Differentiation

EdAd 202A

Pat Stelwagon

February 10, 2010

Gardner’s Eight Intelligences

Logical/mathematicalVerbalKinestheticMusicalInterpersonalIntrapersonalSpatialNaturalisticExistential (being developed)

Curriculum DifferentiationOverview: Essential ElementsPre-assessment: identify students’ academic needs and

interests at the beginning of the year and at the beginning of each new unit of instruction

Tiered Assignments: Adjusting assignments into various levels of academic difficulty in order to meet the varying readiness levels of students. Every student should feel slightly uncomfortable with the challenge being presented.

Project Menus: Offering students a variety of choices for unit projects that extend their learning. The selections should be crafted to meet a variety of students’ pre-assessed interests and learning profiles.

Differentiation’s Core Concepts (Dr. Sandra Kaplan, USC)Novelty: Activities to make the curriculum

personally relevantDepth: Extending the unit of study into an

exploration of details, rules, patterns, trends, ethics, and ideas

Complexity: Activities that require students to make connections between disciplines, perspectives, and eras.

Acceleration/Deceleration: Speeding up/slowing down rates of learning and increasing/ decreasing difficulty of materials used for academic tasks.

Begin Differentiation Slowly if You Like – but Do Begin

Low Preparation

Book choices

Homework options

Work alone or together

Varied scaffolds

Multiple levels of questions

Varied journal prompts

Mini-workshops to re-teach

or extend skills

Varied pacing with anchors

High Preparation

Tiered activities and labs

Tiered products

Multiple tests

Multiple intelligence options

Interest groups

Learning centers

Literature circles

Project menus

Problem-based learning

The Equalizer: Adjusting Assignments to Create Appropriate Depth for Students

FoundationalConcreteSimpleFew factsSmaller leapMore structuredClearly defined problemLess independenceSlower

Transformational AbstractComplexMany facetsGreater leapMore openFuzzy problemGreater independenceQuicker

Approaches to Greater Depth (Sandra Kaplan, USC)Language of the discipline (experts’

nomenclature)Details (parts, factors, attributes, variables)Patterns (repetition, predictability)Trends (influences, forces, direction, course of

action)Unanswered questions (discrepancies, missing

parts)Rules (structure, order, hierarchy, explanation)Ethics (points of view, judgments, opinionsBig ideas (generalizations, principles, theories)

What Can be Tiered?

AssignmentsActivitiesHomeworkLearning centersExperiencesMaterialsAssessmentsWriting prompts

Supporting Struggling Learners (Carol Tomlinson)Look for struggling learners’ positives (e.g., slower

kinesthetic readers might benefit from pantomime)Make the learning relevant for todayDon’t let what’s broken extinguish what works (avoid

constant remediation)Go for foundational learning: the big ideaGive strugglers assignments that are a bit harder than

you believe they can accomplishUse many avenues to learning (learning cycles, profiles)See students with unconditional expectations and

unwavering vision of total potential

Supporting Struggling Learners (Jim Burke)

Be multimodal and use multimediaSequence activities and assignments logicallyProvide a weekly assignment check off sheetCheck frequently for understandingDiscuss learning strategies that might help specific

studentsAllow strugglers more time to answer or react to

questions; allow practice time tooBreak assignments into small unitsUse small groupsProvide immediate feedbackDo not depend on verbal directions; use the board

Supporting Struggling Learners (Jim Burke, continued)

Let students work with a partnerUse graphic organizers to help with

readingProvide clear and logical transitions

between ideas and unitsProvide lots of concrete examples to

illustrate ideasSeat them away from distractions

One Last Flexible Grouping Option

Oral work and written work groups(Many students are most comfortable

demonstrating their learning through speech, yet most all of what we grade in school is what gets written down. Given that adults communicate most often in oral – not written – formats, it’s important to let students practice oral language skills regularly.)

Complexity: Making Connections (Sandra Kaplan, USC)

Relationships over time (between past, present, and future, within a time period)

Points of view (multiple perspectives on the same event, opposing viewpoints, differing roles and knowledge)

Interdisciplinary relationships (within the discipline, between disciplines, across the disciplines: aesthetics, economics, history, philosophy, psychology, mathematics, science)

How do we evaluate differentiated products?

Provide differentiated rubrics for all assignments (or guide students into creating them)

For a semester grade, you might wish half a student's grade to reflect standards-based achievement and the other half to reflect the student’s growth in your subject area

Some districts give two marks: a letter (A-F) indicating the student’s grade based on individual progress in the subject and a number indicated whether the student is working (1) above grade level, (2) at grade level, or (3) below grade level

Choices for RIGOROUS guided practice: Prepare to share

1. Create a project menu for your students

2. Create a tiered assignment for your students

3. Create pre-assessment tools for your students

The Elements of a Rigorous, Well-Defined Assignment

PROCESSING SKILLS (ask students to build, create, invent, analyze, problem-solve, or evaluate in order to make sense of the new content

New and rigorous CONTENT to explore facts, concepts, principles, attitudes, skills

Appropriate RESOURCES (and use appropriate research skills)

A well-designed PRODUCTA suitable project proposal and RUBRIC

Remember to take SMALL STEPS. Don’t try to differentiate every assignment every day!