Differentiated Instruction

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Differentiated Instruction

• What, Why, and How

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What is Differentiation?

• Differentiating Instruction means changing the
  pace, level, or kind of instruction you provide
  in response to individual learners needs,
  styles, or interests

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Differentiated InstructionIs Not
Is

• One thing
• A program
• Adaptations tacked on to already developed
  lessons
• Tracking- mixed ability grouping is very
  important
• Changing parts of a lesson for one or two
  students
• A chaotic classroom- though it can appear that
  way at times
• The goal the goal is student learnjng

• An approach that benefits all students
• Student centered
• Different approaches for students, not different
  amounts of work
• Creating diversity in instruction- mixing lesson
  formats, instructional arrangements, support,
  etc. for all learners
• Something most teachers are doing already perhaps
  without realizing it, but also a different way of
  thinking about how we cover material
• A means to an end and that end is student
  learning

Adapted from Tools for Schools, Kluth, Paula
(2000)
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Some Traits of Quality Differentiation

• Rooted in student need
• an extension of high quality curriculum
• Derived from on-going assessment
• Respectful of each learner
• Builds community
• Involves students as decision makers
• Demonstrates teacher-students partnerships in
  teaching learning
• Growth focused
• Scaffolds growth for each learner
• Supports successful collaboration
• Stretches each learner
• Promotes rewards individual excellence
• Addresses readiness, interest, learning
  profile
• Attends effectively to gender culture

• Spans content, process, product
• Effective varied use of instructional
  approaches
• Teaches students to take responsibility for own
  learning
• Flexible use of time, space, materials,
  groupings
• Maximizes opportunity to show what you know
• Balances student teacher choice
• Planned (proactive) plus tailoring
• Occurs when either teacher or student is on
  center stage
• Includes whole class, small group, individual
  instruction
• Supports success for each learner the class as
  a whole
• Builds collaborations with parents

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Differentiated Instruction is Based on the
Following Beliefs

• Students differ in their learning profiles
• Classrooms in which students are active learners,
  decision makers and problem solvers are more
  natural and effective than those in which
  students are served a one-size-fits-all
  curriculum and treated as passive recipients of
  information.
• Covering information takes a backseat to making
  meaning out of important ideas.

From How to Differentiate Instruction in
Mixed-Ability Classrooms by Carol Ann Tomlinson
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Why Differentiate

• The past two decades have provided extraordinary
  progress in our understanding of the nature of
  learning. Never before have neuroscience and
  classroom instruction been so closely linked.
  Because advances in technology enable us to view
  the working brain as it learns, educators can now
  find evidence-based neuroimaging and
  brain-mapping studies to determine the most
  effective ways to teach.
• Much suggests that differentiated instruction can
  maximize brain development

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How Does Research Support DI?

• Differentiated Instruction is the result of a
  synthesis of a number of educational theories and
  practices.
• Brain research indicates that learning occurs
  when the learner experiences moderate challenge
  and relaxed alertness readiness
• Psychological research reveals that when interest
  is tapped, learners are more likely to find
  learning rewarding and become more autonomous as
  a learner.

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Brain Cell Structure
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Brain Plasticity and Pruning

• A 2004 report in Nature found that people who
  learned how to juggle increased the amount of
  gray matter in their occipital lobes (visual
  memory areas). When they stopped practicing the
  juggling, the new gray matter vanished. A similar
  structural change appears to occur in people who
  learnand then don't practicea second language.
  The decrease in connecting dendrites and other
  supporting brain connecting cells that are not
  used is called pruning. The loss of native
  language ability, juggling skills, or learned
  academic material that is not practiced is the
  flip side of the brain's growth response to
  learning. It is the use it or lose it
  phenomenon. The process is called pruning
  because the brain pathways and connections that
  are used regularly are maintained and
  hard-wired, while others are eliminated, or
  pruned.
• Pruning. Just as hedges are pruned to cut off
  errant shoots that don't communicate with many
  neighboring leaves, the brain prunes its own
  inactive cells. By the time we enter adolescence,
  our brain has chosen most of the final neurons it
  will keep throughout our adult life based on
  which cells are used and which are not.

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Dendrite growth

• Neuron growth stops after about age 20, but
  dendrite growth can continue throughout life
• Dendrites increase in size and number in response
  to learned skills, experience, and information.
• These neural networks, similar to electric
  circuitry, are the roadways that connect various
  parts of the brain.
• the more alternative pathways there are to
  connect with a memory, the more efficiently the
  traffic will flow, and the more rapidly that
  memory will be retrieved when needed.
• Like an exercised muscle, the more they are
  utilized, the more these circuits become more
  efficient and easier to access and activate.

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Dendrite Growth (cont.)

• Dendrites increase in size and number in response
  to learned skills, experience, and information.
  New dendrites grow as branches from frequently
  activated neurons. This growth is stimulated by
  proteins called neurotrophins. Nerve growth
  factor is one of these neurotrophins. Although
  the brain measurements of neurotrophins are
  highest during childhood (when the brain's
  connecting cells are undergoing their greatest
  growth and development), as students continue to
  learn, neurotrophin activity is elevated in the
  brain regions responsible for new learning

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Oxygen Oxygen Oxygen

• Heart rate increases with motion, challenge and
  recognition of novelty
• Blood flow increases with heart rate
• All cell processes- including dendrite growth-
  increases with blood flow
• Ergo, increased heart rate grows dendrites so
  your students are likely to learn more if there
  is physical or mental motion and challenge in
  connection with your curiculum! (Gum anyone?)

