Building CapacityAll Students Access CCSS

PART FOURGATE STUDENTS

Differentiating CCSS For Gifted and Advanced Learners

Kim Coons-LeonardJuly 2, 2014

Desired Results

Common Core Staff Developers will analyze best practices in differentiation for gifted and advanced learners and begin developing a toolbox to support implementation of these practices in their work with teachers and administrators.

Enduring UnderstandingRigor for all requires differentiation for some.

The Memoirs of Jesse James

I remember all those thousands of hoursthat I spent in grade school

watching the clock,waiting for recess or lunch or to go home.

Waiting: for anything but school.My teachers could easily have ridden with

Jesse JamesFor all the time they stole from me

-Richard Brautigan

Essential Questions

Rigor for all requires differentiation for some.

• Would every student want to do it? • Should every student do it? • Could every student do it?***

--Harry Passow

Learning Plan

How will I prepare you for the culminating task?• Let’s get started with some research on the

gifted brain and its instructional implications…

Gifted brains are remarkably intense and diffuse metabolizers.

• fMRIs show a brain on fire. Bright red blazes of metabolic activity burst out all over the scan

• Each red patch represents millions of microcombustion events in which glucose is metabolized to provide fuel for the working brain

• The chemical capacity of the gifted brain helps create a more efficient response

Gifted brains are hyper-sensitive• Not only are initial impressions especially strong, but

later recollections are often unusually intense or vivid• Because vivid initial impressions correlate with better

recollection, gifted brains are also characterized by increased memory efficiency and capacity

• These memories are characterized by multimodality—memory areas that store many different types of memories

• This multimodality means gifted thinkers often make connections in ways other people don’t

Implications for Instruction

“The constant repetition of the regular classroom, so necessary for mastery among the general population, is actually detrimental to long-term memory storage and retrieval for gifted students.” --John Hopkins University study, 1993

For further information read the article Brains on Fire at http://goo.gl/zBB3xO

Specific to math and science…

Gifted students are significantly more likely to retain science and mathematics content accurately when taught 2-3 times faster than “normal” class pace.

Gifted students are significantly more likely to forget or mislearn science and mathematics content when they must drill and review it more than 2-3 times.

--Dr. Karen Rogers

Ready, Set, Go!

1. Put your name at the top of the paper. List everything you think you know about:

Differentiation for gifted and advanced learners

2. In groups of three create a new list compiling all of your words with NO repeats.

3. Count up the total number of words on your group list.

Take it to the next level and embrace Tier 3 vocabulary with the Gold Star Word Activity. See the info sheet.

Differentiating Curriculum for the Gifted

• Acceleration• Depth • Complexity • Novelty

Differentiation Feature: Acceleration

Acceleration is at the heart of GATE differentiation. It is the use of ongoing assessment to determine what a student already knows in order to compact instruction to what is not known. This in turn "buys time" for the student to explore concepts to greater depth and complexity.

Acceleration Applied

Assessments include:• Pre-tests that assess material to be taught versus determining level of

readiness• Unit, chapter, and topic post-tests as pre-tests• Quick checks/quick writes/Entry-Exit cards• Worksheets as a pre-assessment instead of practice• Most Difficult First (MDF) instead of complete assignment• KWL/Ready, Set, Go! for new content, concepts, themes• Frayer Model for concept assessment, specific skills

Implementation:1. Pretest student knowledge and skills on upcoming standard, topic, chapter, or unit. 2. Compact curriculum to focus on what is not known. 3. You have bought students time for Depth, Complexity, and, Novelty of Core Curriculum!

Acceleration Choice Pathwaysat http://goo.gl/vxC00x

• Unit, chapter, and topic post-tests as pre-tests: Read the Guidelines for Differentiating ELA and Mathematics for Gifted and Advanced Learners

• Learn how to implement Most Difficult First (MDF) • See examples of the Frayer Model as a pre-assessment tool

across content areas

In your CCSS lesson, unit of study, or math topic identify where you will pre-assess. On a sticky note identify HOW students will be pre-assessed and place onto directly onto your CCSS document.

