Differentiating Instruction

A Teacher Development Workshop by Lynn, Sona, Jan, Elsa, Kim, and Karina

Sponsored by Nanaimo District Teachers’ Association, BCTF, & SD68

Why differentiate instruction?

When a teacher tries to teach something to the entire class at the same time, chances are, one-third of the kids already know it; one-third will get it and the remaining third won’t. So two-thirds of the children are wasting their time.

- Lillian Katz

Brain Research…

Current research on intelligence and the brain suggests that we learn best when we are engaged in meaningful classroom learning experiences that help us discover and develop our strengths and talents.

(Silver, Strong, Penini 1997)

   

What is differentiation of instruction?

Differentiating instruction means creating multiple learning paths in order that students of different abilities, interests or learning needs experience equally appropriate ways to absorb, use, develop, and present concepts as part of the daily learning process.

What are the benefits of differentiating instruction?

It allows students to take greater responsibility and ownership for their own learning.

It provides opportunities for peer teaching and cooperative learning.

It fosters student independence.

What differentiation of instruction is not….

expecting all students to accomplish the same tasks;

grading some students harder than others;

letting students who finish early play games;

giving more of the same work to advanced learners who have already mastered the concept.

The teacher’s attitude can make all the difference…

Teachers who showed the greatest ability to move toward differentiated classrooms were inquirers about students and saw school as an organic enterprise in which disequilibrium or disturbance was a catalyst for growth.

- Carol-Ann Tomlinson

How to Differentiate Instruction

Differentiate by LEVELS Differentiate by PACING Differentiate by ENVIRONMENT Differentiate by CONTENT Differentiate by PROCESS Differentiate by PRODUCT

The key to differentiated instruction is to assess students’ prior knowledge before planning the details of a lesson.

What are the different points of entry?

The teacher can then avoid planning a lesson that is way above or below the students’ capabilities.

LEVELS: Prior Knowledge

LEVELS: Readiness

“What are the key concepts that all students must learn for this course? This task?”“How do I assess what they already know?”“How do I assess whether students are ready for this task?”

Readiness / Ability

Use a variety of assessments To assess readiness, to assess ability, to assess whether

students are working below or above grade level, to assess whether students may simply be missing necessary prerequisite skills.

Accept that readiness is constantly changing Permit students to move between different groups (see flexible

grouping);  Activities for each group are often differentiated by complexity; Those students whose reading level is below grade level will

benefit by reading with a buddy or listening to stories and instructions using a tape recorder so that they receive information verbally.

Vary the level of questioning (and consequent thinking skills)

Compact or extend the curriculum as needed

LEVELS: Readiness

Begin with the “Big Idea” What are the core learning outcomes? What are the essential understandings? The major concepts or “Big Ideas” serve as

the anchors for the unit/lesson you are planning to differentiate.

Vary the paths of learning so students will all end up with a core understanding of the learning outcome.

LEVELS: Core Concepts

Assessment is based on B.C.’s IRP’s (Integrated Resource Packages) PLO’s (Prescribed Learning Outcomes)

BC Ministry of Educationhttp://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/

Of the 400+ learning outcomes for each grade level, consider which outcomes are life-long learning skills – these become the core “Big Ideas.”

LEVELS: Benchmarks

The starting point is what you need to do to challenge the highly able student. What you’re then doing is insuring that all kids get the best-practice instruction. Whenever you have teachers doing that, it reshapes how they teach all kids.

- Carol-Ann Tomlinson

LEVELS: Aim higher!

Assessment does not occur at one specific time during a unit.

Teachers who differentiate instruction are constantly assessing or gathering information about their students.

They then adjust the activities in their lesson/unit according to what they find out about how their students are doing.

LEVELS: Assessment

How to Differentiate Instruction

Differentiate by LEVELS

Differentiate by PACING Differentiate by ENVIRONMENT Differentiate by CONTENT Differentiate by PROCESS Differentiate by PRODUCT

To learn a particular concept, “some children need days; some, ten minutes,” but the typical lockstep school schedule ignores this fundamental fact.

