abstractness
 Concreteness
 Number of steps
 Level of independence
A Simple Tiered Lesson for Reading a Narrative
 All students read the story together
 Students Self-Assess:
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Je comprends l’histoire. Je peux la raconter du
point de vue d’un personnage.
Je comprends la plupart de l’histoire, mais j’ai
besoin d’aide pour la raconter du point de vue
d’un personnage.
Je ne comprends pas très bien l’histoire. Je dois
l’étudier un peu plus.
A Simple Tiered Lesson for Reading a Narrative
 Grouping: students are assigned to groups
based on self-assessments
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Top tier: Re-tell the story from a character’s
point of view
Middle tier: Use a paragraph filled with
sentence-starters (scaffolding) to write a retelling of the story from a character’s point of
view.
Lower tier: Continue to study the narrative of
the story using comprehension questions
DI is about…
Building Community Within &
Beyond the Classroom
 De-mystifying
for students
 Valuing one another
 Collaborating with Educators
 Involving Parents
 DI
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Strategy: The Question Wall
Permits ongoing assessment
Builds community
DI is about…
Excellence
 It’s
refusing to accept that students can’t
make progress.
 It’s giving everyone the opportunity to grow
as much as possible.
 It’s teaching students to value themselves
and one another.
 Know
your content well.
 Know your students well. What are their
levels of readiness? Their interests? Their
learning styles?
 Examine your classroom procedures.
 Choose a manageable style (how much can
you juggle?)
 Encourage students to be self-directed &
explicitly teach needed social skills.
 Find
a colleague who is interested in
Differentiated Instruction and will undertake
the adventure with you Write out
instructions.
 Go slowly until you get the hang of it.
 Encourage students to be self-directed.
 Find a colleague who is interested in
Differentiated Instruction and will undertake
the adventure with you.