Transcript of Speaker II. Principles of Differentiated Instruction B. Reason to Differentiate Instruction Principles of Differentiated Learning VOICEOVER: Access the handout, Principles of DI, to follow along as Bruce outlines the basic principles of differentiated instruction. The first three principles are: Learning experiences are based on student s readiness, interest or learning profile. Assessment of students needs to be ongoing, and tasks are adjusted based on assessment data. And, third, all students participate in respectful work. It s a recap from this morning. Next, the teacher is primarily a coordinator of time, space and activities rather than primarily a provider of information. That s a bit of a paradigm shift from traditional classroom teaching. Second, teaching and learning are focused on key concepts, understandings and skills. I m thankful we here in Saint Vrain we re ahead of the national curve on being standards-based. I know that varies building by building on where you are in that process, but district wide we re definitely standards referenced as far as what we re teaching. 1
Third, students work in a variety of group configurations. Flexible grouping is evident. Time use is flexible in response to student needs. I know that s easier at the elementary level than at the middle school and high school level because time isn t necessarily a luxury you can afford to be flexible with. Am I correct in that? Middle school teachers really have to live, truly live, by your bells or by your time blocks, especially if you re on block schedules. The teacher uses a variety of strategies to help target instruction to student needs. Clearly established criteria are used to help support student success and we would call that rubric. And, finally, student strengths are emphasized. And that comes about through student choice. When given choices, students by and large choose their areas of strength in that opportunity. Any questions about these principles of differentiation? Would student strengths be emphasized? At some point though, we have to work with their weaknesses. Bruce: Absolutly. How do you do that? 2
That would be one of those instances where sometimes we differentiate instruction and sometimes we don t. Okay. VOICEOVER: Access the handout, Differentiation, to follow along easily with the next set of video clips. This handout clearly outlines the principles of differentiated learning. LINDA BLOCK-GANDY: These are the principles of differentiation that you re going to have the experiences based on readiness, interest or learning profile. This assessment that you did yesterday is ongoing. That formative piece is so important in differentiation. That ongoing, formative piece is what drives your instruction. Because if you re truly differentiating, you re going to be changing gears constantly. You re going to be moving and changing. All students are involved in respectful work. I think that s really, really important because a lot of times we think about, particularly with gifted students, let s give them more work. The more we give them, the more they re out of our hair. Because they re finishing quickly, they re always finishing stuff quickly, and what do I do now? What can I do now? Or we give them that role of being a tutor. I was guilty. Help him read right now, or here s another six problems to do. We want to make sure that we give respectful work. 3
Your job is more of a facilitator. You re going to be coordinating everything going on in your classroom. You have to kind of step back from being the instructional giver to being the coordinator. That s what you have to be. You have to be that person that can step back and just kind of run the show. Carol Ann Tomlinson talks about she brings up music as ideas for differentiation. She says, one, you re the conductor of an orchestra. You ve got all of these musicians that you re bringing together for a common goal, but they each play a different instrument. If you think about it that way, your students each having different learning styles, being at different levels of performance, having different interests, and you re somehow coordinating all of that to come to a common goal, which would be your piece that you play at the end, your product. One of the biggest pieces I can t stress enough is that you focus on key concepts, understandings and skills. If you understand what essential learnings are and that would be a whole course in and of itself is that you re going to have your students definitely being directed and focused on what s important. How many of you have ever gotten off on a tangent about something you were teaching because it was a passion of yours? Who s done that? You just kind of keep going with that, and you kind of lose focus of where you re supposed to go. If you keep track of where you re supposed to go, which is sometimes hard of course, it isn t as hard now with C-SAP. Can I get through what I need to get through. But back in the olden days you could do a little bit more fluff, and you would kind of would get let s do a little extra activity in regards to this. But you want to make sure you stay focused on those key concepts. That really helps your special ed students because you re going to know what s essential for them. 4
And it s also going to make it easier for you to do something which you will experience in the next few days called tiering. That allows you to move up to that level of understanding for those higher level students. Debby is going to talk to you later about a variety of grouping configurations. How many of you are elementary? Great. The majority of you. How many of you have kept kids in a reading group for a whole year? Be honest. How many of you have kept kids, like you ve identified their reading level, and you don t go back and retest them throughout the year? You kind of get them in that group, and you let them go with that group? But you felt good because you had four different reading groups. Well, those kids can change, and Debby will talk to you a little bit about that in the flexible grouping. Here s this happy little guy in hell saying, You know, we re just not reaching that guy. And you have those students where you re just kind of going, They re not quite there. Marching to a different beat. I want you to say along with me these three terms: Readiness, interest, learning style. These are like puzzle pieces. They really kind of interlock with each other. It s really important that you know that you re never just doing one thing in differentiation. Readiness is going to be impacted by their interest in the subject area. Readiness is going to be impacted by their learning style. All of that plays hand-in-hand. It goes back and forth, and you need to know that. They also interlock with content, process and product. I d like you to say that for me content, process, product. Those six things are what you re going to differentiate by, and they all kind of fit together in different ways. Top 10 Reasons to Differentiate Instruction 5
