Many Different Needs, One Many Different Needs, One Curriculum: Differentiating Curriculum: Differentiating

Instruction for Student SuccessInstruction for Student Success

NCSSNCSSNovember, 2009 November, 2009

Dr. Susan SantoliDr. Susan SantoliDr. Susan PiperDr. Susan Piper

University of South AlabamaUniversity of South Alabama

Not all students are alike!• Varying background knowledge• Readiness• Language• Preferences in learning• Interests• Motivation

Differentiated Instruction• Students have multiple options for taking in

information and making sense of ideas.• Teachers adjust the curriculum, presentation

of information and assessment to learners rather than asking learners to modify themselves for the curriculum.

• Classroom teaching is a blend of whole- class and individual instruction.

Elements of Differentiation• The teacher focuses on the essentials• The teacher attends to student differences• Assessment and instruction are inseparable• The teacher adapts content, process and/or

products• All students participate in respectful work• Collaboration between teacher and student

• The teacher balances group and individual norms.

• Teacher and students work together flexibly.

All differentiation begins with assessment!

Assessment• Assessment is today’s

means of understanding how to modify tomorrow’s instruction

• Think of assessment for learning vs. assessment of learning

• Assessment should always have more to do with helping students grow, than cataloging their mistakes

From Carol Ann Tomlinson

What Differentiated Instruction IS

• Having a vision of success for students• Realizing that not all students learn the same way• Allowing students some choice in their routes to learning• Providing opportunities for students to demonstrate

knowledge they know and move forward• Offering lessons of varying degrees of difficulty to meet

the same standard• Combining whole class instruction with individual and/or

group work

What Differentiated Instruction IS NOT

• A different lesson plan for each student each day• Assuming that all students learn by listening and

writing• Assigning more work to students who have

demonstrated mastery• Only for students who need acceleration• Giving all students the same work/assignments

all of the time

The What…1. Content2. Process3. Product

The How…1. Readiness2. Interest3. Learning Style

13

Content Process Product

According to Students’

Readiness InterestLearningProfile

Teachers Can Differentiate

From the Access Center: Adapted from The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners (Tomlinson, 1999).

A Sample of Instructional Strategies that Support

Differentiation• Anchor Activities• Centers/Stations• Layered Curriculum• Tiered Lessons

• Entry Points• Academic Contracts• Compacting

Anchor Activity• Student activities that are designed to

extend and review already learned skills• Self directed• Can free up classroom teacher to work

with small groups or individual students

Examples of Anchor Activities

• Journals or learning logs

• Supplementary readings

• Learning packets• Learning/Interest

Centers• Investigations

• Research projects• Think-tac-toe

(example to follow)• Learning Contracts

(example to follow)• Webquests or web

activities• Silent reading

Using Anchor Activities to Create Groups

Teach the whole class to work independently andquietly on the anchor activity.

Half the class workson anchor activity.

Other half works ona different activity.

Flip-Flop

1/3 works onanchor activity.

1/3 works on adifferent activity.

1/3 works withteacher---direct

instruction.

1

2

3

www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/enriched/giftedprograms/docs/anchor.ppt

Geography Anchor 6th grade• Students create an imaginary continent-

can include country names, borders, capitals

• Can add how various governments work, different cultures, laws, etc.

• Can work on for whatever length of time the teacher chooses

– Teacher creates an agenda that will last 2-3 weeks

– A particular time is set aside as agenda time (each day, each week)

– Students generally determine the order in which they’ll complete agenda items

– This could also be a choice of projects or assignments

Agendas-personalized list of tasks that a student must complete in a specified time

Examples of Think Tac Toe Projects

• East Asia• 2008 Presidential Election

Centers/Stations• Spots for concentrated work on particular

skills or assignments or or areas that students move through that contain different assignments

• Holocaust Centers

Layered Curriculum• Students have a variety of activities from

which to choose• Choices are presented in layers, where

each represents a different type of thinking or depth of understanding

• Generally correlated to grades of A,B,C,

Layered Examples• Economics• Egypt• Kathy Nunley site

Tiered Lessons• Strategy that addresses a specific standard,

concept or generalization• Allows several pathways for students to

arrive at understanding • Can be tiered by interest, learning style or

readiness

Tiered Lessons-Summary• Things in common…• Same concept or skill• Whole class activity• Some activities in the lesson

may be the same

• Differences in…• Amount of structure• Number of facets• Complexity• Pace• Level of independence

• All Tiers should…• Build understanding• Challenge Students• Be interesting and

engaging• Be respectful

http://curriculum.leeschools.net/Summer/Preschool/PowerPoints/DI/World%20Languages.pp

• Tiered Activities-used when a teacher wants to make sure that students with different learning needs work with the same essential ideas and use the same study skills

Examples from textbook resources

• Great Depression Tiered Lesson Plan-Library of Congress

http://www.primarysourcelearning.org/teach/best_practices/diff_instruct_bulletin_sec.pdf

• Standard for lesson plan: The student will demonstrate knowledge of the social, economic, and technological changes of the early twentieth century by identifying the causes of the Great Depression, its impact on Americans, and the major features of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Same content information, different LEARNING PROCESS

• Everyone will answer these questions:1. Describe what you see in the photograph.

