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Please see book study notes for Summary of Motivating Students Who Don't Care - Successful Techniques for Educators, and What Great Teachers Do Differently

Should we remain focused on attempting to persuade students to adapt to our preferred teaching and evaluation methods or should we begin to adapt our instructional practice to more accurately reflect our students?


 * // Differentiated Instruction (DI) Rational //**

DI advocates the development of instructional practices highlighted by choice in order to meet the diverse learning needs of students. DI focuses on meeting curriculum objectives by creating content, process and product options for students based their readiness, interests and learning profile. All students focus on meeting course objectives by the path that best suits them. //A DI curriculum only suited to some course objectives. __DI can only be developed and incorporated into courses with planning in a steady progression over time as teachers recognize opportunities to create options for as much of their instructional practice as possible.__//

1. requires effective, quality curriculum designed within the UbD model and focused on meeting essential understandings 2. continuous assessment where the teacher is actively assessing students to gauge their understanding and adapting activities based on that assessment i.e. teach for success within a pervasive expectation of individual growth, not “gotcha” teaching 3. creating a reasonable range of learning experiences based on student readiness, interest, learning styles (i.e. DI does not propose to do all things for all students all the time) 4. learn where students are with respect to learning goals and then provide learning experiences to move them further toward the goal 5. fits into and expands current practice at a rate that the teacher controls (i.e. start by adding variety and choice where you can) 6. sometimes content, process and product will remain the same for all (e.g. an essay response is required to evaluate the essay style)
 * Keys to DI **

- UbD provides a structure that frames the planning of a quality curriculum required for effective learning by establishing the alignment of outcomes, assessment and curriculum. This alignment helps students and teachers to easily recognize and directly pursue curriculum objectives - DI fits into the 3 stage framework of UbD and should be considered as a key component of stage #3 - UbD stage#1 focuses on identifying results i.e. __what to teach/what is worth learning__ (outcomes, goals) by establishing big ideas/enduring understandings (important, long term, motivating, debatable ideas worth considering) and essential questions (questions that will guide and focus the teaching and provoke student interest and learning) and knowledge and skills (skills, concepts and procedures needed for students to understand). - What lasting ideas/information do I want students to understand? - UbD stage #2 focuses on determining evidence i.e. __how to establish whether or not the what to teach has been taught__ through ongoing assessment of knowledge, understanding and transfer of essential understandings. - How will I know when they understand?
 * DI and UbD **

- UbD stage #3 DI focuses on planning learning experiences i.e. __how to teach, how to best help students gain understanding__ (curriculum) by recognizing and responding to the growing diversity of interests, readiness and learning styles in the classroom. - How will I help all of them to understand?


 * Why DI **

DI facilitates growth of diverse individuals toward **homogenous** essential understandings derived from curriculum document objectives while accommodating for individual readiness, interests and learning profile

- growing diversity in our classrooms is multi-faceted: • readiness levels • learning disabilities • attention levels deficit • physical disabilities • cultural • language • socioeconomic • family support

- DI allows students who do not fit a teacher’s teaching style a better chance for success as teachers build a stockpile of diverse instructional strategies for content, process and product that better suit students. In so doing we increase our chances of engaging students and increase our population of successful learners (Generally, teachers achieved academic success through traditional socratic teaching models. We very naturally assume traditional teaching models as the backbone of our practice due to our previous success.)

- in DI alternatives and the perception of choice empower students and reduces motivational problems, from “Do this!” v.s. “You can choose to do this or this.”

