4. At its most basic level,
differentiating instruction
means “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.
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5. Teachers proactively plan varied approaches to
• what students need to learn
• how they will learn it
• and/or how they will show what they have learned
in order to increase the likelihood that
each student will learn as much as he or she
can, as efficiently as possible.
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6. National Board of Professional Teaching Standards: Five Core Propositions
PROPOSITION ONE - TEACHERS ARE COMMITTED TO STUDENTS AND THEIR LEARNING
•Dedicated to making knowledge accessible to all students,
•Believe in the worth and dignity of each individual and in the potential that exists within
each child,
•Treat students equitably, but do not treat them alike,
•Recognize individual differences that distinguish one student from another,
•Know many things about individual students and use the knowledge to tailor instruction,
•Adjust their practice based on observation and knowledge of their students’ interests,
abilities, skills, knowledge, family circumstances, and peer relationships,
•Incorporate prevailing theories of cognition & intelligence in their practice,
•Aware of the influence of context & culture on behavior,
•Develop students’ cognitive capacity & respect for learning,
•Foster students’ self-esteem, motivation, character, civic responsibility, and their respect
for individual, cultural, religious & racial differences.
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7. National Board of Professional Teaching Standards: Five Core Propositions
PROPOSITION TWO - TEACHERS KNOW THE SUBJECTS THEY TEACH & HOW TO
TEACH THOSE SUBJECTS TO STUDENTS
•Have rich understanding of the subjects they teach,
•Appreciate how knowledge in their subject is created, organized, linked to other
disciplines, applied to real-world settings,
•Command specialized knowledge & how to reveal subject matter to students,
•Aware of preconceptions & background knowledge students bring,
•Understand where difficulties are likely to arise & modify their practice accordingly,
•Their instructional repertoire allows them to create multiple paths to the subjects
they teach,
•Adept at teaching students how to pose & solve their own problems.
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8. National Board of Professional Teaching Standards: Five Core Propositions
PROPOSITION THREE - TEACHERS THINK SYSTEMATICALLY ABOUT THEIR PRACTICE & LEARN FROM
EXPERIENCE
•Exemplify the virtues they seek to inspire in their students—curiosity, tolerance, honesty, fairness,
respect for diversity, & appreciation of cultural differences,
•Take into account multiple perspectives & adopt an experimental & problem-solving orientation in
their teaching,
•Draw on knowledge of human development, subject matter & instruction, their understanding of their
students to make principled judgments about sound practice,
•Place a premium on student engagement,
•Build upon student interests & spark new passions,
•Seek to expand their instructional repertoire (being a master lecturer is not enough),
•Know the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches and arrangements and their suitability or
unsuitability for individuals and groups of students,
•Critically examine their practice,
•Adapt their teaching to new findings, ideas, & theories.
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9. National Board of Professional Teaching Standards: Five Core Propositions
PROPOSITION FOUR - TEACHERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MANAGING
AND MONITORING STUDENT LEARNING
•Create, enrich, maintain, and alter instructional settings to capture and sustain the interest of their
students,
•Adept at engaging students & adults to assist their teaching,
•Command a range of instructional techniques, know when each is appropriate, and implement them
as needed,
•As aware of ineffectual or damaging practice as they are devoted to elegant practice,
•Know how to engage groups of students to ensure a disciplined learning environment,
•Adept at setting norms for interaction among students,
•Understand how to motivate students to learn & how to maintain their interest, even in the face of
temporary failure,
•Assess the progress of individual students as well as that of the class as a whole,
•Track what students are learning or not learning & find ways to use what they learn to accommodate
the needs of individual students,
•Employ multiple methods for measuring student growth and understanding.
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10. National Board of Professional Teaching Standards: Five Core
Propositions
PROPOSITION FIVE - TEACHERS ARE MEMBERS OF LEARNING
COMMUNITIES
•Work in tandem with specialists
•Knowledgeable about specialized resources that can be engaged for
their students’ benefit
•Are skilled at employing such resources as needed
•Work collaboratively & creatively with parents, engaging them
productively
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11. The Common Sense of Differentiation
• Crafting an environment that actively supports each
student in the hard work of learning.
• Having absolute clarity about the learning destination.
