Strategies for Differentiating Instruction: Best Practices for the Classroom

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Strategies for Differentiating Instruction Best
Practices for the Classroom

• Tracy Ford Inman
• The Center for Gifted Studies
• Western Kentucky University
• tracy.inman_at_wku.edu

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If during the first five or six years of school,
a child earns good grades and high praise without
having to make much effort, what are all the
things he doesnt learn that most children learn
by third grade?
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• What is
• Academic Success?

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• "You don't prepare a young man or woman to
  become a world class athlete by keeping him or
  her in regular gym classes and by not allowing
  him or her to compete against other youngsters
  who can provide appropriate levels of challenge.
  You don't develop world leaders such as Martin
  Luther King, Golda Meir, and Mahatma Gandhi by
  having them practice basic skills over and over
  again or by reiterating mundane concepts that
  they can undoubtedly learn faster than all their
  schoolmates and, in some cases, even many of
  their teachers. Talent development is the
  'business' of our field, and we must never lose
  sight of this goal.
• Renzulli Reis (2005)

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High Expectations Yield High Results

• Proficiency by 2014 What about those students
  who are already proficient?
• We must remove the learning ceiling!

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• What group of students makes the lowest
  achievement gains in school?
• The brightest students.
• William Sanders, Tennessee Value-Added
  Assessment System

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What were the findings?

• Student achievement level was the second most
  important predictor of student learning. The
  higher the achievement level, the less growth a
  student was likely to have.
• The problem was due to a lack of opportunity for
  high-scoring students to proceed at their own
  pace, lack of challenging materials, lack of
  accelerated course offerings, and concentration
  of instruction on the average or below-average
  student.

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High Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB
www.edexcellence.net

Chester Flynn, Jr. and
Michael J. Petrilli
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What is Differentiation?

• Differentiation is classroom practice that looks
  eyeball to eyeball with the reality that kids
  differ, and the most effective teachers do
  whatever it takes to hook the whole range of kids
  on learning. ASCD (2005)

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Questions Leading to Appropriate Differentiation
of Instruction

• PLANNING
• What do I want students to know, understand, or
  to be able to do?
• PREASSESSMENT
• Who already knows and understands the
  information and/or can do it?
• DIFFERENTIATION
• What can I do for him, her, or them so they can
  make continuous progress and extend their
  learning?

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A differentiated classroom

• Respects Diversity
• Maintains High Expectations
• Generates Openness

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A Differentiated Classroom Respects Diversity

• Begin at the Beginning
• What Do You Know Wall
• Discover All You Can
• Inventories
• Discussions
• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

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A Differentiated ClassroomMaintains High
Expectations
knowl edge
students
Dr. Bruce Kessler Western Kentucky University
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knowl edge
students
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knowl edge
students
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• Parents should not shield or try to protect
  children from risks or hard work. Parents also
  need to allow children to experience the tensions
  and stress that rise from challenging ideas and
  high expectations.
• Olszewski-Kublius (2000)

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But, Eugene, its not enough to be gifted.
Weve got to do something with our gift.
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A Differentiated Classroom Generates Openness

• Diversity
• New ideas
• Physical settings
• The fact that a child may know more about
  something than the teacher does

• The fact that a child may already know the
  information
• Pace of instruction
• Student choice
• Student input
• Unconventional ways to learn

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Grouping

• Grouping is NOT tracking!
• Readiness or Ability Grouped Classes
• Cluster Groups
• Cooperative Learning Groups
• Mixed-Ability Grouping
• Flexible Grouping

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Flexible Grouping for Instructional Purposes

• Interests
• Learning Style or Learning Modality
• Multiple Intelligences
• Ability, Readiness, or Level of Achievement

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Flexible Grouping for Other Purposes

• Gender
• Self-selection
• Random Grouping

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INTENT IS EVERYTHING!

• Always have a strong reason
• for grouping students.

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Teachers Can Differentiate...

• CONTENT
• What do you want the students to know?
• PROCESS
• What do you want the students to do cognitively
  with what they know?
• PRODUCT
• How can students demonstrate what they have
  learned?
• ASSESSMENT
• How do you assess what has been learned?

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Basic Questions Leading to Appropriate
Differentiation

• PLANNING
• PREASSESSMENT
• Who already knows and understands the
  information and/or can do it?
• DIFFERENTIATION

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Preassessment Strategies

• Brief writing
• Discussion
• KWL
• Five hardest questions
• Mind Map

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Remember...

• Children may be identified in five areas
• General Intellectual
• Specific Academic
• Leadership
• Creativity
• Visual and/or Performing Arts
• Needs must be met in all of these areas!

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Remember...

• Gifted kids needs stem from their strengths
  not their deficiencies.