-Marilyn Hughes

“How do I plan and organize and pace the learning in my classroom?”

If two students can reach the same understanding, what does it matter if one student takes a shortcut and another takes the long way? Sometimes students are equipped with the

prior knowledge that prepares them for the fast track toward understanding.

Other times students will need to take the slower paced scenic path.

How to Differentiate Instruction St. Mary's College, Maryland

PACING: Paths to learning

A list of agreed upon activities that a student can go to when they have completed present assignments.

Activities assigned for a short period at the beginning of class as students prepare for work. These may relate to specific needs or enrichment opportunities, including problems to solve or journals to write.

Students can work at different paces but always have meaningful work they can do.

These activities must be worthy of a student’s time and appropriate to their learning needs.

PACING: Provide options

Accelerating or Decelerating

Changing the pace that students move through curriculum is another method of differentiating instruction.  Students demonstrating a high level of competence can work through the curriculum at a faster pace. Students experiencing difficulties may need adjusted activities that allow for a slower pace in order to experience success.

PACING: Change pacing

Compacting: A 3-Step Process

Assess what student knows about material to be studied and what is required for mastery;

Plan for learning what is not known and excuse from what is known;

Plan for freed up time to be spent in enriched or accelerated study.

PACING: Compacting

Compacting Curriculum Assess a student’s knowledge, skills and

attitudes Providing alternative activities for the student

who has already mastered curriculum content 

This can be achieved by pre-testing basic concepts or using performance assessment methods. Students who demonstrate that they do not require instruction move on to tiered problem-solving activities while others receive instruction.

PACING: Compacting

How to Differentiate Instruction

Differentiate by LEVELS Differentiate by PACING

Differentiate by ENVIRONMENT

Differentiate by CONTENT Differentiate by PROCESS Differentiate by PRODUCT

“How do I manage different students doing different things without chaos?”

ENVIRONMENT: Motivation

Boredom and failure are often at the root of most students’ acting out.

Most kids want to learn. Misbehavior is a child’s response to a frustrating educational environment. Once teachers start differentiating, they’ll find the behavior they feared most has stopped. The work itself has become motivating. It’s a payoff.

- Carol Ann Tomlinson

Student MotivationStudents are motivated by: Collegiality -Provide opportunities for

students to work together and celebrate accomplishments

Competence – Assess whether or not task is at student’s instructional level (Frustration is not motivating)

Relevance – ensure students are aware of relevance this learning will have to their future

ENVIRONMENT: Motivation

What should you aim for? Trust: Make sure that you are open with your

students about your decisions. For example: Why have you chosen to put a student in a particular group?

High Expectations: Always insist on high quality work from every student. Explain why something is or is not meeting your expectations.

A Community of Learners: Convey the message that every student is an important part of your classroom. “We are all in this together.”

ENVIRONMENT: Aims

Establish Routines Teach independent routines for learning that

students are to follow when teacher is busy with another group. What else can you do while you are waiting for assistance?

Teach independent routines for entering/exiting and washroom breaks when teacher is busy with another group.

ENVIRONMENT: Routines

Establish Procedures Teach effective plans for:

Materials distribution Transitions/interruptions Instructional time Handing in work (where and when)

ENVIRONMENT: Procedures

ENVIRONMENT: Hands-on

Tasks have to be "respectful of kids, hands-on, engaging and thought-provoking."

A differentiated class is a workshop environment where teachers can get to each group. A differentiated room may look chaotic, but it’s a workshop."

ENVIRONMENT: Engaging

An actively engaged classroom provides the teacher with time to give individual lessons and small group instruction to students requiring additional help to get started. 

Learning Modalities and StylesAnother filter for assigning students to tasks is by learning style or learning modality: auditory (learns best by hearing information) visual (learns best through seeing information in

charts or pictures)  kinesthetic preferences (learns best by using

concrete examples, or may need to move around while learning)

ENVIRONMENT: Learning Styles

Student Interests

Interest surveys are often used for determining student interest. Brainstorming for subtopics within a curriculum concept and using semantic webbing to explore interesting facets of the concept is another effective tool. This is also an effective way of teaching students how to focus on a manageable subtopic.

