Differentiating Instruction for a Successful Class Environment

1. Differentiation

Differentiating instruction for the multitude of learners we might have in our inclusive classrooms can present daunting challenges. The experiences are rewarding however, when instruction is designed and differentiated to work within daily management routines and academic tasks. 

Differentiated instruction is planned instruction that meets each learner’s needs (Tomlinson, 2001; King-Shaver & Hunter, 2003).  Of foremost consideration are student learning styles: auditory (hearing), visual (seeing), and finally, kinesthetic (doing).   Other learning considerations include the learning environment, student motivation, and whether a student is a concrete or sequential learner.  Let’s not discount the idea and importance of subject-matter interest either, and in matching instruction to student’s interests by remaining aware of what the entry points are for learning.  How do we know what these entry points are, and when they can be entered?  We pay attention, we monitor, we record progress at milestones, we set forth objectives and we track their movement toward them.  Multiple forms of assessment give us the best and most information.

We can meet the needs of learners by adapting instruction in three basic areas:  content, process, product (Tomlinson, 2001; King-Shaver & Hunter, 2003).  First content, in the scope and sequence of curriculum to be learned it is important we scaffold carefully – and this is all about planning.  Curriculum mapping, planning mini-lessons around instructional units, cross-curricular team planning all works to achieve instruction that meets all learners’ needs.  Second process:  We need to develop an appropriate level of difficulty, at precisely the right time to challenge students because otherwise we risk frustrating them, or not challenging them at all.  Using personal interests can help students make connections with a topic.  Investigating their interests and linking them to topics using preferred learning methods and preferences also factors highly in planning for delivery of differentiated curriculum.  Finally product – when students are provided with choice of products to demonstrate their learning, the outcomes for success can jump three-fold – as long as they’re appropriately challenged, based on their learning needs.

How do we identify methods to differentiate for both the exceptional and disabled learners?  We become and remain aware of, and sensitive to, their individual education plans, learning modifications, their learning styles, behavioral supports and learning preferences. 

Methods that address learning preferences:

• Learning alone, with the teacher, or in a small group
• Use of humor and emotion in learning
• Recognition of achievement by the teacher and others
• Employ and encourage the use of creativity alongside conformity
• Create plenty of activities that involve visual, auditory, or tactile and kinesthetic learning.
• Implementation of sheltered instruction – SIOP

Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol – SIOP:

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model is a research-based and validated instructional model that, through extensive field testing, has proven to be effective in
addressing the academic needs of English learners throughout the United States (SIOP Center for Applied Linguistics http://www.cal.org/siop/). The SIOP Model consists of eight interrelated components:

• Lesson Preparation
• Building Background
• Comprehensible Input
• Strategies
• Interaction
• Practice/Application
• Lesson Delivery
• Review & Assessment

h)     Allow students opportunities to listen to audio of text and other materials – vary the delivery methods through a variety of media

i)      Scaffold by combining shared reading with think-alouds, pre-reading activities, guided reading, and post-reading activities.

Strategies that Differentiate in Inclusive Settings:

The art of differentiation means that we encourage, facilitate, plan with purpose, know and understand our students, and remain flexible in order to teach effectively. Here are some suggestions for differentiating instruction that we’ll expand upon throughout the modules in this course:

• Provide choice of topics, ways of learning, and modes of expression

• Feature hands-on learning methods and practical application through performance tasks

• Increase lab experiences, integrate content and the arts through music, drama, live poetry readings

• Build and nurture curiosity through inquiry-based learning, Internet research, field experiences

• Offer opportunities for self-assessment and reflection - Self Questioning Taxonomy can be downloaded from the Course Objectives | Research | Materials folder.

• Give frequent and elaborate feedback

Differentiating instruction also involves the purposeful gathering and organization of data to create individual student learning profiles. We administer these profiles in order to get to know our learners better, which allows us to plan instruction and hence: differentiate. Learning profiles help us understand our students’ multiple intelligence strengths, their learning styles, what prior knowledge they have about a subject, what they’re interested in, how ready they are to learn something, what they are most challenged by, and what their learning limitations are if any.

How do we get this data? Through formative assessment data, achieved through a number of means (some of these materials can be downloaded from the Course Objectives | Research | Materials folder):

• Reading inventories
• Open Interest Inventory
• Learning style Inventories:  Edutopia | B. Bixler
• Writing samples
• Multiple intelligences checklists - B. Bixler
• Parent/home surveys and language surveys
• IEPs

Grouping students is part of differentiating, but not always necessary. When it is, group students using formative assessment data. Here are some considerations for grouping:

• Who the leaders are
• Who the problem solvers are
• Gender
• Grit levels (or stick-with-it-ness)
• Backgrounds and interests
• Strengths
• Creativity
• Artistic interests

When students become personally and intellectually engaged, they are more motivated to learn because their emotions become involved.  They are mind-active rather than mind-passive (Erickson 2001)

• Roles can include: Character Captain, Checker/Investigator, Connector - found in the Course Objectives | Research | Materials folder
• Emphasize meaningful and relevant content to motivate and challenge.
• Adjust curriculum to match and accommodate students’ readiness levels.

