Differentiating Instruction:

Meeting Students Where

They Are
Created By:
Amanda Johnson

Part 1 of 2

Differentiation: Learner Objectives

Identify the factors that
List the 4 areas in which
guide differentiation
teachers can differentiate
decision making
Participants will
be able to:
State at least 2
Identify 3 key student
instructional strategies to
factors that influence
use for differentiation
differentiation

Table Group Discussion

At your table group discuss what
you think differentiated instruction
is
Choose a table representative to
share out
http://youtu.be/FJMkcL6Do0Q

What Is Differentiated Instruction?

Differentiation means tailoring instruction to
meet individual needs. Whether teachers
differentiate content, process, products, or
the learning environment, the use of
ongoing assessment and flexible grouping
makes this a successful approach to
instruction.
Carol Ann Tomlinson

ew
P
re
vi

Differentiation of Instruction
Is a teachers response to learners needs
Guided by general principles of differentiation, such as

Respectful Tasks

Flexible Grouping

Ongoing assessments

Content

Teachers can
differentiate
Process

Product

Readiness

According
to students
Interests

Learning Profile

Through a range of instructional and management strategies, such

as:
Multiple Intelligences,
jigsaw, varied texts,
BINGO, choice boards
taped material,
literature circles,
anchor activities
Organizers, sup

Tiered lessons, tiered

centers, tiered
products, learning
contracts, small group,
ind. Study, group
orbitals, tic-tac-toe,
RAFT, cubing, 4MAT

Varied questioning,
strategies, interest
centers, interest
groups, compacting,
varied journal prompts,
web inquiry

in g

h
c
a
o
e
T
D
Lectur
t ds
a
Wh etho ?
e
Demonstratio
M Use
We

n
Teach
Others
Audio
Visual
Practice By
Doing
Discussion
Group
Reading

Ho
inf w mu
o
ou rma ch
rs
ret
tud tion
d
aft ain 2 ents o
the er ea 4 ho
ch urs
ins se
of
t
me ruct
tho ion
ds a l
?

Order these
teaching
Methods
(lowest to
highest)

An appropriately differentiated classroom offers different

routes to content, process, and products in response to
differing learner needs.

Differentiated Learning Environment

Create different working environments: quiet, group,
individual space, outside, in a lab or library,
alternative seating
Provide materials that reflect a variety of cultures and
home settings
Set clear guidelines for independent work that
matches individual needs
Identify classroom management routines that allow a
safe and supportive learning environment.
Use of lighting, background music, headphones, etc.
http://youtu.be/9DUCfnybNjw

Our Students Bring Various:

Le
a
rn
Prior
ing
St
yle
Knowledg
s
Interests
e
Per
s
Exp ona
l
eri
enc
es

s
r
o
t
a
v
i
t
o

Get to know your students

Identify the level at which individual students are
working in your subject area: standardized test scores,
pre/post unit assessments, benchmarks, etc.
Administer alearning style inventoryto determine how
your students best learn.
Determine student interests. On a regular basis, ask
students to identify topics that interest them and
activities that occupy their non-school time and/or send
home parent questionnaires for younger or non-verbal
students

Readiness Level of Students

All learners should work with the essential ideas and
skills that build toward understanding the subject and
proficiency in the subject.
Some learners need to work at a concrete level with
ideas and skills using manipulatives, diagrams, or
graphic organizers that allow them to process the
content in a structured, guided, clear, and tangible
way.
Some learners work well with abstract concepts and
ideas with minimal guidance.

Teachers can differentiate at least four classroom elements

based on student readiness, interest, or learning profile:

Differentiation of Content
Lessons that incorporate visual, auditory
and kinesthetic strategies
Varying levels and modes of materials
Varied tasks at students readiness
level (vocab/ spelling words)
Small groups to re-teach or advance
concepts

Differentiation of Content cont.

Audio books, reading buddies, varied level of
readability
Technology, web-based instruction and
tools
Graphic organizers, frames, visuals,
multiple choice
Ensure students have assistive tools needed
to engage and participate in learning

Respectful Tasks
All students should be offered tasks that encourage
high levels of thinking.
All students should have consistent opportunities to
be active learners.
All students work with a wide variety of peers over
time.
All students should sometimes be teachers.
All students should be involved with learning that is
new to them.
All students should be consistently pushed a bit
beyond their comfort zone.