ENVIRONMENT: Interests

“How do I organize the students in groups for instruction and projects?”

Keep groups from becoming stagnant (Tomlinson, 2001). Students need to work with a variety of peers in groups based on interests, readiness, or self-selected groups.

Without changing the groups in your classroom, students will quickly find a relationship between how they are grouped and the type of work they receive.

 

ENVIRONMENT: Groups

ENVIRONMENT: Groups

As student performance will vary it is important to permit movement between groups.  Student readiness varies depending on personal talents and interests, so we must remain open to the concept that a student may be below grade level in one subject at the same time as being above grade level in another subject. 

Flexible grouping allows students to be appropriately challenged and avoids labeling a student's readiness as static. Students should not be kept in a static group for any particular subject as their learning will probably accelerate from time to time. 

 

ENVIRONMENT: Flexible Groups

Even highly talented students can benefit from flexible grouping. Often they benefit from work with intellectual peers, while occasionally in another group they can experience being a leader. In either case peer-teaching is a valuable strategy for group-work.

Flexible groups are also necessary because students’ abilities vary from time to time. A student who is struggling with one concept may excel in another.

- Tomlinson, 1995

ENVIRONMENT: Flexible Groups

Group 1:Lesson with Teacher

Group 2: Independent review

Group 3: Independent assignment from yesterday

Group 1:Independent assignment from lesson

Group 2: Lesson with Teacher

Group 3: Independent enrichment activity

Group 1: Independent review

Group 2: Independent assignment from lesson

Group 3: Lesson with Teacher

ENVIRONMENT: Flexible Grouping

Occasionally a student may have personal needs that require one-on-one instruction that go beyond the needs of his or her peers. After receiving this extra instruction the student could be designated as the "resident expert" for that concept or skill and can get valuable practice by being given the opportunity to re-teach the concept to peers. In these circumstances both students benefit. 

ENVIRONMENT: Peer-Teaching

This strategy is particularly useful for younger students and/or students with reading difficulties. Children get additional practice and experience reading away from the teacher as they develop comprehension and fluency.   It is important that students read with a specific purpose in mind and then have an opportunity to discuss what was read.  It is not necessary for reading buddies to always be at the same reading level. Students with varying word recognition, word analysis, and comprehension skills can help each other be more successful. Adjusted follow up tasks are also assigned based on readiness level.

ENVIRONMENT: Reading Buddies

A buddy-study permits two or three students to work together on a project. The expectation is that all may share the research, analysis, and organization of information, but each student must complete an individual product to demonstrate learning that has taken place and be accountable for their own planning, time management, and individual accomplishment.

ENVIRONMENT: Buddy-Studies

Learning Centres have been used by teachers for a long time and may contain both differentiated and compulsory activities. However a learning centre is not necessarily differentiated unless the activities are varied by complexity taking in to account different student ability and readiness. It is important that students understand what is expected of them at the learning centre and are encouraged to manage their use of time. The degree of structure that is provided will vary according to student independent work habits. At the end of each week students should be able to account for their use of time.

ENVIRONMENT: Learning Centres

A learning contract is a written agreement between teacher and student that will result in students working independently.

The contract helps students to set daily and weekly work goals and develop management skills.

It also helps the teacher to keep track of each student’s progress.

The actual assignments will vary according to specific student needs.

ENVIRONMENT: Learning Contracts

Contract learning allows each student some ownership over what they study, and their progress in learning.

Each learning contract is developed with the

student’s input.

Contract learning allows students to work at their own pace to accomplish their own goals.

ENVIRONMENT: Contract Learning

How to do it: Decide on when students need whole group

instruction, and when to allow more freedom.

Introduce the unit as a whole group. Plan times for whole group lessons that target the major concepts

Provide choices for students to research topics of their interest that are related to the unit.

