Guiding Differentiation

Suggestions for gifted support teachersCarolyn Hoy, M. Ed

Warwick School DistrictMillersville University

Agenda

Defense of differentiation

The gifted support teacher’s role

Suggested strategies to assist your teachers

More resources to explore

Questions to ponder

Has gifted education exacerbated social, economic, and racial divisions in society?

Does the term ‘gifted’ engender feelings of elitism?

Do the teachers that work with the identified gifted in your building have an understanding of their needs?

What is the role of the gifted support teacher in light of new regs?

Gifted children should not have ‘mysteriously defined attributes and learning needs.’ By presenting data, we can help general education teachers come to an understanding that some children have exceptionally advanced learning needs that require flexibly responsive educational attention.

• http://porbital.deviantart.com/art/A-

Changing paradigms of gifted education

Mysterious-Man-136173061

“Giftedness isexceptionally advanced subject-specific ability at a particular point in time such that a student’s learning needs cannot be well met without significant adaptationsto the curriculum.”

(Matthews & Foster, 2005b, p. 26).

How can gifted students’ learning needs be best supported?

Which one describes your faculty?

Parallel play: “We all live in our separate caves.” “We’re all in this -- alone.”

Adversarial relationships: withholding craft knowledge, competing for materials, recognition

Congenial relationships: personal, friendly relationships with colleagues

Collegial relationships...

Collegial relationships

• Educators talking with one another about practice.

• Educators sharing their craft knowledge.

• Educators observing one another while they are engaged in practice.

• Educators rooting for one another's success.

When we ‘play together’ it looks like...

And students win!

Creating a culture of collegiality

Talk about practice

Share craft knowledge

Observe one another

Root for one another

Get leadership involved

Roland Barth, Improving Relationships in the Schoolhouse

11 Ways to Guide Teachers to Differentiation

1. Know the standards

2. Vary instructional strategies and activities

3. Create a learning climate

4. Exhibit ‘with-it-ness’

5. Provide a wide variety of materials and resources

6. Know the students

11 Ways to Guide Teachers to Differentiation

7. Assess before, during, and after the learning

8. Adjust assignments

9. Plan student-focused opportunities

10. Use flexible grouping designs

11. Know change is gradual

Creating the Classroom Climate

Respect diversity

Maintain high expectations

Generate openness

Consider introductory activity/interest inventories, other ways to learn about your students

Activity!

Go to the paper that describes your knowledge of the subject announced

BELOW BASIC

BASIC

PROFICIENT

ADVANCED

DI basics

Vary content: What do you want students to learn?

Vary process: What do you want the students to do cognitively?

Vary product:How do you want students to demonstrate what they have learned?

Questions Leading to Differentiation

Planning Question

What do I want students to know, understand and be able to do?

Pre-assessing Question

Who already knows, understands and/or can use the content or demonstrate the skill?

Differentiation Question

What can I do for them so that they can make continuous progress and extend their learning?

Roberts, 9

Here’s one place to start...

Curriculum compacting:

Creates a challenging learning environment: assesses what a student knows and what is still needed

Guarantees proficiency in curriculum: eliminates content that is already known

Buys time for enrichment/acceleration

GIEP goals: Acceleration and/or enrichment

Student may need compaction if he..

Consistently finishes tasks quickly

Finishes reading assignments first

Appears bored during instructional time

Consistently daydreams

Creates own puzzles, diversions in class

Brings in outside reading material

Student may need compaction if he..

Performs well in one or more academic areas

Test scores excellent despite average/below average classwork

Asks questions which indicate familiarity with material

Is sought after by other students for assistance

Uses vocabulary and verbal expression in advance of grade level

Expresses interest in pursuing alternate or advanced topics

Suggestions for Pre-assessment

Pre-assess by

End of the previous unit assessment

End of unit assessment

K-W-L charts

Mind maps

Five most difficult questions

Open ended questions

Considerations

Communicate with parents about the compacting

Document, document, document

Allow student choice but never the choice to do nothing

How do I do it?1. Identify the objectives in a given subject area.

2. Pre-test

3. Eliminate instructional time for students who show mastery of the objectives.

4. Offer challenging alternatives for time provided by compacting

5. Set criteria for mastery of alternatives

6. Keep records of process.

Suggestions for compacting

Learning contracts

Study guide extension menu

SCAMPER

Bloom’s taxonomy

Think-tac-toe

Independent project

Learning contracts

Structure in taking responsibility for own learning

Chance to try new way of learning

Students involved in decision making: increased intrinsic motivation

Student interest driven

Learning contracts

Benefits

Can be useful in closing achievement gaps

Can be useful in providing student support for lack of motivation

When to use it

Useful when students are identified as needing additional teacher and parental support

To encourage student to investigate learning in depth and with fidelity of topics of interest for personal growth

Study guide extension menu

1. Determine and list the key concepts for the unit of study.

2. Describe related concepts that will not be included in the unit of study - concepts to study in depth if time permitted.

