Differentiated Instruction

David Spencer's Education Paragon is a free educational resource portal helping David Spencer's secondary school students, their parents and teaching colleagues with understanding, designing, applying and delivering assessment, curriculum, educational resources, evaluation and literacy skills accurately and effectively. This wiki features educational resources for Indigenous Aboriginal education, field trips for educators, law and justice education, music education and outdoor, environmental and experiential education. Since our web site launch on September 27, 2006, online site statistics and web rankings indicate there are currently 1,888 pages and 20,185,651 page views using 7.85 Gig of bandwidth per month. Pages are written, edited, published and hosted by Brampton, Ontario, Canada based educator David Spencer. On social media, you may find David as @DavidSpencerEdu on Twitter, as DavidSpencerdotca on Linkedin.com and DavidSpencer on Prezi. Please send your accolades, feedback and resource suggestions to David Spencer. Share on social media with the hashtag #EducationParagon. Thank you for visiting. You may contact David Spencer here.

The following resources are helpful to parents and teachers:

1. Book: Supporting Successful Transition from Primary to Secondary School by Tina Rae (2014)
2. Book: Book: Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv (2008)
3. Book: Digital Tools for Teaching: 30 E-tools for Collaborating, Creating, and Publishing across the Curriculum by Steve Johnson (2013)
4. DVD video: Canadian Popular Music in the '60's, '70's & '80's by EMI Music Canada (2012)
5. DVD video: Canada: A People's History produced by Mark Starowicz (2001).
6. Book: Fire in the Bones: Bill Mason and the Canadian Canoeing Tradition by James Raffan (1999)

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What is Differentiated Instruction ?

Differentiated Instruction or "DI" is "a form of instruction that seeks to "maximize each student's growth by meeting each student where she is and helping the student to progress. In practice, it involves offering several different learning experiences in response to students' varied needs. Learning activities and materials may be varied by difficulty to challenge students at different readiness levels, by topic in response to students' interests, and by students' preferred ways of learning or expressing themselves." (L. Kiernan )

Equal education is not all students getting the same, but all students getting what they need. Approaching all learners the same academically doesn't work. We have to start where each child is in his learning process in order to authentically meet his academic needs and help him grow. (Rebecca Alber)

• Connecting Differentiated Instruction, Understanding by Design and What Works in Schools: An Exploration of Research-Based Strategies (DVD) View the video clip

• 
  Differentiated Instruction Resources from ASCD

Differentiated Instruction in the Classroom

"Effective instruction in a differentiated classroom: • is concept focused and principle driven; • is based on ongoing assessment; • allows for flexible groupings of students; • involves students in making choices and setting goals for their learning." - Carol Tomlinson

Good differentiation is:

• Establishing routines that support differentiation
• Using flexible grouping, curriculum, instruction, and formative assessment in a differentiated classroom

"Differentiated instruction is responsive instruction — that is, instruction that responds to students' needs." - Cindy Strickland

• " Differentiated instruction requires quality curriculum, respectful activities, and flexible grouping in quality differentiation; identifing ways to assess for student readiness, interest, and learning profile; applying a range of instructional strategies that support differentiation for readiness, interest, and learning profile." - Cindy Strickland

• "Differentiated Instruction focuses on whom we teach, where we teach, and how we teach. Its primary goal is ensuring that teachers focus on processes and procedures that ensure effective learning for varied individuals. Defensible models of differentiation will necessarily address the imperative of differentiating quality curriculum. Nonetheless, differentiation is predominantly (although not solely) an instructional design model.
  If we had at our grasp the most elegant curriculum in the world and it missed the mark for students with learning disabilities, highly advanced learners, students with limited English proficiency, young people who lack economic support, kids who struggle to read, and a whole host of others, the curriculum would fall short of its promise.
  On the other hand, if we were the most effective disciples of flexible grouping, interest-based instruction, responsive environments, and a host of instructional strategies that allow us to attend to learner variance but used those approaches in the absence of powerful curriculum, our classrooms would fail to equip students with the ideas and skills necessary to make their way in the world.
  Simply put, quality classrooms evolve around powerful knowledge that works for each student. That is, they require quality curriculum and quality instruction. In tandem, UbD and DI provide structures, tools, and guidance for developing curriculum and instruction based on our current best understandings of teaching and learning."
  "Simultaneously, teachers find it increasingly difficult to ignore the diversity of learners who populate their classrooms. Culture, race, language, economics, gender, experience, motivation to achieve, disability, advanced ability, personal interests, learning preferences, and presence or absence of an adult support system are just some of the factors that students bring to school with them in almost stunning variety. Few teachers find their work effective or satisfying when they simply “serve up” a curriculum—even an elegant one—to their students with no regard for their varied learning needs. For many educators, Differentiated Instruction offers a framework for addressing learner variance as a critical component of instructional planning." - Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe

• The Differentiated Classroom
  by CAROL ANN TOMLINSON

• Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design: Connecting Content and Kids by CAROL ANN TOMLINSON, JAY MCTIGHE

• Differentiated Literacy Coaching Scaffolding for Student and Teacher Success by MARY-CATHERINE MORAN

Differentiation and the Middle Grades

It can be argued that the middle-grade years constitute the greatest learner variability of any segment in school. Dissimilar rates of growth are a defining element of middle school. Students of the same age vary tremendously in intellectual development, as they do in physical, emotional, and moral development. Schools that aspire to be successful in educating young adolescents must vigorously attend to their varying needs, interests, and readiness levels (National Middle School Association, 1995). Such schools will begin where learners are, understanding and addressing their individual needs, interests, and modes of learning." Differentiation in Practice by by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Caroline Cunningham Eidson

Creating a Differentiated Mathematics Classroom

by Richard Strong, Ed Thomas, Matthew Perini and Harvey Silver

"Drawing on the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson and Robert J. Marzano, the authors propose a third alternative to differentiation in the mathematics classroom, a hybrid approach that incorporates both standards and differentiation. Students possess different mathematical learning styles. Teachers can facilitate student learning—and differentiate instruction in the mathematics classroom—by using a variety of research-based teaching strategies. The authors also suggest a new format that will make tests more thoughtful and fair." Buy the article from ASCD

Resources for Differentiated Instruction

• Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom (Microsoft Word Doc) ERIC Digest. CC Bonwell, JA Eison - ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Reports, The George Washington University Washington
• Glossary of Instructional Strategies from PlasmaLink Web Service
• Instructional Strategies from The Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Regina
• Instructional Strategies for Online Courses from Illinois Online Network and the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
• Jigsaw Classroom is a cooperative learning technique that reduces racial conflict among school children, promotes better learning, improves student motivation, and increases enjoyment of the learning experience. First developed in the early 1970s by Elliot Aronson and his students at the University of Texas and the University of California.