Require students to report their progress throughout.

Let parents know about the contracts.

ENVIRONMENT: Contract Learning

Have specific goals set by both students and teacher.

Include criteria for successful completion of goals.

Specify how each student will be evaluated and the methods of evaluation are chosen by both teacher and student.

ENVIRONMENT: Contracts

Independent studies are research projects where students learn how to develop the skills for independent learning. The degree of help and structure will vary between students and will depend on their ability to manage ideas, time, and productivity. A modification of the independent study is the buddy-study. 

ENVIRONMENT: Independent Studies

How to Differentiate Instruction

Differentiate by LEVELS Differentiate by PACING Differentiate by ENVIRONMENT

Differentiate by CONTENT Differentiate by PROCESS Differentiate by PRODUCT

Differentiation is not a curriculum. It is a way of thinking about teaching and learning.

CONTENT: Where do I start?Before deciding the content of specific units and lessons… determine what each student already knows

about the topic and what you want them to know (pre-assessment and outcomes)

anchor students’ prior knowledge with the learning outcomes for the lesson

build on students’ knowledge and skills by providing varying degrees or depths of content relating to the basic learning outcomes.  

CONTENT: Aims

Remember to identify the desired resultsBEFORE addressing the specifics of instructional planning: What do I want my students to know, understand,

and be able to do? (content) What will I do instructionally to get my students to

learn this? (process) How will my students show what they know?

(product)

  Teaching is a means to an end. 

Bloom's Taxonomy

Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation

CONTENT: Concept-Focused

Adjust Questions ? ? ? ?

Adjust the sorts of questions posed (based on learners’ readiness, interests, and learning profiles)

Adjust the amount of time (wait time and partner discussion time)

Adjust the type of question (open or closed) Adjust the complexity (abstractedness,

degree of mental leap required, degree of explanation of first answer)

CONTENT: Concept-Focused

The Six Facets of Understanding 

When we truly understand we can: explain interpret apply have perspective empathize have self-knowledge

(Wiggins and McTighe, 1998)

CONTENT: Concept-Focused

How to Differentiate Instruction

Differentiate by LEVELS Differentiate by PACING Differentiate by ENVIRONMENT Differentiate by CONTENT

Differentiate by PROCESS Differentiate by PRODUCT

The teacher should think in terms of what students must learn rather than what tasks they must complete.

–Casteel & Johnson

Process is the “how” of teaching. When differentiating process, students are engaged in different activities, but each activity should be directed to the lesson’s common focus on what students should come to know, understand, and be able to do.

- Carol Ann Tomlinson

PROCESS: Understanding

Teachers think both as assessors and as activity designers:

Thinking Like An Assessor

What would be sufficient and revealing evidence of understanding?

Thinking Like An Activity Designer

What would be interesting and engaging activities on this topic? 

PROCESS: Organization

Thinking Like An Assessor

What performance tasks must anchor the unit and focus the instructional work?

Thinking Like An Activity Designer

What resources and materials are available on this topic?

PROCESS: Organization

Thinking Like An Assessor

How will I be able to distinguish between those who really understand and those who don’t (though they may seem to)?

Thinking Like An Activity Designer

What will students be doing in and out of class? What assignments will be given?

PROCESS: Organization

(Source: Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, Understanding By Design)

Thinking Like An Assessor

Against what criteria will I distinguish work? How will I give students a grade (and justify it to their parents)?

Thinking Like An Activity Designer

What misunderstandings are likely? How will I check for those?

PROCESS: Organization

PROCESS – How do I start?

For some great start-up ideas, look to the web!

Remember that you are not the first to try to differentiate instruction. Ask your colleagues (school support services, resource centres) for help!

Involve your students in the planning stages!

Assessment should be defined simply as gathering information about students (Gregory & Chapman, 2002). What do your students know about the concept you are

teaching? What else do they need to learn? How well are they formulating an understanding of what

you have taught so far? How did your students respond to this type of teaching

style? The information you gather does not have to be evaluated

or graded. The next step is to then use that information when planning learning experiences.