Differentiation Features: Depth and Complexity

Depth means to move from the known to the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract. It is extending learning in the core curriculum beyond the grade-level standard.

Complexity means making connections within and across disciplines within the grade level curriculum.

Both depth and complexity add layers to the core curriculum.

Depth and Complexity Applied

Adding layers by (but not limited to):• Incorporating advanced resources • Studying a concept in multiple applications or situations •Developing a product based on data addressing patterns and trends•Evaluating between pros and cons • Using multiple higher level skills •Adding more variables to study•Requiring multiple resources or tasks •Evaluating and synthesizing key ideas within or across disciplines• Examining a topic from multiple perspectives or overtime

Implementation to support the above list:Novices: Use the Differentiator to create a layered taskApprentices: “Frame” a task four ways Experts: Use the CCSS-aligned Thinking Tools of Depth and Complexity to create a layered task.

Depth and Complexity Choice Pathwaysat http://goo.gl/wtvhXG

• Novices: Learn how to use the Differentiator to create a layered task.

• Apprentices: Learn how to “frame” a task four ways and use this technique to layer a task.

• Experts: Use Kaplan’s Thinking Tools of Depth and Complexity to create a layered task that includes the new CCSS-aligned icons.

In your CCSS lesson, unit of study, or math topic differentiate a learning task using one of these strategies. Annotate your work onto a sticky note (or use a digital frame) and place directly onto your CCSS document.

Differentiation Feature: Novelty

Novelty as GATE differentiation means to "personalize understanding." This happens when students are challenged to evaluate and/or synthesize information.

Novelty at its best offers choice and addresses research and inquiry that includes evaluation and synthesis of information.

For the highly gifted, novelty often provides the most meaningful learning experiences.

Novelty AppliedAs with all research and inquiry, Novelty is guided by questions:

• How can knowledge in the area of study be interpreted?• How can knowledge from this study be restated/expressed in

one’s own words?• What type of investigation or experiment can be designed to learn

more about the area of study?• What personal interpretation could be made from this area of

study?

Implementation:Research as a search or investigation. Design a process that guides a student’s ability to find information from a variety of sources and to draw conclusions from that information.

Investigation Versus Report: What's the Difference?

Investigation Report

Uses information gathered through independent/small group research to answer an essential question and make an analysis.

Results in the creation of an original written, visual, oral, artistic, or multimedia project.

Involves analysis, complex application, evaluation and synthesis of information.Inspires (for student) new ideas, methodologies, and perspectives.

Satisfies intellectual curiosity.

Generates findings to be shared with a specific, authentic audience.

Uses information gathered through research to relate information to a topic.

Requires a written product.

Involves acquisition of knowledge, simple application, and demonstration of comprehension.

Makes plagiarism tempting.

Satisfies requirements.

Generates information to be shared with the teacher.

Evaluate a Research TaskSelect your choice of a learning task that involves research from a unit of study, chapter, theme, or the 2nd grade math investigations and use the checklist to evaluate.

Research checklist Uses information gathered through

research using multiple and varied resources to answer an essential question and make

an analysis.

Results in the creation of an original written, visual, oral, artistic, or multimedia project.

Involves analysis, complex application, evaluation and synthesis of information.

Inspires (for student) new ideas, methodologies, and perspectives.

Satisfies intellectual curiosity.

Generates findings to be shared with a specific, authentic audience.

Post the checklist in your CCSS document. If the task does not meet all criteria, how it could it be revised?

Would every student want to do it? Should every student do it?

Could every student do it?***

Our instructional response to gifted and advanced learners:

Adjust AND Accelerate all levels of curriculum, instruction, and assessment

With emphasis on complex and multi-faceted layers via Depth, Complexity, and Novelty