3. Create a study guide for the key concepts only. Student completes at own pace whileyou provide direct instruction for the rest of the class.

4. Develop formative assessments to check for understanding of the key concepts in the study guide.

5. Create an extension menu using the related concepts from step #2 above.

6. Have students determine the method they would like to use to present the information investigated in the extension menu. You can use the Product Choices Chart.

7. Discuss parameters of completing this work using the independent study agreement for both the study guide and independent study.

8. Determine and discuss the grading policy for both the study guide and extension menu project.

Study guide extension menu

Important to remember about this method:

Students do not need to do the actual daily work of the other students.

Students are expected to share what they have learned with their classmates.

You should plan some time each week to meet with students working more independently to assess their progress and assist them in research.

Students are required to keep a folder of their independent work in the classroom, so they always have something to work on.

S C A M P E R

SCAMPER is a mnemonic that stands for:

•Substitute •Combine •Adapt •Modify/minify/magnify •Put to another use •Eliminate •Reverse

Using Bloom’s Taxonomy

Develop respectful, engaging tasks for each level

Distribute rubrics/scoring guides for each

Cognitive Process Dimension

Remember: retrieve knowledge from LT memory

Understand: Construct meaning from instructional messages, oral, written, graphic

Apply: Carry out or use a procedure

Analyze: Break material into parts and determine structure and purpose

Evaluate: Make judgements based on criteria/standards

Create: Put elements together to form a coherent or functional whole, reorganize elements into a new pattern/structure

Think-Tac-Toe/Choice boards

So many resources already exist! Don’t re-invent the wheel. Show your teachers this website:

http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/Choice+Boards

Independent projects

Should be guided

Proposal/timeline/goals

Student & teacher generated assessment

Try Understanding by Design (McTighe/Wiggins) framework

Based on student strengths

Renzulli’s 5 Dimensions

Differentiate the content

Differentiate instructional styles

Differentiate the classroom

Differentiate the products

Differentiate YOU!

How to differentiate YOU?

Sage on the stage Guide on the side

Athletic or drama coach

Stage manager/production manager

Promotional agent

Academic advisor

Artistic modification: painting yourself into the curriculum (Renzulli)

Video:I have differentiated my lessons

What a child doesn’t learn

Work ethic

Responsibility

Coping with disappointment

Self worth stemming from the accomplishment of a challenging task

Time management skills/study skills

Goal setting/ decision making

Sacrifice Tracy Inman, What a Child Doesn’t Learn

Trends in Education

Democratized EntrepreneurshipTo take advantage of this trend: Begin to cultivate an edupreneurial mindset of experimentation, risk-taking, learning from failure, creative problem-solving, and market awareness in your classroom, and expand it to your school and district.

Personalization StrategiesTo take advantage of this trend: Find ways to enrich your students' cognitive environment through social-emotional skills and brain-based insights

Diversification of School FormatsTo take advantage of this trend: Identify ways that your district can diversify its school formats to serve the multiple and changing needs of the community and its learners.

Changing Certification Methods To take advantage of this trend: Help

students of all ages communicate their meta-learning -- their insights about their skills, the application of their skills, and evidence of their learning.

Transforming Urban Learning LandscapesTo take advantage

of this trend: Identify community partners with whom you can develop relationships that support purposeful curriculum based on solving real problems.

Barth, R. (2006). Improving relationships within the schoolhouse. Educational Leadership, 63(6), 8-13. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar06/vol63/num06/Improving-Relationships-Within-the-Schoolhouse.aspx

Dare to differentiate. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/Home

Differentiation using curriculum compacting. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/nrconlin.html

Inman, T. (2007). What a child doesn’t learn. The Challenge, Winter 2007, 17-19.

Matthews, D., & Foster, J. (2006). Mystery to mastery: shifting paradigms in gifted education. Roeper Review, 28(6), 64-69. Retrieved from http://www.raisingsmarterkids.net/mystery to mastery.pdf

Post, G. (2013, June 04). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.blogher.com/lets-not-call-them-gifted

Resources

Reis, S., & Renzulli, J. (n.d.). Differentiation. Compass Learning, Retrieved from https://www.compasslearning.com/white-papers

Roberts, J., & Inman, T. (2009). Differentiating instruction: best practices for the classroom. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.

Rotherman, A. (2013, April 25). The illusion of the 'gifted' child. Time, Retrieved from http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/25/the-illusion-of-the-gifted-child/

Renzulli, J. (n.d.). Painting yourself into the professional growth picture- artistic modification. Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, Retrieved from http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/paintyou.html

Starko, A. (1986). It's about time: inservice strategies for curriculum compacting. Mansfield Center, Conn: Creative Learning Press.

Thompson, M. (1998). A response to 'all children are gifted'. Indiana Association for the Gifted Annual Conference, Retrieved from http://www.rfwp.com/samples/mct-gifted-