Include as much detail as possible.2. Compare and contrast your home to the home

you see in the photograph. What is similar and what is different?

3. In addition to the first two questions, student pairs will each receive one of the following questions based on academic readiness level.

• Tier 1: If we could hear the people talking about their life, what would they be saying?

• Tier 2: From what you see in the photograph, explain how you think this room might be used by the family and why.

• Tier 3: Assess the Great Depression’s social and economic impact on this

family from the evidence in the photo.

Same content information, same analysis process, different PRODUCTS

• Tier 1: Create a timeline of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression era. Include the following 10 events with accompanying visuals and written description.

• Tier 2: Create a scrapbook depicting the life of a child affected by the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Include information about where the child lives, his/her family’s economic and social situation, recreation, education, and prospects for the future.

• Tier 3: In the role of a political candidate, create a persuasive speech proposing actions to address the concerns of the Dust Bowl farmers during the Great Depression. Incorporate information about the farmers’ economic, social and political problems and propose how the government can and cannot assist them. Support

your plan with evidence from both primary and secondary sources.

Same task, 3 different SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Choose one of the primary sources below. Examine both the information about the item and the item itself. Take notes of important details that will help you answer the following question:

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION ON PEOPLE?

Tier 1: Dorothea Lange Photograph of the Migrant Mother, 1936

Tier 2: Mrs. Mary Sullivan-August, 1940

A Traveler’s Line

Tier 3: American Life Histories, Manuscript from the Federal

Writer’s Project, North Carolina, 1938

Nina Boone-North Carolina

• Entry points-based on Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences– Begin topic with overview for whole class– Allow students to select entry points for investigation

Entry Points• Middle Ages example

Academic/Learning Contracts

Grapes of WrathEnvironment

•Written agreements between students and teachers•What students will learn•How they will learn it•Time period for learning experience•How they will be evaluated

•Usually opportunity for student choice

Compacting• Requires pre-assessment before beginning unit of

study or development of a skill• Students who do well on the pre-assessment should

not have to continue work on what they already know• A plan for meaningful and challenging use of student

time will be developed• Can also be used in giving homework

assignments

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/enriched/giftedprograms/docs/ppts/compactingfixed.ppt

General Compacting ExampleThe CrusadesThinkquest-www.thinkquest.orgWebquest-www.webquest.org

Compacting Examples

Additional points to consider:

• What vocabulary will be difficult?• What connection can I make to prior knowledge?• What strategies does my ELL need to develop?• What assessment will realistically test the knowledge of my ELL

without penalizing his level of learning?• Clearly defined and written objectives• Organizers, outlines, labels, pictures• Supplementary materials• Make it relevant.• Links to past experience and potential experience• Pacing & Student Engagement

There are 4 Language Domains

• Listening- process, understand, interpret, and evaluate spoken language in a variety of situations

 • Speaking- engage in oral communication in a variety of

situations for a variety of purposes and audiences • Reading- process, interpret, and evaluate written

language, symbols, and text with understanding and fluency

 • Writing- engage in written communication in a variety

of forms for a variety of purposes and audiences

Language Development & Lesson Planning

• If you can differentiate instruction you can make accommodations for ELLs. In fact, many of the accommodations made for ELLs are helpful for other students in the classroom as well.

• Out of the Dust accommodated and differentiated

Getting Started….• Start small

– Start with your favorite unit/lesson plan– Begin by teaching all students an anchor activity-

meaningful work done individually and silently– Early on, you may want to ask some students to work

with anchor activity and others to work on a different task which also requires no conversation or collaboration

– Try a differentiated tasks for only a small block of time– Grow slowly, but grow

– Assess students before you begin to teach a skill or topic– Try creating one differentiated lesson per unit– Differentiate one product per semester– Find multiple resources for a couple of key parts of your

curriculum– Give students more choices about how to work, how to

express learning or which homework assignments to do– Develop and use a two day learning contract, then a 4

day, etc.

You cannot differentiate everything for everyone every day!

Differentiation is an organized yet flexible way of proactively adjusting teaching and learning to meet kids where they are and help them to achieve maximum growth as learners.

References and Resources• Our references and resources are listed on

the handout and are also posted on our wiki: www.differentiated-curriculum.wikispaces.com

Contact Information• Dr. Susan Santoli ssantoli@usouthal.edu• Dr. Susan Piper susanpiper@usouthal.eduUniversity of South AlabamaDepartment of Leadership and Teacher Educ.UCOM 3107Mobile, AL 36688-0002