Differentiated Instruction

Objectives

Based on the information provided today, teachers

will be able:
• To define differentiated instruction
• Execute differentiated instruction by overcoming
obstacles and/or identifying current practices
• List three strategies they have used or might use
in their classroom
• Find information and additional resources
 Questions to Consider

What is differentiated instruction?

Why differentiate?

What are you already doing to differentiate

instruction in your classroom?
Videos- watch one or two

Secondary Writing Example:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=4171206737458657618#
Special Ed Example:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=4171206737458657618#docid=-
5933070899743390419
Elementary Example:
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4747418/12679004
Explore this website
www.learnerslink.com

Click on the “Differentiating Instruction” speech bubble.

Scroll Down to “Differentiation Topics” Click on:  Brain

Based Strategies - Interactive Brain - Explore

Continue to explore based on topics that interest you

and your partner.

Do not open the remaining pages of the PowerPoint at

this time : )
Obstacles

1. I long to return to the Good Old Days

2. I thought I was differentiating
3. I teach the way I was taught
4. I don’t know how
5. I have too much content to cover
6. I’m good at lecturing
7. I can’t see how I would grade all those different
assignments
Kathie F. Nunley, Differentiating in the High School, Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2006.
Obstacles

8. I thought differentiation was for the elementary

school
9. I subscribe to ability grouping
10. I have real logistic issues
11. I want my classroom under control
12. I don’t know how to measure my student’s
learning styles
13. I have neither the time nor the funding for all
that
Kathie F. Nunley, Differentiating in the High School, Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2006.
Obstacles

14. I’ve been teaching this way for years and it

works
15. There’s no support for it at my school
16. My district requires me to follow a prescribed
text
17. Parents expect lecture format in high school for
college prep
18. The bottom line – if they are learning, you are
teaching
Kathie F. Nunley, Differentiating in the High School, Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2006.
Definition I

• Differentiated instruction is a process

through which teachers enhance learning
by matching student characteristics to
instruction and assessment. Differentiated
instruction allows all students to access the
same classroom curriculum by providing
entry points, learning tasks, and outcomes
that are tailored to the students’ needs.
Definition II
• In differentiated classrooms, teachers begin
where students are, not the front of a
curriculum guide. They accept and build
upon the premise that learners differ in
important ways. Thus, they also accept and
act on the premise that teachers must be
ready to engage students in instruction
through different learning modalities by
appealing to differing interests, and by using
varied rates of instruction along with varied
degrees of complexity.
(Carol Ann Tomlinson)
Definition III
• In differentiated classrooms, teachers provide
specific ways for each individual to learn as
deeply as possible and as quickly as possible,
without assuming one student's road map for
learning is identical to anyone else's. These
teachers believe that students should be held to
high standards. They work to ensure that
struggling, advanced, and in-between students
think and work harder than they meant to;
achieve more than they thought they could; and
come to believe that learning involves effort, risk,
and personal triumph.
• (Carol Ann Tomlinson)
Response to:

• Student readiness
• Student interests
• Student learning style
• Multiple intelligences
• Success for all students
• What is practical and what is
doable
Carol Tomlinson, professor at the University of Virginia, identifies four
classroom elements that can be differentiated:

• Content:   What the student needs to learn. The

instructional concepts should be broad based,
and all students should be given access to the
same core content. However, the content’s
complexity should be adapted to students’
learner profiles. Teachers can vary the
presentation of content,( i.e., textbooks, lecture,
demonstrations, taped texts) to best meet
students’ needs.
Carol Tomlinson, professor at the University of Virginia, identifies four
classroom elements that can be differentiated:

• Process:   Activities in which the student

engages to make sense of or master the content.
Examples of differentiating process activities
include scaffolding, flexible grouping, interest
centers, manipulatives, varying the length of time
for a student to master content, and encouraging
an advanced learner to pursue a topic in greater
depth.
Carol Tomlinson, professor at the University of Virginia, identifies four
classroom elements that can be differentiated:

• Products: The culminating projects

that ask students to apply and extend
what they have learned. Products
should provide students with different
ways to demonstrate their knowledge
as well as various levels of difficulty,
group or individual work, and various
means of scoring.
Carol Tomlinson, professor at the University of Virginia, identifies four
classroom elements that can be differentiated:

• Learning Environment: The way the

classroom works and feels. The
differentiated classroom should include
areas in which students can work quietly as
well as collaborate with others, materials
that reflect diverse cultures, and routines
that allow students to get help when the
teacher isn’t available (Tomlinson, 1995,
1999; Winebrenner, 1992, 1996).
CRIME

• Curriculum: content, difficulty, standards

• Rules: explicit, implicit, written
• Instruction: teaching style, individual & group
work pace, teacher & student directed
• Materials: textbooks, trade books, tests,
homework, equipment, supplies
• Environment: furniture, seating, space, doors,
windows, barriers
Mary Anne Prater, “She Will Succeed!: Strategies for success in Inclusive Classrooms, Council for Exceptional Children