Differentiated Instruction
Created by Marianne Tillman
Spring 2003
Differentiated Instruction – An Overview
Glossary of Terms
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Differentiated Instruction – An Overview
Carol Ann Tomlinson, a leader in the area of
differentiated instruction, defines differentiation as a way of teaching in
which teachers proactively modify curriculum, teaching methods, resources,
learning activities, and student products to address the needs of individual
students and/or small groups of students to maximize the learning opportunity
for each student in the classroom. Differentiation is not a strategy but rather
a commitment to a philosophy that will motivate students by meeting them where
they are and getting them where they need to go, whether they are advanced
learners, struggling students, or students from varied backgrounds and
cultures. Differentiation is the key to meeting the diverse needs of the
learners that we find in today’s classrooms.
In order to successfully differentiate classrooms teachers
must first:
·
recognize the need to
differentiate
·
build a community of
learners that respects individual differences and needs
·
become proficient at
identifying and understanding the needs of varied learners
·
identify key concepts,
skills, and principles to be learned
·
become proficient at
implementing differentiation strategies
·
learn how to manage a
differentiated classroom
You
will know that you are differentiating when you are providing more small group
activities and these groups are flexible from activity to activity based on a
variety of pre-assessment strategies. There will also be an increase in
individual alternatives such as centers, contracts, independent study, and even
homework assignments.
You
will know that you have been successful at differentiating when: you begin to
see yourself as an organizer of learning opportunities rather than the “sage on
the stage”; your assessment and instruction become inseparable; you have
created a community of learners who respect the individual differences within
your classroom and can work independently according to the working conditions
developed for your classroom; and finally, all your students, whether they are
below, at, or above grade level, are feeling challenged and motivated to reach
their maximum potential by learning new, meaningful, and essential concepts,
principles, and skills.
The following website contains
differentiated lessons that have been created by teachers participating in
“Design for Differentiation”, a Goals 2000 Professional Development Project: http://www.sricboces.org/Goals2000/.
A GLOSSARY OF DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION TERMS
This is one of the
easiest ways for a teacher to help students meet with success but also a way to
challenge higher-level students with the use of open-ended, divergent
questions. By asking questions appropriate to a student’s readiness or ability
level, questions can be adjusted to the level of complexity or abstractness
that fits that child. Good questions are worthy of being answered. It is
important to give students wait time and to sometimes allow students the
opportunity to pair with a partner for discussion before answering a question.
Essential, thought-provoking questions can connect a new concept with the
content to be learned and drive the success level upward for students by
creating important connections between new content and content previously
learned.
Anchoring activity
An
anchoring activity is exactly what it sounds like – a meaningful activity that
is meant to be done by students independently in order to allow the teacher to
work with individual students or small groups of students. In other words,
students are anchored to an activity. Students must be well versed in the
ground rules of working independently. The teacher must make adequate
preparations so that students are quite clear about the task, and the
instructions for completing the task, and have a plan for monitoring and
managing the activity. Examples of anchoring
activities may include the following:
·
Reading
·
Journal Writing
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Keeping a Process Log
·
Working on a Portfolio
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Working on a Learning
Packet or Task Card
·
Working at a Learning
or Interest Center
·
Practicing skills
related to content that students learned in their small group lessons
·
Working on an
Extension Menu or Cubing activity, or Task Cards
Choice can be a great motivator for students to
participate. Students can be given options based on learning style or interest.
They may also be given content choices
as to what will be learned (ideas, concepts, facts, rules, principles) or how
what they will learn will be enriched (depth, complexity, novelty, or
acceleration).
The
processes for how content will be
learned may include the learning activities, questions, thinking skills, and
methods such as problem-based learning, Socratic method, simulations,
independent study, centers, videos, texts, expert mentors, or small groups.
The
outcome of learning can provide opportunities for products that show the content or skill that has been
learned. Options for showing learning in a preferred learning style or talent
area or with a partner/group may improve motivation for many students.