What I have here in my hand are the top ten reasons to differentiate instruction. There s a variety of reasons why. In true David Letterman style, we ll start with number ten and work backwards down to the number one reason to differentiate. I ll start with number ten. In essence, what number ten is about is that people learn best when they use what they already know to construct new meaning. That just makes sense to me. In anything you do when you think about adult life, if you start with at least some kind of knowledge of something you already do have, it s all in that whole theory of connections. Once you know something and can connect it to something that you don t know, it makes more sense for you. That, to me, knowing students come in knowing a variety of different things, I need to preassess. I need to ask what they know and what they don t know, so that I can decide instructionally what s the next thing for them to connect to. That s number ten. Reason number nine. It s the happy, happy, joy, joy reason. It s all about having you still have the caring, learning environment for students so that they really that equals growth. If they feel safe and they re secure, that s growth. But remembering that what works for one student, what s safe for one, is not necessarily going to be safe and secure for another. Using respectful teaching and remembering each student s uniqueness. Reason number eight. 6
People learn best when they acquire and use strategies. To me, this is application. If you don t use it, you re going to lose it. I was talking to Marissa about her Spanish over there. It s metacognition and making connections. It kind of reminds of learning to play the flute. They could teach me all they wanted to, but if I didn t practice it, it wasn t helping me. Well done. Thank you. Reason number seven. It talks about social interaction. To me, what comes to mind is the ten-two theory, and correct this quote, but, The mind will only absorb what the rear can endure. Is that how it goes? After you sit and learn for a long amount of time, you need to get up and move and talk and think-pair-share, that kind of thing. That people learn best when what they learn is appropriate to their developmental level, and they re saying that not all students think concretely or abstractly all the time. They think differently at different times, and they work independently. Some work better dependently. You have to modify your planning to all those situations and include your content, process and product modifications to address those needs of the students. Reason five. This is the student s background and they re culture. They re learning predisposition and probably they re preferred mode of processing information through 7
from all of the multiple intelligences. Just having probably awareness not to apply prejudices of students; to acknowledge diversity in the teacher. Reason number four. I have matching learning styles. It leads to improved learning, and it goes with a lot of what we were talking about today the learning style. This is really how students can achieve really to their highest potential if you can find something that they can connect with like environmental or emotional. It can influence their achievement and attitude about learning. Obviously, they need to be excited about it. Diversity and style will obviously mean having a variety of different outlets for these kids will maximize what they can do. By giving them different choices, you can really get them excited about it and maximize their learning. Reason number three. People learn best when they learn in their own way and have control or feel in control. It s basically providing for the multiple intelligences, having the kids be able to make their choice, and when they make a choice they feel empowered, and then they learn in their own way and it s more meaningful. As teachers, we just have to provide that situation. Reason number two. 8
People learn best when what they learn is personally meaningful, not something that you see often in social studies classes. Basically, I call this the so-what factor. When I get to the end of my lesson and my students are still saying, So what, obviously, I haven t reached out and learned them well enough to know what they find useful in making connections with them. Once you make that connection and they feel part of the learning process, and they re more a part of what you re doing. Drum roll, please. The number one reason for differentiating instruction is... People learn best when what they learn is challenging and they learn to accept the challenge. I m drawing a blank. Sorry, guys. I can help you out, if you don t mind. I just heard this on Friday. Susan Winebrenner, the writer of Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom, there is so much research that says students build self-esteem only when they perceive the activities given to them are just beyond they re reach, or challenging enough that they had to invest some kind of intellectual stimulation in that lesson or that activity. SUE RILLING: They have to feel the stretch. 9
Not the teacher, but the student. If you know your students well by collecting data and realizing that wherever they are when you re planning for their challenge, they will feel not only self-esteem but a sense and achievement in their academic promotion. 10