• Persistently knowing where students are in relation to the
destination all along the way.
• Adjusting teaching & learning to make sure EACH student
arrives at the destination (and, when possible, moves
beyond it).
• Leading students and managing a flexible classroom.
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12. Is EQUAL really
FAIR?
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13. Now this is a
better “FIT”!
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14. for Education
IN OUT
Applying Knowledge Regurgitating facts
Problem Solving Rote learning
Dialogue Lecture
Facilitating Telling
Critical Thinking Memorizing
Simulation Observation
Teams Passive listening
Hands On One size fits all
Individualized Learning
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15. Establishing Curricular Priorities
Nice to know
Foundational
concepts and skills
Enduring
understandings
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16. Planning a Focused Curriculum Means –At
the Very Least—Clarity About What
Students Should …
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17. KNOW
Facts, names, dates, places, information
• There are 50 states in the US
• Thomas Jefferson
• 1492
• Names & descriptions of the body systems
• The multiplication tables
• Names & examples of the food groups
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18. UNDERSTAND
Essential truths that give meaning to the topic
Stated as a full sentence
Begin with, “I want students to understand THAT…” (not
HOW… or WHY… or WHAT)
– Multiplication is another way to do addition.
– People migrate to meet basic needs.
– All cultures contain the same elements.
– Entropy and enthalpy are competing forces in
the natural world.
– Voice reflects the author.
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19. Be able to DO
Skills (basic skills, skills of the discipline, independence, social
skills, skills of production)
Verbs or phrases (not the whole activity)
– Analyze
– Solve a problem to find perimeter
– Write a well supported argument
– Evaluate work according to specific criteria
– Contribute to the success of a group or team
– Use graphics to represent data appropriately
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20. MOVIE TIME!
From the BLIND SIDE . . .
• What does this mom model that we
should remember to do?
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21. Quality Differentiation
“Teaches Up” and ensures “Respectful Tasks”
(based on essential understandings, equally
engaging, requiring high level thought for
all students).
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22. What does it mean to TEACH UP?
TASKS
• Clear KUDs
• Require careful thought
• Focus on understanding
• Problems to solve / Issues to address
• Use key knowledge & skills to explore or extend understandings
• Authentic
• Require support, explanation, application, evaluation, transfer
• Criteria at or above “meets expectations”
• Require metacognition
***Always teach up – NEVER water down!***
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23. Start slowly.
Lead your students—make them your partners.
Plan the details carefully & at a pace that works for you.
Rehearse and review.
Be reflective-celebrate successes and learn from rough
spots.
Remember what you want to
accomplish and whyJen Gualtieri used with permission 2012
it matters!
23
24. An Example Model for “Teaching Up”
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25. • What is Socratic seminar?
• Extended discussion among students about a
common text based on an overarching, open-
ended question.
• Does not end with question being answered,
but with further questions being raised.
• Students practice developing in-depth
understandings of a text or issue through
cooperative discussion.
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26. History of Socratic seminar
•Socrates 470-399 BCE
•“I only know that I
know nothing.”
•Midwife
•Socratic method of inquiry
problem solving through
series of questions
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27. • Seats must be in a circle.
• Only one person may speak at a time.
• Do not interrupt.
• Comments must be respectful in tone and
content.
• Comments about the text should be
supported with specific examples.
• Speak to one another, not the teacher
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29. The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And both that morning equally lay
And sorry I could not travel both In leaves no step had trodden black.
And be one traveler, long I stood Oh, I kept the first for another day!
And looked down one as far as I could Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
To where it bent in the undergrowth I doubted if I should ever come back.
Then took the other, as just as fair, I shall be telling this with a sigh
And having perhaps the better claim, Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
Though as for that, the passing there I took the one less traveled by,
Had worn them really about the same, And that has made all the difference.
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30. Level One Questions
– Gather and recall information
– May be used to clarify information,
sequence, and/or details
• What is the definition of diverge?
• How does Frost describe the two
roads?
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31. Level Two Questions
- Make sense of gathered information
- May be helpful for analyzing
information related to the opening
question
• What are the similarities and
differences in the two roads?
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32. Level Three Questions
- Most effective for seminar
- Require us to apply and evaluate
information
- Leads to rich and significant
details
• In the Road Not Taken, is the poet
ambivalent, self-assured,
regretful, or adventuresome?
