differentiating instruction for young learners

Differentiating Instruction for Young Learners

Lori ElliottSDEtosaelliott@gmail.com

How are teachers and

hamsters similar?

Child Development• Children’s behavior and needs don’t suddenly

change on their birthdays.• Developmental age does not always match

chronological age.• Individual development is uneven.

Yardsticks by Chip Wood•2nd Edition•Available August 9

Birthday Cluster

•Get to know your students by listing them youngest to oldest.

•Look for clusters.•Do you have a developmentally young or

old class?•Anticipate the changes over the year and

as you approach testing time.

What is Differentiated Instruction? It’s consistently and

proactively creating different pathways to help all your students to be successful.

~Betty Hollas

Differentiated InstructionBased on Student

Differences

Assessment is

OngoingFlexible

Grouping

Teach a concept at multiple levels

Tier Your Lessons?

Multiple Pathways

Readiness Interest Learning Style/Profile

Basic Facts Apply Knowledge

Analysis

We Can Tier By:

Developing a Tiered Assignment

•Know:

•Understand:

•Be Able to Do:

When Differentiating You Must Know . . .•each child’s readiness level.

▫early readiness▫readiness▫advanced readiness

•each child’s interests. (p. 138)•how each child learns best. (p.

139)•how the child feels about the

classroom, him/herself, and learning.

Hollas, B. (2005)

Toonaday.com

Did You Know?•46% of people are visual learners•19% of people are auditory learners•35% of people are kinesthetic learners

VAK

Morning Meeting•Class meets in a circle daily for 15-30

minutes.•Greeting•Sharing•Group Activity•News and Announcements

Greeting•Set Morning Meeting Guidelines.•Teach eye contact and proper speaking

techniques. •Discuss, model and practice greetings in a

friendly way.•Sets a positive tone for the day.•Provides a sense of recognition and

belonging.

www.originsonline.org

Group Activity•Songs•Games•Chants•Poems

The Wishy-Washy Washerwoman In the deep dark jungle

where nobody goesThere’s a wishy-washy

washerwoman washing her clothes

She goes “Ooh, ahh, ooh, ahh,

Ooh ahh ahh and a ringy-ding-ding!”

Black Socks Black socks, they never get dirty,The longer I wear them, the stronger they

get!Sometimes I think I should wash them,But something inside me keeps saying ,

“Not yet! Not yet! Not Yet!

Sharing• Whole group: Each person shares one thing about a

specific topic.• Interactive: One person briefly shares and invites

questions.• Focused: Interactive, but speaker addresses a specific

topic.• Partner: 2 people share about a topic. One partner

summarizes for the group.

News and AnnouncementsMorning Message•K-2 Use a regular

and predictable format.

•Include a place for students to interact with the message.

Ways We Can Differentiate

Content Process

ProductEnvironment

Environment•Equipment•Grouping of Students•Location

Website Differentiation•Introduce a Concept•Practice a Skill•Extend a Concept•Review a Concept

Bookmark Sites•I Keep Bookmarks•Google Bookmarks•Delicious•Portaportal

Office•Word for Writing•Publisher for Advertisements/Shorter

Pieces•Newspapers•Brochures•Excel: Higher Levels•Digital Portfolio

PowerPoint•Lessons•Alternative to Reports•Use the Narration Feature•Bigger Audience: Share with Community Leader

•Post Online

Movies

Assessment?

Movement•Movement involves more

of a student’s brain than does seatwork since movement accesses multiple memory systems. (Jensen, 2001)

•Having students stand up, walk, jump, and clap as they review, understand, or master material will strengthen their procedural memories. (Sprenger, 1999)

The Liberty Bell . . .

Here’s a storyOf the Liberty Bell

It cracked the first time it was rung.They tried to fix it; it cracked again;

It weighed at least a ton!Then one day while the bell was in Pennsylvania,

People saw it and thought how they were freeThe crack . . . . was just like America

We struggled for libertyThe Liberty Bell! . . .ding!The Liberty Bell! . . .ding!

That’s the way . . . . . it became the Liberty Bell!Ding da ding ding!

Snowball Fight Hollas, B. (2005)

Hollas, B. (2005)

Vocabulary in Motion

Give Me Five!Five Critical Questions to Ask While Reading

•What mental pictures do I see? (Visualization)

•What does this remind me of? (Connection)

•What do I know, even though I wasn’t told this information in the text? (Inference)

•What might happen next? (Prediction)•What was this mostly about?

(Summarization)

Hollas, B. (2005)

•Thinking takes time.•WAIT – Pair/Share – Hands

Differentiated Wait Time

Hollas, B. (2005)

I Have . . . Who Has???

Toonaday.com

Hollas, B. (2005)I’m done . . .What do I do now??What are anchor activities?

• specified ongoing activities on which students work independently

• ongoing assignments that students can work on throughout a unit

Why use anchor activities?

• provide a strategy for teachers to deal with “ragged time” when students complete work at different times

• they allow the teacher to work with individual students or groups

• provides ongoing activities that relate to the content of the unit

• allow the teacher to develop independent group work strategies in order to incorporate a mini lab of computers in classroom

Think-Tac-Toe

Write about the main character of your story. Be prepared to present a five-minute report to the class.

In your journal, create a graphic organizer and use it to compare yourself to the main character.

Think of someone you know who is like one of the characters in the book. Write about how they are alike.

Draw a picture of the setting of the story. Include at least 7 details and a detail box.

Make up a rap about the setting of the story and set it to music.

Build a model of the setting of the story.

Make a timeline to show the major events of the story.

With a group of three other students, create a new ending for the story.

With a group of three other students, create a skit and act out the story.

R.A.F.T.RoleFraction

TeacherReporter

Songwriter

AudienceDecimal

StudentsPublic

Singer

FormatLove letter

Friendly letterBusiness letter

Rap

TopicExplain Relationship

Book Talk

Causes/effects of the current economic situation

Economics

Hollas, B. (2005)Assessment•Pre-assessment: Determine

students’ prior understanding and readiness for the content.

•Formative Assessment: Tracking students’ progress throughout the learning process as well as giving them the opportunity to track their own growth.

•Summative Assessment: Making sure they’ve reached the goals that have been set.

Comparison of Formative and Summative

AssessmentsFormative Assessments

Summative Assessments

Purpose To improve instruction and provide student feedback

To measure student competency

When administered

Ongoing throughout unit

End of unit or course

How students use results

To self-monitor understanding

To gauge their progress toward course or grade-level goals and benchmarks

How teachers use results

To check for understanding

For grades, promotion

Fisher, D., Frey, N.(2007) Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques

for Your Classroom. Alexandria, VA. ASCD

It is the assessment which helps us distinguish between teaching and learning.

Fisher, D., Frey, N.(2007) Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques

for Your Classroom. Alexandria, VA. ASCD

Fisher, D., Frey, N.(2007) Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom. Alexandria, VA. ASCD

What criteria do I use to select sources, processes and products?

Model for Differentiating InstructionWhat do I differentiate?

Sources

Process

Product

Readiness Interests Learning

Style

What principles guide my planning?

Meaningful tasks

FlexibleGrouping

Ongoing Assessmen

t and Adjustmen

t

Pre-assess

Instruction/Formative Assessment

Summative Assessment

Data Analysis

Remediation/Enrichment

The Teaching Wheel

Learning Logs and Response Journals

Hollas, B. (2005)