Flexible Grouping
Enables all learners to work in a wide variety of configurations
and with the full range of peers, while targeting specific
learning needs.
Groupings can vary by students present level in current content or task
Students sometimes work with peers of similar readiness so that the
teacher can target the complexity of the task to student needs or target
task by similar interest and learning profile.
At other times, students work in mixed readiness or interest groups with
tasks that enable all students to play essential roles in the group's
success.
Sometimes the whole class will work as a unit, or students work
independently, or students can make choices of the group they would
like to work in

Learning
Styles

Auditory
Learners
Visual
Learners
Kinesthetic
Learners

Strategies

Interview
Read aloud
Retell
Restate
Discuss
Recite
Fill-in while
listening

Flow chart
Outline
Survey
Diagram
Illustrate
Graph
Read &
compare

Draw
Role play
Build
Create
Construct
Dissect
Model

Activity
Get into table groups by grade levels
K-2
3-5
6-8
9-12
Each table will fill out at least one lesson strategy for
each learning style in each content area
Share Out

Visual Learner Lesson Plan Ideas

Reading
Use highlight
markers to color
different parts
of a story or
poem.

Math
Add, subtract,
multiply, and
divide using
various
manipulatives.

Science
Categorize
pictures of
organisms in to
various
kingdoms,
families,
species, etc
Draw pictures
Use graphs to
Identify
of the different display data.
Newtons Laws
stages of a
of Motion
story.
demonstrated in
a cheerleading
performance
Make a
Draw pictures
Describe
flowchart of the representing the transfer of
different events way you solved
energy in an
in the story.
a math problem. observed
chemical
reaction

Social Studies
Draw maps of the
country being
studied.

Make maps out of

clay and show
geographical
features.
Match pictures of
a geographic
region with those
depicting its
economics,
government,
culture, and
society

Auditory Lesson Plan Ideas

Reading
Listen to a
story and then
read the story.
After hearing a
story read
aloud, retell
the story.
Listen to the
reading of two
poems.
Compare and
contrast the
two poems.

Math

Science

Social Studies

Count the
number of
beats heard in a
songs.
Learn addition
and subtraction
through drum
beats.

Listen to
sounds of
things in
nature.
Predict motion
of an object by
observing its
Doppler effect

Listen to music
from different
cultures.

Learn
mathematical
operations
through songs
and jingles.

Model stresses
caused through
plate tectonics
by bending and
cracking sticks.

Listen to
performance or
recording of
famous
speeches,
discussing their
impact on society

Include guest
speakers from
other countries
or regions

Kinesthetic Lesson Plan Ideas

Reading
Play the parts
of a story.

Math
Use body parts
to measure
things.

Learn the
alphabet by
body
movements
and physical
gestures.
Play charades
to learn about
parts of a
sentence.

Act out
mathematical
equations

Build three
dimensional
models

Science
The class
members act as
the solar
system to
create the
rotation of
planets.
Conduct handson science
experiments.

Social Studies
Learn folk
dances of a
culture being
studied.

Demonstrate
population
density

Role-play the
Walk across a
parts of the life map of Europe,
of a cell.
discussing
differences in
culture,
geography,

Differentiation of Process
Using tiered activities through which all
learners work with the same important
understandings and skills, but proceed
with different levels of support, challenge,
or complexity

EdWeek.org

Differentiation of Process:
BINGO, Tic-Tac-Toe & Activity Boards

Creating a Tic-Tac-Toe board provides students

multiple ways to learn, practice, and extend their
thinking.
Students are given choices of multiple activities
Students are able to choose activities to complete at
their current readiness and academic achievement
level
Allows students flexibility and creates buy-in
http://fw.to/2HCTtGV Learning Menu Document Handout

Exploration Time
In pairs or table groups explore the Tic-Tac-Toe, BINGO,
Menu board examples
On the provided blank Tic-Tac-Toe board fill-in activities
you could offer to YOUR students for a unit you just
finished, are currently in or that is coming up.
For Sped Ed teachers think of one student on your
case load that you could create a board for. Keep in
mind their IEP goals and create the board with
activities you would like them to complete. The
student would then have choices as to which activities
to complete and the order in which they are
completed.

