Introduction
What is differentiated instruction?
Well, according to one of the experts on differentiated instruction, and author of the book, "How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms"; "differentiated instruction is shaking up what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn. In other words, a differentiated classroom provides different avenues to acquiring content, to processing or making sense of ideas, and to developing products so that each student can learn effectively." (Tomlinson, 2001).
In common language, differentiated instruction is allowing a student to travel down his or her own unique path to learning the necessary content, through a multitude of activities and assessments that will allow the student to demonstrate acquisition of the knowledge. This 'pathway' that the student is traveling on is based on their own personal learning style and where they are in regards to what they already know about the content and their academic skill set. This allows each student to do different activities to acquire learning that are tailored towards their learning style.
Think of differentiated instruction as a taxi cab situation. The student is driving the car down the pathway, while the teacher is acting as the GPS system. The teacher is providing the student with the tools and other information to get to where the student needs to go (learning the content).
Task
In this webquest, my hope is to open up a little piece of the world of differentiation to you and your classroom. In doing so, we will analyze the three main areas of differentiation: creating a classroom culture that enables differentiation, instructional strategies and activies that make differentiation happen, and utilizing appropriate assessments that will allow you to plan and capture success in your differentiated classroom.
Action:
Throughout this webquest, refer back to your own teaching style and identify different areas or strategies that you can implement to reach all of your students where they are at (in terms of learning style and background knowledge).
On the process page, you will be pointed to different websites and videos to help you capture the ideas of each topic area of differentiation. Each article, website, or video will have questions with it to help guide your thinking about how you can bring differentiation into your classroom.
On the evaluation page, you will be given the start to your differentiation endeavors! You will be introduced to a quiz where you can assess yourself, or your students in relation to Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. With this knowledge, you can then get an idea of how to begin differentiation. To begin differentiation, you must begin to know your students!
Process
Getting Started:
This video is from Carol Tomlinson, and is a great beginning to understanding differentiation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGYa6ZacUTM
Great quotes from this video:
"What matters is that we start, not where we start!"
"Study your students, see what signals they give you about what they need"
"There is many small things you can do with your students"
"It's not so hard sometimes to be able to say, I've got some things stuck on this and other students who are working on this, so I can assign two homework assignments"
Creating a Classroom Culture that Enables Differentiation:
"Everyone is at work in a safe, caring, and focused environment" - This quote shows just how important an effective classroom culture is to differentiation. If the classroom is a place where students can focus on learning, feel safe, and understand that mistakes will happen, the students will begin to grow! In order to succeed, a student must feel like they can go out on a limb, and not be punished for it. A classroom culture is one of the most important aspects of a differentiated classroom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCxwLcdzOIM
In this video, what do you notice about the students? What does the culture of the classroom say about the students? What are some examples of different activities that the students were doing during the same lesson?
https://www.mheonline.com/_treasures/pdf/vicki_gibson.pdf
Creating a classroom culture is all about procedures and preparation. This article does a good job of showing the preparation and procedures necessary to manage an effective differentiated classroom. How does this snapshot differ from your classroom? What changes would you need to make to bring the two classrooms into a more synonomous environment?
Activities and Strategies that will allow for Differentiated Instruction to Take Place:
For a differentiated classroom, the different strategies that you can implement to engage all of your students seems endless! As Carol Tomlinson said in the introductory video on this page of the WebQuest, there are many small activities that can be done to keep all students engaged in different activities tailored to their particular level! This video below seems like it is tailored for elementary school, but the activities can be adapted for all levels! For example, the speech bubbles example she gives as a way to differentiate instruction for struggling readers can be adapted for a middle school history classroom. Instead of speech bubbles, I could make them thought bubbles for certain leaders of various Ancient Civilizations!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3LljMkI2OQ
What are some ways you can adapt these activities to use them in your differentiated classroom? Other than memory, what are some tiered activities that you can utilize? The tiered model, or the Adjustable Assignment Model as some call it, allows different groupings of students to work on an activity that is tailored to fit their needs and learning readiness. A school district in Colorado held a 3 day training on differentiation, and in that they discussed the Adjustable Assignment Model with a simple chart like this:
|
Red Group |
Working on an assignment that is challenging. |
|
Yellow Group |
Working on a grade level assignment |
|
Green Group |
Working on a gap or a hole. |
As you can see, each group is working on different assignments with different ideals. The Red Group, or the High Achieving group is working on an assignment that is challenging. The Yellow Group is working on a grade level assignment, and the Green Group is working on an assignment aimed at bringing those students closer to grade level. This is a simple but effective chart to show the goals of the Adjustable Assignment Model.
Another great example of a instructional strategy that can be used to challenge and engage all levels of thinkers in your class can be shown by utilizing a "choice board". Carol Ann Tomlinson discusses giving students a choice in their learning by saying, "two powerful and related motivators for engagement are student interest and student choice" (Tomlinson, 2001). A choice board has multiple assignments that a student can choose what they are most interested in, and do that particular assignment. The board a student chooses from is dependent upon where they are in terms of content knowledge in the class. Watch this short video by Schoodoodle.com for more information on a choice board: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGbulODMVgM
Can you identify 4 assignments for a various level of learner for a choice board? It isn't that difficult is it!
Assessment Strategies that Differentiated Classrooms Utilize
Assessment in a differentiated classroom is much different than in a more traditional, "teach down the middle" type of classroom! According to Carolyn Chapman and Rita King, in their book, "Differentiated Assessment Strategies: One Tool Doesn't Fit All" , "differentiated assessment is an ongoing process through which teachers gather data before, during, and after instruction using multiple formative and summative tools." This can be simplified in a few words, differentiation is an all-the-time process! But it isn't the test at the end of the unit type of assessment. Various assessment tools and strategies can be used, like utilizing technology.
Here is a video on "Smart Clickers" in the classroom. This is a great example of utilizing technology in a way that can also produce quick assessments!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnVN3OxWBQE
How can you utilize technology in your class? Whether you have a smart board, or a clicker system, technology can be used in a number of ways to utilize assessments!
In the video from Edutopia.com, the teacher discusses a number of ways to utilize technology in the classrom to assess her students. She utilizes a blackboard discussion on a computer to assess her students comprehension of literary texts by discussing them. The weaker students would comment on the discussion so they too are engaged in the assessment. In a differentiated classroom, assessment is not a scantron and number 2 pencil!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFXbuE-21I4
Conclusion
At the conlusion of this webquest, I hope I have introduced you to 3 very important aspects of a differentiated classroom! As you watched the videos, read the articles, and looked over the text mentioned, I hope you can bring your class to live by engaging all of your students!
As I hope you will take into consideration bringing differentiation into your class, I have one more link for you to click: http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-assessment
This is a link to a multiple intelligences quiz by Edutopia. This will allow you to get to know your students on a much higher level and understand what learning styles you presently have in your classroom! As Carol Tomlinson mentions in the first video in this webquest, teachers must get to know your students! If you can identify the ways your students learn best, you can understand how to meet them where they are with your content!
Utilize this website to interpret the results from the quiz and be able to understand each unique learning style a little better!
http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html
Happy Differentiation!
Credits
Tomlinson, C. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms (2nd ed.). Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Chapman, C., & King, R. (2012). Differentiated Assessment Strategies: One size doesn't fit all (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.
(All videos and articles used in the previous pages of webquest are cited where the viewer will see them after they click on them)