DIFFERENTIATION

One Size DOESN’T Fit All

Workshop Outline

• Theoretical input

• Practical work – group work

• Presentation of findings

• Practical ideas

One Size DOESN’T Fit All

‘The biggest mistake of past centuries in teaching has been to treat all children as if they were variants of the same individual, and thus to feel justified in teaching them the same subjects in the same way.’

Howard Gardner

Differentiation: WHAT?

CONTENT

PROCESS

PRODUCT Carol Ann Tomlinson

Differentiation ACCORDING TO:

Learning profile (learning style; MI)

Interests

Readiness

Differentiation: READINESS

Prior knowledge

Linguistic ability

Cognitive ability

Differentiation: COGNITIVE ABILITYBloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

4 groups: HOW to differentiate (15-20’)

• Vocabulary & Listening

• Reading

• Speaking

• Writing

Differentiation: READINESS

Prior knowledge

Linguistic ability

Cognitive ability

Differentiation: HOW? VOCABULARY

How would you use / adapt the following materials / tasks to differentiate according to readiness?

Handout 1: ‘The engineer and the manager’

Handout 2: ‘Our house’

VOCABULARY Give weaker ST easier and / or fewer words to find

(Handout 1) Give them first letter of missing words (Handout 1) Give them German and / or French translations of

missing words (Handouts 1 & 2) Give them missing words jumbled up (Handouts 1 &

2) Let them work in pairs (Handouts 1 & 2) Give them missing words for each category plus an

‘odd man out’ to find (Handout 2)

LISTENING

How would you use / adapt the following material in order to differentiate according to readiness?

Song: ‘Brothers in arms’ (Dire Straits)Other listening tasks

LISTENING

Provide weaker students with the transcript of the text (f.ex. lyrics of the song) and / or a glossary for it and / or the worksheet about it before they listen to it

Provide different TASKS: listen to the song and tick (✓) the correct word (*); listen to the song and match the second half of the sentences to the first ones (**); listen, underline the incorrect words and correct them (***)

LISTENING

Provide different levels of QUESTIONS : Who?; Where?; When? (lower-order thinking skill) What?; Why? (higher-order thinking skill)

MC questions: use words from script or paraphrase

ST tick off elements in a grid or take notes

READING

How would you use / adapt the following material in order to differentiate according to readiness?

Text: ‘Throwaway children ?’Novel / Short story

READING

Differentiating CONTENT:Level the contents: use different levels of simplified

readers & original text (f.ex. R Dahl’s short stories: ‘Way up to heaven’) or different level versions of the same text (cf. onestopenglish.com)

Provide weaker ST with glossary Provide weaker ST with dictionariesProvide different texts with different foci (& levels of

cognitive or linguistic difficulty) on the same topic (→ whole class presentations)

READINGDifferentiating PROCESS / PRODUCT: Texts Different TASKS: reassemble jumbled text (stronger ST can

have one extra paragraph that does not fit); find titles or match titles with paragraphs; find a headline for newspaper article or select the best one out of a list; answer different types of questions (tick ideas; True / False; MC …); put events into chronological order

Different immediate responses:What do you remember? What did you find most interesting?

(cf. Bloom’s taxonomy: different order thinking skills)

READING

Differentiating PROCESS / PRODUCT:Novels Different tasks in reading circle / book club: discussion

leader; clarifier; summarizer … Novel reading: one (strong) ST is a character in ‘hot seat’,

other ST ask questions – according to ability - to find out more, to challenge the character etc

Novel reading: reading journal with different creative tasks appealing to different learner types & MI: make a summary; write an interview with a character; a day in the life of (a character) ….

SPEAKING

How would you use / adapt the following tasks in order to differentiate according to readiness?

Presenting a novel / short story / text or topic

Role-play: f.ex. ordering food in a snack bar

Describing a picture

Debating / Discussing a topic such as ‘Should military service be compulsory?’

SPEAKING

Presenting a novel / short story / text or topic Different level readers (from different levels of

simplified to original text; topic texts of varying levels of difficulty, with or without glossary …)

Different aspects of novel (cf. Bloom’s taxonomy): give summary; compile character description & development; analyse themes; pick & discuss a (favourite) passage … ; compare novel to film version

SPEAKING

Role-play: f.ex. ordering food in a snack bar✓Provide weaker ST with prompt cards: picture

prompts; cue words & phrases

Describing a picture (in speaking or writing)Prompt cards: cue words (nouns; verbs …) &

phrases & questions (f.ex. What are the people wearing?)

SPEAKING Debating / Discussing a topic

• Discuss a question in small groups, f.ex.‘Should military service be compulsory?’(Topic can be adapted according to interest; cognitive ability; prior knowledge / research done)

• Assign roles: 1 ST = note taker (mustn’t speak )1 ST checks & corrects notes all other ST provide arguments for / against1 ST = speaker; presents arguments to the class

• Whole class presentation

WRITING

How would you adapt the following tasks in order to differentiate according to readiness?

Essay writingHoliday postcard writing / describing daily routinesWriting tasks as a follow-up to reading

Differentiate according to professional needs / further education (ES /EST)

WRITING

Essay writingProvide arguments and / or linguistic input

(discourse markers; relevant topic vocabulary; topic sentences) for weaker ST

Researching arguments: stronger ST do their own research; provide weaker ST with useful material

Stronger ST are asked to provide more arguments; weaker ST may only present one side of the argument in a first stage

WRITING

ESSAY writing after speaking (debating):If diff. groups present different essay topics,

strong STs can be asked to take notes while groups present and write an essay on another topic than the one they discussed in their groups; weaker STs will use notes provided by group

WRITING

Holiday postcard writing / describing daily routines

Provide visual or linguistic prompts (words; phrases; parts of sentences) for weaker ST

Differentiation according to professional needs/ further education

Different tasks: CV, letters, reports …

WRITING: follow-up tasks

After reading: Provide choice of follow-up tasks: write a

summary, blog entry, a letter to the editor, an interview with a politician / an activist / a parent …

Further Ideas for Differentiating

‘Bus stop’: get ST who finishes a task early in class to stand in a spot in the classroom (bus stop); next ST finishing early joins first ST to discuss answers etc; pairs can exchange with pairs

Station learning: provide different content, process or product; STs do all or only some of the tasks

Further Ideas for Differentiating

‘Arbeitsplan’: provide ST with exercises and activities they can engage in autonomously during, for instance, all the English lessons of an entire week. These exercises and activities are subdivided into ‘Pflichtaufgaben’ and ‘Wahlaufgaben’. ST themselves decide on the form of interaction, pace and order.

Bibliography Method Guide, Methoden für den kooperativen und

individualisierenden Englischunterricht in den Klassen 5-12, Schöningh, ISBN 978-3-14-041263-6

Method Guide, Schüleraktivierende Methoden für den Englischunterricht in den Klassen 5-10, Schöningh, ISBN 978-3-14-041262-9

Praxis Schule 5-10 Extra: Differenzieren und individualisieren, I Ahlring, Westermann, ISBN 3-14-161001-0

Differentiated Instructional Strategies, Gregory & Chapman, Corwin Press, ISBN 1-4129-3640-3

The Differentiated Classroom, C A Tomlinson, ASCD, ISBN 978-0-87120-342-7

See ETD website for pps slides etc:

http://sites.google.com/site/englishteachersday/