Vocabulary Study

m
e
w
Did

?
s
e
v
i
t
c
e
j
Differentiation:
Learner
Objectives
b
o
r
u
o
t
e
e
Identify the factors that
List the 4 areas in which
guide differentiation
teachers can differentiate
decision making
Participants will
be able to:
State at least 2
Identify 3 key student
instructional strategies to
factors that influence
use for differentiation
differentiation

End Part 1 of 2 Differentiation

References

Carol Ann Tomlinson

Robert J. Marzano
Susan M. Brookhart
PBWorks.com
Cast.org
EdWeek.org
teachingchannel.org
daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com
edugains.ca

Part 2 of 2: Differentiation Review

Differentiation Through Technology

Please use your computer or smart phone and type in
this web address: http://today.io/PfQb

http://fw.to/cyIoYQL

Respond to the question or add to the conversation

Exploration of a free resource: www.MobyMax.com

Common core aligned
Placement assessment
Differentiated lessons based on student placement
scores
Re-teach gapped or missing skills
Multiple content areas

Differentiating Product
Students use a variety of options to
express required learning (e.g., comic
strip, write a letter, PowerPoint, produce
a radio show, or create a model)
Rubrics are utilized that match and
extend students' varied skills levels
Flexible Groupings are used

Product cont.
Students create their own product
assignments which contain required
topic elements.
Students choose their own sub-topic for
research and investigation within the
larger unit.

R.A.F.T
Topic

Role Audience Format

Role of the writer helps the writer decide on point of view

and voice.

Audience for the piece of writing reminds the writer that he

must communicate ideas to someone else; helps writer
determine content and style.

Format of the material helps the writer organize ideas and

employ the conventions of format, such as letters, interviews,
and story problems.

Topic or subject of the piece of writing helps the writer focus

on main ideas.

RAFT Products using Technology

http://youtu.be/73A1FY_uFHk

http://youtu.be/_Rjzesvsx_g

Talk in your table groups for 5 minutes about RAFT:

Who has used it
Who would like to use it
How would this fit within your classroom
What subjects would you start with
Pick a table rep to share out

Rubrics

Standard of
Performance

Clear
Expectations

Guided
Feedback

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

Self
Assessment

http://fw.to/88Bzlkb

Tiered Assignments The What

Students engage essential course content at varying
levels of depth and breadth
Tiering is a readiness-based instructional approach in
which all students work with the same essential
knowledge, understanding, and skill, but at different
levels of difficulty based in tier current proficiency with
the ideas and skills. Tiering enables a student to work
both with critical content and at an appropriate challenge
level.
Tomlinson and McTighe: Integrating DI and UBD

Student Choice of Challenge Level

Students choose their challenge level
Levels are color coded
GREEN

Problem solving tasks are foundational and

appropriate for the current grade level. Success
depends on understanding and applying
required knowledge and skills.

BLUE

Problem solving tasks are advanced and

complex. Success depends on extending skills
to meet the demands of the added layers of
complexity.

BLACK

Problem solving tasks are extremely advanced

and highly complex. Success depends on
creatively applying and extending skills to
tackle unfamiliar problems.

Tiered Lesson

http://fw.to/EiUZO6l

 Pre-record lessons for students for your flipped classroom

Students can record answering a question or problem
Get a first hand listen into the inner workings of how
your students think and problem solve.

https://www.educreations.com/class/lessons/29275657/

EduCreations

Tiered Lesson Review

Differentiated Instruction in
Geography
DI in Geography Students work in small, readinessbased groups to sort images and written statements
into two piles; one representing the characteristics of
urban environments, the other of rural environments.
Students complete a graphic organizer where,
depending on readiness, they either use the sorted
images and text to deduce the criteria that distinguish
one environment from the other (e.g., differences in
population density, types of employment), or they
give examples for provided criteria.

Differentiated Instruction in English

DI in English Students studying effective presentation
techniques individually choose to focus on a speakers
use of images; inflection, pitch and pace; level of
language and use of written text; or body language.
After listening to and viewing an oralvisual
presentation, students work in like groups (e.g.,
interest, learning style) to prepare a list of what they
observed. Students then meet in mixed groups to
prepare a comprehensive list, graphic organizer, or
brief presentation summarizing effective presentation
techniques.

Differentiated Instruction in Business

DI in Business Students choose an area of personal interest
to develop a fictitious business. The various forms of
ownership are explained (e.g., sole proprietorship,
partnership, corporation, cooperative, franchise) and
students are asked to select the form they think would be
best suited to their business. Students then work
individually, with a partner or in a small group to research
their particular form of ownership and respond to the
questions on a provided template. This task might also be
differentiated by readiness if questions of greater or lesser
complexity are scaffolded according to each learners needs.

Differentiated Instruction in Science

DI in Science Students participate in a class
brainstorm of the possible factors that affect soil
composition and fertility. Students individually select
the factor that most interests them and then design
and conduct an investigation to examine their chosen
factor. Mini-lessons are provided on experimental
design along with investigation recording forms that
support learners according to their needs for more or
less structure.