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Helping Teachers Make Senseof It All: Putting Differentiated
Instruction and Response to
Intervention Together
Susan Demirsky Allan
Developed with Yvonne
Goddard, Texas A & M
http://www.differentiatedinstruction.net/http://www.differentiatedinstruction.net/8/11/2019 Helping Teachers Make Sense of It All - Blridge Version Handouts
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The Tendency Toward New
Initiatives
The flavor of the month frustration
Many initiatives may be connected but the
connections need to be made explicit by
those who put them forward.
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A Simple Concept
Education is most effective whenchildren are regarded and
treated as individuals with
different levels of readiness,
learning profiles and interests,
and that teachers have aprofessional obligation to help
all students be successful.
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Response to Intervention
Defined
The National Association of State Directors
of Special Education (NASDSE, 2006)
defines RtI as the practice of
(1) providing high-quality
instruction/intervention matched to student
needs and
(2) using learning rate over time and level ofperformance to
(3) make important educational decisions .
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Differentiated Instruction
Defined
Teachers proactively plan varied
approaches to what students need to
learn, how they will learn it, and/orhow they will show what they have
learned in order to increase the
likelihood that each student will learn
as much as he or she can, as
efficiently as possible (Tomlinson,
2003)
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Response to Intervention
Response to intervention was originally
conceived as a means to identify students
with learning disabilities more accuratelyand much sooner than the traditional
discrepancy formula.
Educators saw its possibilities with all
struggling learners and it was broadened
beyond special education.
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Differentiated Instruction is a
Grass-Roots Movement
Differentiated instruction began with teachers
and bui ld ing/d is t r ic t adm inist ratorswho were
frustrated by the lack of strategies and tools to
meet the needs of all their learners.
Its roots are in gifted education and special
education but the strategies are applied to all
learners.. Universities are following and beginning to
provide needed training but teachers and
administrators were and are the leaders!
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Is there evidence that they
work?
Early research on differentiated instruction
focused on componentsstudent readiness,
learning profile etc. and showed
effectiveness in those areas. Recently (Goddard & Goddard, 2007)
demonstrated that teachers rating of major
components of the differentiated instruction
model as important in their classrooms was
a positive predictor of higher test scores in
math and reading on statewide
assessments.
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They Are Two Aspects of a
Whole RtI and Differentiation are generally seen as
two separate initiatives.
I believe that they are complimentary and
substantially overlapping as aspects of goodquality teaching.
RtI can be seen as a subset of Differentiationone that focuses on the struggling learner
and on areas of weakness.
Both represent a cultural shift in how we runclassrooms.
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The question that looms is,How might we make
teachers lives more
straightforward by seeing
these as two aspects of a
whole, quality classroom?
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Where do they diverge?
There are three key areas of divergence:
Focus on student strengths vs. weakness
Tier 3 Students who have significant impairments and/or
low incidence conditions that require very
specialized treatments.
Students who are highly gifted and may not be able
to find learning partners within the regularclassroom.
Documentation/Record keeping
requirements and the role of Assessment
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Building on Their Strengths:
The Blind Side
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2070414617/
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2070414617/http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2070414617/http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2070414617/http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2070414617/http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2070414617/8/11/2019 Helping Teachers Make Sense of It All - Blridge Version Handouts
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The Role of Assessment
Its long been understood thatformative assessment is a critical
part of good quality classroom
instruction.
In all aspects of differentiation,
knowing a students current level of
readiness is crucial in order to
appropriately target instruction.
This is a natural fit with Response to
Intervention.
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Important Caveat
The increased level of documentationonly becomes a requirement if it is
likely that the student may end up
with a special educationidentification!
Although RtI is defined as being broaderthan special education, extensive
documentation requirements are not
required as part of general education.
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What Will the Classroom Look
Like?
First and foremost, it will look like a
differentiated classroom.
Teachers are student-centered.They are able to discuss learning
readiness, styles and interests or
have developed a record system as
an aid.
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Instructional plans provide regular
variations that are keyed to high
quality curriculum and address a
range of learners.
Assessmentboth formative and
summative -- is regular and used to
inform instruction.
What Will the Classroom Look
Like?
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What Will the Classroom Look
Like?
Teachers are persistent if one
strategy doesnt work for a student,
they move to Plan B. (Warning: You will be tempted to say
Duh! on this one!) Teachers
demonstrate that they like students!
H P f i l D l
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How Professional Development
Needs to Change
Professional development should befocused on the full scope of classroom
instruction and the range of strategies
available to teachers. It must be practical. If it is not, it wont
be used!
Both external and internal expertsmust be challenged to present a full
range of methodologies for all
students.
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A Natural Fit
Teaching is challenging.While we cant make it easy, we dont
need to add to the difficulty.
It will be of great use to provide aunified vocabulary and a unified
mindset to support teachers.
Build bridges!