Centers
Centers can be found in many shapes, sizes, and locations in a
classroom. They contain materials and activities meant to reinforce or enrich
content and skills being learned. They can also serve to reinforce concepts
previously learned. Centers can be based on interest and serve to motivate
students exploration of new topics through choice. Centers allow students to
work at their own pace. Teachers need to be sure that students can work
independently, without disturbing classmates. Examples of centers may include:
computer, writing, art, listening, reading, science or math centers. Centers
should be clearly organized (directions), focus on learning goals and essential
questions, provide for learning preferences, and allow for keeping track of
student work through the use of Learning Logs, Journals, or some type of
end-product. Even students can create centers for other students! Learning Contracts work well with centers.
(Centers are different from stations in that stations are part of a whole
concept, topic, or theme being taught. Students rotate through the stations in
steps as part of a unit of instruction. Centers, on the other hand, exist as
separate entities devoted to providing alternative activities to students.)
Curriculum Compacting
The most important thing to remember about
curriculum compacting is that it is not meant to provide an opportunity for
busy work or leisure time. It is meant to give students time to accomplish
meaningful work rather than relearning material they may already know. Compacting
can be used in any subject area in which the teacher can assess competency or
knowledge about a given topic to be studied. It is also most useful for
high-ability learners or any student with an unusual knowledge base on a given
topic. By giving students a chance to show what they know we can then provide
them with interesting, creative, and challenging work equal to their ability.
Compacting means that the teacher needs to:
- Pre-assess all or some of the students for
pre-existing knowledge and understanding of the selected learning
objectives. “The most difficult first” strategy is another method for
allowing students to prove mastery. (The classroom teacher will have to
decide who to test and what constitutes mastery – 90%, 95%?).
- Provide extension activities and lessons for
more in-depth learning of the topic or, in some cases, accelerate the
student through the material.
- Keep records of student progress and what the
student is learning in place of the mastered material.
- Be sure that students understand the rules for
working on alternate activities.
Cubing and Extension Menus
Both of these strategies serve the same purpose and
that is to provide alternate activities to students who have finished their
work or are doing alternative work while you are meeting with small groups.
Cubes and extension menus can also be part of learning/interest centers. The
menu boxes or the sides of the cube provide possible activities for students to
complete. A “menu of possibilities” can be organized around a current topic of
study or provide extension activities related to a topic. Students must know
the rules for working independently. The following is an example of a menu of
alternative activities, covering many different subject areas, created by our
own teachers at a Differentiation workshop.
Elementary Extension Menu Example
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Make a book of math word problems on a topic we are
currently studying for your classmates to solve.
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Create an award for your favorite book or book character
that would encourage others to read the book.
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Create a comic strip to describe the attributes of your
favorite mammal.
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Create a timeline chain showing the order of events of
the life of a famous person. Use one link for each major event. |
Student
Choice |
Illustrate a flipbook about the life cycle of a
butterfly.
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Create a Venn diagram comparing our culture with a
different culture. |
Survey your classmates about their favorite ______.
Create a graph displaying your findings. |
Recreate the flag of a city or state. On the back write
important facts about the state or city.
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Flexibility
Flexibility may be the key element to effectively
implementing differentiated instruction. Flexibility implies the ability to
make adjustments and that’s what differentiated instruction is all about. This
flexibility may manifest itself in the form of the flexible use of time,
materials, approaches or groups. Flexible groups can be determined by
readiness, interest, skill, student, teacher, or by learning style. Flexible
grouping requires pre-assessment in order to make decisions about students’
instructional needs. Examples of pre-assessment strategies may include:
pretests created by the teacher or the use of a post-assessment test prior to
beginning a new topic/unit; KWL charts; writing prompts; questioning; “exit
cards”; debates; focus groups; teacher observation/checklists; student
demonstrations and discussions; questionnaires; interviews; student products
and work samples; and portfolios. By varying groups, the teacher can ensure
that all students will learn how to work collaboratively and cooperatively. By
assigning different roles within groups students will also learn how to work
independently and with responsibility towards a group of their peers. The ways
to group students is endless – in fact there is a video entitled Small Group
Activities for Differentiating Instruction available through The
Office of Teaching and Learning (created by Teacher Education Resources).