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33. •
Today’s Seminar
What is the relationship
between conformity and
individualism?
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38. Carol Tomlinson RESPONDS~
FAQ Answer
How is differentiation There is no
different difference! Differentiation
From is just really good
“good teaching?” teaching!
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39. Differentiation
Community Curriculum
Assessmnen
Instruction t
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40. Carol Tomlinson RESPONDS~
FAQ Answer
• Differentiation is too • Teaching is complicated or at
least high quality teaching is.
complicated. • Differentiation doesn’t ask us to
• It asks too much of do everything at once, but it does
ask us to work steadily toward
teachers. Isn’t is understanding how we can use
unrealistic in its each classroom element
expectations? separately and in an interrelated
way to support student success.
It asks us to grow in our craft.
That ought to be quite
reasonable.
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41. What’s worthwhile
is rarely easy...
And the cost is too
great if
any of us give up!
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42. Carol Tomlinson RESPONDS~
FAQ Answer
Doesn’t differentiation Defensible differentiation
lower expectations always “teaches up.”
for students-- It’s never a way out of
rigor—but rather support
“mollycoddle” to achieve rigor.
them & cause them to It guides students in
be dependent? becoming independent.
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44. Carol Tomlinson RESPONDS~
FAQ Answer
• How can I • Differentiation
differentiate if I is a means of ensuring
have to work from that more students
standards & use achieve whatever your
standards-based learning goals are. It’s a
teaching? means of achieving
standards
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45. There are at least two reasons why standards-based
teaching and differentiation are not in conflict:
1) Standards guide us in WHAT to teach. Differentiation guides us in
HOW to teach.
* It’s possible to TEACH the phone book or great books in a differentiated
manner or a one-size-fits-all manner.
* It’s likely that either will be LEARNED better when taught in a way
that’s responsive to a learner’s needs.
2) Differentiation doesn’t typically advocate changing the standard in
response to learner variance, but rather providing a VARIETY of
avenues to mastering the standard and a range of support systems for
doing so.
* The richer the framework of meaning, the more likely students are to be
motivated to learn and to be able to recall, relate to, retain, and
retrieve what matters.
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46. Carol Tomlinson RESPONDS~
FAQ Answer
Isn’t differentiation • Very few teachers
something most proactively & robustly
teachers already do? differentiate instruction.
• That’s the standard
necessary for academic
diversity.
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47. A Continuum of Differentiated
Instruction
NO DIFFERENTIATION MICRO DIFFERENTIATION MACRO DIFFERENTIATION
Adjusting questions in Articulated philosophy of student
Class works as a whole on
discussion differences.
most materials, exercises,
Encouraging individuals to take Planned assessment/ compacting
projects.
an assignment further Variable pacing is a given Moving
Group pacing Implied variations in grading furniture
Group grading standards experiences Planned variation content/input
Implied or stated Students pick own work groups Planned variation in
If students finish work early, process/sense-making Planned
philosophy that all of the
they can read, do puzzles, etc. variation in product/output
students need same
Occasion alexceptionsto Consistent use of flexible groups
teaching/learning
standard pacing. May not need Individual goal setting,
to show work, do all math assessment (grading) Grading to
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problems. reflect individual growth/process
48. Carol Tomlinson RESPONDS~
FAQ Answer
• How can I possibly • Differentiation seeks
create a different common patterns of
lesson plan for every need across students
student? (I teach and focuses on small
30, 35, 150.) groups. It is NOT a
synonym for
Individualization.
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49. Carol Tomlinson RESPONDS~
FAQ Answer
• Isn’t differentiation • A goal of
unfair because a DI is making sure
teacher who each student gets
differentiates the help necessary
doesn’t treat all for success. That’s
students the same? likely “more fair”
than one-size- fits
all.”
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50. The biggest mistake of past centuries in
teaching has been to treat all children as if
they were variants of the same individual and
thus to feel justified in teaching them all the
same subjects in the same ways.
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51. At its most basic level,
differentiating instruction
means “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.
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52. In one class…
Where the need is greatest
Where you feel most comfortable
For brief time spans
• Without group work
With part of the class
o At the end of a time block
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