Brief Overview: What is Differentiation?, Summaries of Teaching method

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Student Integration Services

Brief Overview:

What is Differentiation?

“Differentiation is not a

strategy to be used

from time to time,

not an approach or a

pedagogical bag of tricks.

It’s a way of thinking about

teaching and learning.”

Tomlinson, 2000

Sometimes it’s easier to define what

differentiation is not:

Differentiation is not intended to be a reward or punishment forbeing gifted; it is the right of all students to have an appropriatecurriculum responsive to needs, interests, and abilities. Differentiation is not intended to deliberately segregate studentsfrom each other. Differentiation is not intended to be curricular experiences that aremerely flamboyant or labeled as “fun” or entertaining withouteducational value. Differentiation does not consist of disjointed activities; it involves acomprehensive curriculum.

California Association for the Gifted

Sometimes it’s easier to define what

differentiation is not:

Differentiation is not INDIVIDUALISM. It isn’t a different lesson plan foreach student each day. Differentiation is not giving all students the same work most of the time. Differentiation is not students spending significant amounts of time teachingmaterial they have mastered to others’ who have not mastered it. Giving more of the same work to advanced/gifted learners who havealready mastered the concept. Differentiation is not ALL THE TIME. Often it is preferable for students towork as a whole class.

Susan Allan

Teachers who differentiate have thefollowing understanding:

Carol Ann Tomlinson

THAT KIDS IN YOUR

CLASS DIFFER

FROM EACH OTHER

The need for systematically

assessing of where the

students are

That kids must have at least

two different choices on how to

do things and that the teacher must have at least two different

ways to teach this skill…

Grading to show growth, show

kids where they are

Differentiation is a Two-Step

Process:

FIRST:

Analyze the

degree of challengeand variety in yourcurrent instructionalplans…

THEN:

Modify,

adapt, or design newapproaches toinstruction inresponse tostudents’ needs,interests, andlearning preferences.

Differentiation of Instruction is a teacher’s response to

learner’s needs guided by general principles of

differentiation, such as:

LEARNING

PROFILE

INTERESTS

READINESS

according to

PROCESS

How will the results of

learning be

represented?

PROCESS

What level of thinking

is required?

CONTENT

What are students

learning about?

Teachers can

differentiate

CONTENT+PROCESS+PRODUCT=THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Example of a learning activity described in one sentence: Compare and contrast a scene in a novel with the movie version of the same scene by

presenting your ideas in a storyboard of words and pictures.

Content

written and film versions of ascene from a novel

Process

compare and contrast(analysis level of challenge)

Product

storyboard of words andpictures (verbal/linguistic,visual/spatial product)

You may be differentiating already!

Start where

you are.

Good differentiation does

not require throwing out all

your planning from the past

two, five, ten, or fifteen

years.

Many teachers have

been using

differentiation

strategies without

even knowing it.

Good differentiation means examining how well you’re

providing variety

and

challenge

in learning, identifying who among

your students is best served by

your current plans, and

modifying those plans

as

needed so more students can be

successful learners.

Resources

California Association for the Gifted (2002).

Meeting the

Standards, A Guide to Developing Services for GiftedStudents.

Whittier, CA: CAG

Heacox, D. (2002).

Differentiating Instruction in the

Regular Classroom

. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit

Publishing. Coil, C. (2004).

Activities and Assessments for the

Differentiated Classroom.

Pieces of Learning Publishers.