Grouping
The key to grouping in a differentiated classroom is
flexibility. Groups will vary with topic (based on preassessment), interest,
learning style, readiness, ability, etc. In order for small groups to function
there must be adequate preparation for students in role responsibilities and
opportunities for reflecting on the success of a group’s efforts through
established criteria. Groups can vary from pairs, triads, groups of four, or
even larger groups for instructional purposes. For a teacher’s manual and video
entitled “Small Group Activities for Differentiating Instruction” please call
“The Office of Teaching and Learning. (Here is a listing of some of the
grouping ideas: “Numbered Heads”, “Russian Roulette”, “Stand and Share”,
“Spontaneous Lectures”, “Inside-Outside Circles”, “Group Reporters”, “Jigsaw”,
“K-W-L”, “Solution Sort”, “Three Step Interviews”, and 15 more ideas for
reviewing, assessing, motivating, debriefing, problem solving, etc.
Independent Study
An independent study is correctly defined as “an
opportunity to choose and investigate a topic of your own interest for the
purpose of creating something new with the gathered information”. Prior to
beginning an independent study the classroom teacher needs to be sure that
his/her students are proficient in a number of skills required to complete such
a project. Practice and instruction at using these skills is important. Note
taking, outlining, interview skills, letter writing skills, research skills to
locate, record and organize information are essential to a successful
independent study. Before beginning such a study you might want to conduct an
interest inventory to help students select a topic for study. Keeping a Process
Log, developing a timeline to help students stay on track, providing product
options for presenting the learned information, and developing an evaluation
with students so that expectations are clear, are all valuable ways to help
students complete a productive independent study.
Learning Contracts
A contract is an agreement made between the teacher
and the student in which the student agrees to accomplish certain assignments.
This is a way to match student readiness with the skills and content being
taught. It also means that students must be able to plan and organize
themselves in order to complete work that may be interdisciplinary,
problem-based, or require research. This strategy is often used to extend
learning at a higher level or to integrate thinking skills into assignments for
those students whose work may be being compacted (see compacting). An Extension
Menu can also be used as a contract. You may ask various students to complete a
set number of extension boxes in a day or in a week, depending on their pace
and/or ability. Most importantly, vary the length of the contract so that it matches
a student’s readiness to handle such responsibility.
Literature Circles
Literature Circles is an excellent strategy for getting
students together to talk about a book they are reading. This strategy can help
students build comprehension and verbal expression. Once a book group is formed
students read at a set pace and come together for discussions. At each meeting
children are assigned a different role. Roles can have many titles but students
must come prepared to share with their group. Some examples of roles are: “The
Connector” who looks for connections between the book, its characters and their
own lives or other books they may have read. “Discussion Director” must develop
questions for discussion and help keep the group on track. “The Illustrator’
creates visuals that show the steps of how a character did something, creates a
storyboard for the events of the story, or illustrates meaningful passages from
the book. “The Quotable Quoter” selects parts of the story to share with the
group. They can be good parts, funny parts, scary parts, interesting parts, or
serve to provide examples of figurative language, metaphor, hyperbole, etc.
“The Summarizer” writes a brief summary or gives the highlights of the assigned
section. “The Word Wizard” looks out for interesting and new words to share
with the group. These are just a few of the jobs. Students and teachers can
create their own job titles. Book selections can be made related to themes
being studied or interest based. Best of all, book selection can be based on
choice or ability.
Socratic Seminar
Socratic seminars are conversations that are
stimulated by open-ended questions related to a selected reading. Closure may
never be attained but independent thinking may be stimulated.
Tiered Lessons/Activities
This is an important way to allow students to work
with the same concepts and essential ideas but at different levels of
complexity, number of steps, concreteness vs. abstractness, and levels of
independence. By developing activities along a continuum of complexity or
abstractness you are allowing students to work on similar concepts but in such
a way as to be accessible to low performing students and more challenging for
high ability students. By beginning where they are, students will work at a level
that builds on their prior knowledge but still provides for individual growth.