- as well as responding to growing diversity DI accepts the realization that classrooms where students are active learners, decision makers and problem solvers may be more natural and effective than those where students are passive recipients of information

- DI may not be required in classrooms when student’s readiness, interests and learning style is relatively homogeneous

DI makes good sense because: - standard, one size fits all process and product increasingly incapable of reaching expanding classroom diversity - increases our capacity to understand our students and then adapt our teaching practice so that we more effectively reach and teach individual students - increase student motivation and achievement by offering appropriate levels of challenge and support - increase strong connections between subjects and student students which improves learning - increase students’ understanding of themselves as learners so that they are able to become more independent and responsible - students who are given responsibility, learn to be responsible - students who are given choice take ownership and are more committed and motivated to the chosen task

- DI maintains quality, focused instruction and is essentially about choice for students - choice is meant to establish pervasive student commitment based on curriculum content, process and product that better matches student readiness, interest and learning style i.e. the curriculum is better tailored to students rather than students all adapting to the same curriculum
 * What is DI **

// DI means adapting curriculum content, process and product while learning goals remain constant so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas and expressing what they learn (VI How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms) //

DI offers multiple approaches to reach the same curriculum goals // multiple approaches to: //

// -content // = how students gain access to content (NOT what the content will be)


 * lecture ||
 * video clips ||
 * online lessons ||

- // process // = how students go about making sense of what they are learning. The activity that allows them to use the knowledge, understanding and skills they have accessed. - Some examples are


 * experiment || learning logs ||
 * group discussion || Journals ||
 * book work || Graphic organizer ||
 * Read blogs || Cubing ||
 * || Interest groups ||
 * || Jigsaw ||
 * experiential learning || Think/pair/share ||
 * Role playing || Online lessons ||
 * choice boards || Cooperative controversy(prepare to argue 2 sides of issue) ||
 * Model making || labs ||
 * Tiered assignments || Parallel tasks ||

- process can be differentiated based on readiness by matching activity complexity to student’s current skill sophistication - process can be differentiated based on learning profile by offering activity in all learning modes i.e. kinesthetic - - // product // =output= how students demonstrate what they know. Would reflect that student has considered and applied the key knowledge, understandings and skills of the unit. Are the most effective when they mimic a real world situation.

- some examples are:
 * Test || Product ||
 * Demonstration || Museum Display ||
 * Conduct a symposium || Write a journal article ||
 * Essay || Design a game ||
 * Design a web page || Build a model house ||
 * Photo essay || Play or video ||
 * Conduct a debate || Booklet/Brochure ||
 * Write a blog ||  ||

- see product possibilities on page #89 of //How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms//

- DI is differentiating based on readiness, addressing the goal of efficiency ( i.e. teaching students that which they have yet to learn and not repeating that which some have already learned or neglecting to re-teach to those not yet familiar) - DI is differentiating based on interest, addressing student motivation (students who choose between differentiated content, process and product options should be more dedicated to heir choice) - DI is differentiating based on learning profile, addressing the goal of inclusion i.e. teaching students in ways that recognize the ways they best learn - DI requires pre assessment and regular formative assessment in order to fruitfully gauge individual readiness, interests and learning profile ( assessment ill take a variety of forms from traditional tests to exit cards that assess weather or not the main idea of the lesson has been grasped - returns some of the responsibility for education to students in the form of how they learn

// in a DI classroom the teacher proactively plans and carries out varied approaches to content, process and product in anticipation of and in response to student differences in readiness, interest and learning styles (4 How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms) //
 * teachers role **

and involves: o knowing each learner’s style and capacity o assessing each learner’s current understanding o providing diverse assignments o incorporating diverse instructional strategies and curriculum approaches

- from dispensers of knowledge to creating multiple opportunities to capture attention and build understanding - create a reasonable range of learning experiences NOT all things to all students all the time - recognize student readiness - recognize clues about student interest and learning styles - recognize a variety of ways (content, process) that allow students to uncover understanding - recognize a variety of ways students can gather and explore information and ideas - recognize a variety of ways (products) that assess student understanding - recognize a variety of ways through which students can express their understanding (product) - - develop a variety of ways to continually assess student readiness, interests and learning preferences - develop a variety of ways to accomplish common goals and objectives - know what constitutes understanding of the concepts, ideas, skills being taught classroom habits - sharing the responsibility of learning with students - preparing students to share the responsibility of learning - tracking individual progress toward essential information, understanding and skill
 * teacher skills **

