Honoring Student Diversity:

Differentiated Instruction

Learning About Your Students

EDUC-503 Session V

Learning about you…

Write your quote on one side of a index card.

On the other side write why you selected it.

Knowing the Learner

Teachers must make every effort to know learners in order to meet their diverse needs. Just as clothing designers must know about the many fabrics and styles to create a garment to suit the wearer, so in classrooms we teachers must know about our learners so that we may “design” learning to meet their needs.

(Paraphrased from Gregory and Chapman)

How do you get to know your students?

What kinds of things do you seek to learn about?

What methods do you use?

How might you use this information?

Knowing the Learner Part I

• Learning Styles

• Thinking Styles

• Multiple Intelligences

Knowing the Learner: Chapter 3

3 Things you learned 2 Questions you have (or questions that would

extend the ideas reading) 1 Main idea from the reading

Knowing the Learner Part II: Assessment

Everyone needs feedback. Teachers and students need to exchange constant feedback to monitor progress and to adjust learning.

Think of ONE student in your classroom.

How would you describe him/her as a reader/mathematician/scientist? (pick one)

9

Talk it Out

9

Every time I talk to the children I am learning about them. I like the words learning about much more than I like assessing. I learn about my children, I get to know them. I want to know what they know. I want to know how they know. Isn’t that what assessment is all about – learning what children know?

Jill Ostrow, A Room With a Different View

Learning how to differentiate begins with

learning about your students

What data are you (would you) using to plan?

How are you learning about your students?

Principles of Assessment

from Teaching Reading in Small Groups: Differentiated Instruction for Building Strategic Independent Readers

by Jennifer Serravallo

Then, with a partner, review the selection. Collaboratively (that is together) identify:

3 things you both* learned or facts that were clarified within the partnership

2 differences between formative and summative assessments

1 = What is the author’s primary message?

First, read entire selection independently.

Assessing (Readers)…

has always been difficult. Until recently, we teachers have often assigned questions, journal entries, or projects at the end of reading. But that just tested a basic level of understanding.

We know there’s more to reading and comprehension, and we cannot continue to carry out assessments as we had. If we give our students end-of-the-book questions, how does that inform our teaching? Does it give our students the message that we don’t believe they have read the material unless they can answer the questions?

Summative assessments like these don’t really help us support our readers.

Why wait until the end of the reading to assess, when listening, observing, and asking questions along the way will give us so much more information about our readers and inform our instruction?

from Day-to-Day in the Reading WorkshopFranki Sibberson and Karen Szymusiak

We need to establish routines that afford us opportunities to assess in the context of authentic reading experiences. If we watch and learn from our students while they are in the process of reading, we can use that information to plan instruction more effectively.

Preparing for the Project

In small groups of 2-3 students will describe the environment, emotional, academic and social differentiation that will be in place to meet the needs of a variety of students at the age group or in the content area in which the teacher candidate is seeking certification or is already working. Groups will also develop lesson plans that include a comprehensive description of how the lessons were designed to meet the needs of the varying students in the class.

Knowing the Learner

In preparation for October 11th:

Independent Study – Using an internet resource, text, or a periodical, learn more about multiple intelligences, learning styles, or brain-based learning. Create a one page visual illustrating the salient points. Include how the content of your learning influences your planning for students in your classroom. (Please make 7copies of the resource and of your visual.)

And…

Chapter 4: One Size Does Not Fit All

Assignment on next slide

Chapter 4 will influence you……in very different ways depending on the grade/subject you teach, your own experiences with assessment, and your current knowledge of assessment practices.

1. Read with a open-mind, looking for new or enhanced ideas about assessment. Highlight/underline/note significant learning.

2. After reading, write down what will you use from this chapter tomorrow? In the near future? Never? And WHY?