PROCESS: Assessment

Think in terms of three orientations to teaching: 

Transmission [one way communication such as

lecture and demonstration] Transaction [two-way communication such as

questioning and discussion]

Transformation [learning by doing such as work-experience, practicum, simulation, role-playing]

PROCESS: Focus

Web Quests/Technology

WebQuests are a wonderful means of differentiating instruction based on interest.

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet. Paths of inquiry and tasks assigned can be as individual as the student, allowing a student to pursue personal interests while working on common content.

PROCESS: Web Quests

PROCESS: Student Tasks

“How do I manage tasks so all my students experience success?”“When you hear your name come and get your work folder.”“All students must complete questions in section A. Section B contains choice questions. Section C can be done for bonus marks.”

Establish daily quiz routine

Adjust levels of questions on quiz Target questions for varying skills Target questions for varying student

interest

PROCESS: Daily Routines

Use open-ended questions

Help students work at varying levels from concrete to abstract

Encourage students to move through open-ended assignments with an increasing degree of difficulty of tasks. (Not all students expected to complete all assignments)

PROCESS: Open-ended

Tiered Assignments

Tiered activities are a series of related tasks of varying complexity. All of these activities relate to core learning outcome and key skills that students need to acquire.  Teachers assign the activities as alternative ways of reaching the same goals taking into account individual student needs.

PROCESS: Tiering

Tiered Assignments Use varied levels of activities to ensure

that students explore ideas at a level that builds on their prior knowledge and prompts continued growth.

Avoid work that is anxiety producing (too hard) or boredom producing (too easy)

Success at key concept with tasks at varied levels of difficulty

PROCESS: Tiering

Establish Tiered Assignments All assignments reinforce key skills or

concepts Develop 4 versions of activity at different

levels Enrichment – open-ended exploration Mastery – thinking task Concept attainment – working in

structured way Modified – simplified version of key

concept

PROCESS: Tiering

Tiered Assignments

Allow for reinforcement or extension of concepts and skills based on student readiness

Promote success for all and are therefore motivating

Use a variety of resource materials at different levels of complexity and learning modalities.

PROCESS: Tiering

Vary assignments

All do assigned portion Some do choice portion “Fasties” able to do bonus portion

PROCESS: Variety

How to Differentiate Instruction

Differentiate by LEVELS Differentiate by PACING Differentiate by ENVIRONMENT Differentiate by CONTENT Differentiate by PROCESS

Differentiate by PRODUCT

“What sort of tasks will my students be doing?”

PRODUCTS: Expectations

Criteria: Establish clear expectations for final

products, productions, end results. Consider which students will need

support with which skills to be able to reach these results.

Write the criteria for the students in user-friendly language.

Rubrics Keep wording in a language students

understand Many sites are available to help design

rubrics (e.g. http://rubistar.4teachers.org) Students need to have a clear understanding

of what “excellent work” looks like in order to be able to strive to do just that!

PRODUCTS: Expectations

Conclusion

The teacher becomes a facilitator, assessor of students, and planner of activities rather than an instructor. The classroom environment is less structured, more busy, and often less quiet than with traditional teaching methods. However, differentiation engages students more deeply in their learning, provides for constant growth and development, and provides for a stimulating and exciting classroom.

References

Guild, P.B., and Garger, S (1998). What Is Differentiated Instruction? Marching to Different Drummers 2nd Ed. (ASCD, p.2)

Tomlinson, C. (1995) How to differentiate Instruction in mixed-ability classrooms.Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Wiggins, Grant J. and MacTighe, Jay (2005) Understanding by DesignAlexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

References on the Web

Hall, T. (2002). Differentiated instruction. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum.

 Hess, M-A. (1999). Teaching in mixed-ability

classrooms. Wisconsin: WEAC. 

Théroux, Priscilla. Enhance Learning with Technology.

  How to Differentiate Instruction