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Three Principles of How the Brain Learns

• Learning environments must feel emotionally safe
  for learning to take place.
• To learn, students must experience appropriate
  levels of challenge.
• Each brain needs to make its own meaning of ideas
  and skills.

http//www.ascd.org/pdi/demo/diffinstr/tomlinson.h
tml How the Brain Learns, Carol Ann Tomlinson and
M. Layne Kalbfleisch
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How to Differentiate

• 4 basic ways
• By content
• By process
• By product
• By learning environment

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The Key
The Key to a differentiated classroom is that all
students are regularly offered CHOICES and
students are matched with tasks compatible with
their individual learner profiles.
Curriculum should be differentiated in three
areas 1. Content Multiple option for taking
in information 2. Process Multiple options for
making sense of the ideas 3. Product Multiple
options for expressing what they know
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Differentiating Content

• Using reading materials at different readability
  levels
• Putting text on tape
• Using spelling or vocabulary lists at readiness
  level of students
• Presenting information through visual and
  auditory means
• Using reading buddies/reading partners
• Think-Pair-Share/Preview-Midview-Postview
• Meeting with small groups to re-teach ideas or
  skills for struggling learners or extend the
  thinking or skills of advanced learners

Excerpted from Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000)
Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary
Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on
Elementary and Early Childhood Education.
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Differentiating Process

• Using tiered activities- all learners working
  with same understandings and skills, but with
  different levels of support or challenge
• Creating interest centers that encourage students
  to explore parts of the class topic of particular
  interest to them
• Providing agendas- task lists containing whole
  class work and work addressing individual needs
  of students
• Providing manipulatives or hands-on materials
• Varying length of time to complete tasks

Excerpted from Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000)
Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary
Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on
Elementary and Early Childhood Education.
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Differentiating Products

• Giving options on how to express required
  learning (make a mural, write a letter, create a
  puppet show, etc.)
• Using different rubrics to match and extend
  students skill levels
• Allowing students to work alone or in groups to
  complete product
• Encouraging students to create own product as
  long as it contains the required elements

Excerpted from Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000)
Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary
Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on
Elementary and Early Childhood Education.
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PossibleProducts
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Differentiating Learning Environment

• Allowing for places to work quietly without
  distraction, as well as places for students to
  work collaboratively
• Setting clear guidelines for independent work
• Developing routines for students to get help when
  teacher busy working with other students
• Allowing for those students who need to move
  around when learning, while others need to sit
  quietly

Excerpted from Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000)
Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary
Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on
Elementary and Early Childhood Education.
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Where to Start?
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Guidelines to remember when aspiring to
differentiate

• Clarify key concepts and generalizations to
  ensure that all learners gain powerful
  understandings that serve as the foundation for
  the future learning.
• Use assessment as a teaching tool to extend
  versus merely measure instruction. Assessment
  should occur before, during, and following the
  instructional episode.
• Emphasize critical and creative thinking as a
  goal in lesson design. The tasks, activities, and
  procedures for students should require that
  students understand and apply meaning.
• Engaging all learners is essential.
• Provide a balance between teacher-assigned and
  student-selected tasks. Teachers should assure
  that students have choices in their learning.

http//www.cast.org/ncac/index.cfm?i2876
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Begin Slowly Just Begin!

• Low-Prep Differentiation
• Choices of books
• Homework options
• Use of reading buddies
• Varied journal Prompts
• Orbitals
• Varied pacing with anchor options
• Student-teaching goal setting
• Work alone / together
• Whole-to-part and part-to-whole explorations
• Flexible seating
• Varied computer programs
• Design-A-Day
• Varied Supplementary materials
• Options for varied modes of expression
• Varying scaffolding on same organizer
• Lets Make a Deal projects
• Computer mentors
• Think-Pair-Share by readiness, interest, learning
  profile

• High Prep Differentiation
• Tiered activities and labs
• Tiered products
• Independent studies
• Multiple texts
• Alternative assessments
• Learning contracts
• 4-MAT
• Multiple-intelligence options
• Compacting
• Spelling by readiness
• Entry Points
• Varying organizers
• Lectures coupled with graphic organizers
• Community mentorships
• Interest groups
• Tiered centers
• Interest centers
• Personal agendas

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What you will see in the Successfully
Differentiated Classroom

• Learning experiences are based on student
  readiness, interest, or learning profile.
• Assessment of student needs is ongoing, and tasks
  are adjusted based on assessment data.
• All students participate in respectful work.
• The teacher is primarily a coordinator of time,
  space, and activities rather than primarily a
  provider of group information.
• Students work in a variety of groups
  configurations. Flexible grouping is evident.
• Time use is flexible in response to student
  needs.
• The teacher uses a variety of instructional
  strategies to help target instruction to student
  needs.
• Clearly established criteria are used to help
  support student success.
• Student strengths are emphasized.

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THE BOTTOM LINE At the most basic level,
differentiation consists of the efforts of
teachers to respond to variance among learners
in the classroom. Whenever a teacher reaches out
to an individual or small group to vary his or
her teaching in order to create the best
learning experience possible, that teacher is
differentiating instruction. Carol Ann Tomlinson
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Next class

• differentiation activities that can be done in
  any classroom
• Resources- on line and text
• Testimonials from teachers using it effectively