DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTIONA brief overview with practical application

How often is education “one size fits all?” Are there simple changes that we can make that can make our classrooms and our students more successful?

Using flexible means to reach defined ends

“Many educators mistakenly think that a differentiated classroom functions like a dinner buffet”

Jennifer Carolan

RICHARD HARRIS

Does Differentiation mean Different?1. Make the work engaging.2. Make the work accessible but challenging.3. Decide where you want to place the obstacles.

CAROL ANN TOMLINSON

A BASIC DEFINITION

“What we call differentiation is not a recipe for teaching. It is not an instructional strategy. It is not what a teacher does when he or she has time. It is a way of thinking about teaching and learning. It is a philosophy” (Tomlinson).

REASONS TO DIFFERENTIATED

Student Readiness Students will learn best when pushed slightly beyond where they

can work without assistance

InterestsLearning Profile

Flexible grouping, multiple intelligences

FOUR WAYS TO DIFFERENTIATED

ContentProcessProductEnvironment

CONTENT What the student needs to learn. The

instructional concepts should be broad based, and all students should be given access to the same core content. However, the content’s complexity should be adapted to students’ learner profiles. Teachers can vary the presentation of content,( i.e., textbooks, lecture, demonstrations, taped texts) to best meet students’ needs.

Sample Activity: Socratic Seminar, Exit Slips, Participation Tickets

PROCESS

Activities in which the student engages to make sense of or master the content. Examples of differentiating process activities include scaffolding, flexible grouping, interest centers, manipulatives, varying the length of time for a student to master content, and encouraging an advanced learner to pursue a topic in greater depth.

Sample Activity: Tic Tac Toe, Choice Board, Menu, Multiple Intelligences,, Socratic Seminar

PRODUCTS

The culminating projects that ask students to apply and extend what they have learned. Products should provide students with different ways to demonstrate their knowledge as well as various levels of difficulty, group or individual work, and various means of scoring.

Sample Activities: RAFT, Tests

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT The way the classroom works and feels. The

differentiated classroom should include areas in which students can work quietly as well as collaborate with others, materials that reflect diverse cultures, and routines that allow students to get help when the teacher isn’t available (Tomlinson, 1995, 1999; Winebrenner, 1992, 1996).

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION & GRADING

How do learners benefit from a grading system that reminds everyone that students with disabilities or who speak English as a second language do not perform as well as students without disabilities or for whom English is their native tongue?

What do we gain by telling our most able learners that they are "excellent" on the basis of a standard that requires modest effort, calls for no intellectual risk, necessitates no persistence, and demands that they develop few academic coping skills?

In what ways do our current grading practices motivate struggling or advanced learners to persist in the face of difficulty?

Is there an opportunity for struggling learners to encounter excellence in our current grading practices?

Is there an opportunity for advanced learners to encounter struggle in our current grading practices?

—Carol Ann Tomlinson