Differentiation

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Differentiation

• Reaching Those Who Dont Expect It

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What is our goal?

• Teacher one who teaches or instructs, esp. as a
  profession
• Teach - to impart knowledge or skill to

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• If students cant learn the way we teach, we
  must teach the way they learn.
• -Tomlinson

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Reaching Low Socio-Economic Kids

• What challenges do they face that others dont
  have?
• How does that affect their learning?

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Reaching Low Socio-Economic Kids

• Research shows these kids need teachers who look
  beyond the circumstances and maintain high
  expectations
• Dont give up on them!!

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Reaching Low Socio-Economic Kids

• Need positive role models to whom they can relate
• Need someone who cares enough to take the time
• Need someone to nurture their strengths

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Reaching Low Socio-Economic Kids

• Create a vision and a hopeful future image of
  their lives
• Remember you can make a difference!

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Reaching Low Socio-Economic Kids

• Advantages we have here
• Small school district
• Small school size
• Supportive community
• Supportive administration
• Adequate supplies
• However

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Reaching Low Socio-Economic Kids

• We still need to reach those who dont fit the
  mold of successful students!

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• Give two compliments to a person sitting next to
  you

Why cant we do that for each child?
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• Think of a struggling or challenging child in
  your class

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• Write down three positive things about that child

and share them with someone else.
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• What could you do to make this child smile?

What could you do to make this child feel
successful?
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Steps in Differentiation

• First Step
• Pretesting

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Steps in Differentiation

• Ways of Pretesting
• Group question and answer session
• Individual question and answer session
• Paper and pencil test
• Open-ended
• Objective
• Chart

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Steps in Differentiation

• Think of your upcoming lesson/unit
• What skills will be your focus?
• How can you pretest those skills?
• What will you look for?

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Steps in Differentiation

• Whats next?

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Steps in Differentiation

• Next Step
• Differentiate the Lesson

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Steps in Differentiation

• Two main ways of differentiation
• Process
• Content

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Steps in Differentiation

• Differentiation of Process
• Changing HOW they learn
• Can be based on pretesting, learning profiles,
  interests
• What will be the best way for each child to learn
  the required information?

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Steps in Differentiation

• Process Differentiation Examples
• Small group or individual projects
• Questioning techniques
• Choice activities Tic Tac Toe Menu
• Jigsaw

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Steps in Differentiation

• Differentiation of Content
• Changing WHAT they learn
• Based on pretesting
• If they already know something, why learn it
  again? Also, if they dont know the basics, how
  can they move on?

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Steps in Differentiation

• Differentiation of Content
• Curriculum Compacting
• Alternate assignment
• Learning contracts

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Steps in Differentiation

• Then What?
• How do I evaluate all this work?

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Steps in Differentiation

• Assessment
• Pressure from administration and parents
• Some students terrified at thought of anything
  less than an A
• Need to motivate children to learn

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Steps in Differentiation

• Assessment
• Should report card grades reflect their
  performance on grade level work only?
• Should enrichment activities and independent
  study be graded at all?
• What ownership should students have over their
  grades?

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Steps in Differentiation

• Assessment
• Learning contracts
• Give grade for pretest score to count for unit
• Weighted grading scale based on difficulty
• Rubrics Example 1 Example 2 Example 3

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You Can Do It!

• It is a matter of putting together the pieces

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You Can Do It!

• And helping them to fly!

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References

• Winebrenner, Susan. Teaching Gifted Kids in the
  Regular Classroom. Free Spirit, 1992.
• Best Practices. http//wblrd.sk.ca/bestpractice
  /index.html.