Tomlinson (2013) identifies Four Student Traits for consideration in planning, classroom design, and for overall effective learning:

1. Readiness: A student’s knowledge, understanding and skill related to a particular sequence of learning that affects his or her readiness to learn as influenced by prior learning, life experiences, attitude about school and habits of mind.

Readiness Strategies:

• Variety of texts at multiple levels of reading.
• Variety of supplementary material to guide students through text with.

Examples of supplementary aids:

• Slide shows of content to accompany reading with
• Spreadsheets and graphs as visual aids
• Displays of process
• Podcasts of chunked learning material to stop and intervene with while reading
• Podcasts using vocabulary words
• Graphic organizers
• Strategy guides
• Checklists
• Note-taking templates

Readiness activities also include:

• Scaffolding materials for reading, writing, research, use of technology
• Tiered activities and assessments - What is Tiering? (video)
  
  • Wiki with Tiering Resources: Dare to Differentiate
• Flexible group time
• Small group instruction
• Assigned student mentors

2. Interest

• Those topics or pursuits that evoke curiosity and passion in a learner; facets of learning that invite time and energy in pursuit of knowledge.
• How a student learns best, to include learning style, intelligence preference, culture, and gender.

3. Profile

Learning profiles to determine learning styles, and how students learn best.  Preferences for learning are shaped by multiple and overlapping student factors that include learning style, intelligence, preference, culture, and gender.

• If classrooms can offer and support different modes of learning, it is likely more students will learn more effectively and efficiently (Campbell & Campbell, 1999; Sternberg, Torff, & Grigorenko, 1998; Sullivan, 1993)

Examples:

• Vary teaching and presentation styles for: auditory, visual, kinesthetic,top down (part-to-whole), bottom up (whole-to-part)
• Maintain a flexible learning environment
• Teach to, and evaluate for, learning styles
• Teach to, and query for, interests
• Use graphic organizers

4. Affect

• How students feel about themselves, their work, and the classrooms as a whole.
• Allowing learners, and building into the curriculum, experiences for a balance of challenge and enough success to want to continue moving forward.

 Content  Process  Product  Assessment 

Of utmost importance to differentiated curriculum, is that we vary the content, the process, the product, and the assessment (Tomlinson, 2003; 2008; 2010; Wolfe, 2001).

Patti Drapeau (2004). Differentiated Instruction: Making it Work.  New York: NY. Scholastic, Inc.

2. Writing About Culture

Writing Prompts That Stimulate Cultural Awareness, Prior Knowledge, and Student Engagement

Flood of Memories:

• Draw a map of your favorite childhood memory.
• Draw a map of your favorite childhood neighborhood, or place to visit.
• Draw a floor plan of your childhood room and mark different events and feelings associated with each room, and/or each place.
• Jot down all the memories that came up as you were sketching.
• Write a personal narrative of a personal experience based on something in your past.

Shimmering Moments:

List 10 moments in your life that you keep returning to, and that you can’t let go. Think of some things that were turning points, like a move to somewhere new, or getting a gift, giving a gift, or getting advice from someone special.

• Eliminate the memories until you get down to one powerful memory that you can write about and involve all of your senses.
• Tell what you felt, what you saw, what you heard, and even the things you smelled – anything to trigger that memory and bring it back to life.

Random Autobiographical Poem:

• Make a list of the towns and states you have lived in, and write a note about what you saw and did there.
• List places you have visited touched or petted. Describe what it looked and felt like.
• List historical events you have been  part of, or witnessed. Think about places you have lived and visited.
• List things you have gained.
• List things you have lost.
• List odd things you have experienced, like funny events.
• List places you have worked.
• List places you have shopped.
• List memorable things that have happened in your classroom, or with your classmates at school.
• List places, people, and things that are special to you with a few details about each.
• Use the following:
  • I was the expected…
  • I held…
  • I lost…
  • I tell you sincerely…
  • Once…
  • Twice…
  • I bought…
  • I loved…
  • I was scared when….
  • I saw…
  • I learned…
  • I witnessed…
  • I will testify…
  • I found…

Cultural Artifact Paper

Collect 3 to 5 artifacts that represent things important in your life outside of school. These things must symbolize your culture.

Talk about the artifacts with another person, and explain their significance.

Decide which one to focus on for this exercise.

Write in response to the following prompt about this artifact, and write for 5 minutes without stopping on each prompt:

• Describe the artifact so someone can visualize it without looking at it.
• In the present tense, reflect on the artifact. Imagine you are using it or working with it. Write as if the artifact itself is speaking, and/or speak as if you are there at that moment using it. Get directly into the world of the artifact.
• Write bout the importance and significance of the artifact to you in your own life. Explore all possible meanings; go beyond statements and speak in ways that it represents your whole view of life. If the artifact were to be removed from you, how would your life be different if you never had the artifact? How did it change you?
• Return to writing and describing the artifact if you run out of things to say about it until other ideas come. Or end altogether by describing the artifact again.

Where I am From Freewrite:

• Write about a pleasant time in the past.
• Write about a building where you once lived.
• Recall a secret you once had.
• A magical person from childhood, or someone who seemed magical.
• An incident that filled you with dread
• Something dangerous
• Something exciting
• Something that happened near water.
• Something that happened in school.
• Something that happened when on vacation.
• Something that happened in a dream.
• Something you lost.

3. DI Planning Examples