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VIDEOs that demonstrate aspects of differentiation

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VIDEOs that demonstrate aspects of differentiation

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This project was completed by Cheryll Adams, Rebecca Pierce and Felicia Dixon, Ball State University.

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A choice board is a graphic organizer that allows students to choose different ways to learn about a particular concept. Choice boards are set up in a grid, generally with 9 squares. You can include more or fewer activities, but I've found 9 to be a good number.

In addition, you can require that students complete items from the choice board in a specific way, such as choosing three choices in a row, or you can let students choose at random. The level of difficulty of the activities can vary or stay consistent.

A Choice Board Example

I created the art history choice board below as an early finisher activity for my art students. If a student finishes a project before the class is ready to move on, they must choose an activity from the board. The activities on this choice board all have a similar level of difficulty.

In addition, there is another choice board included in the amazing set of downloads found in the Methods for Early Finishers PRO Learning Pack! The Learning Pack is designed to help you support your early finishers through choice and differentiation. Choice boards are just the beginning!

Creating Your Own Choice Board

1. Each choice board should revolve around a single concept or learning expectation.

2. Each square should contain an activity that is related to one of the multiple intelligences so that all students can find something that fits how they learn best.

3. If you want students to complete multiple activities on the choice board, have them complete three activities in a row. Be sure to put the most fun activity in the center!

4. The majority of the activities should be able to be completed individually. The exception would be the interpersonal square.

Personally, I keep the choice board attached to a bulletin board at the back of the classroom. There is also a folder with detailed instructions for each activity on the bulletin board so that students can work independently. Although the sample in this article was created for middle schoolers, you could certainly adapt it for older or younger students!
Have you ever used a choice board in your art classroom? If you created a choice board for your classroom, what concept or topic would you choose?

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How to Use Choice Boards to Differentiate Learning - The Art of Ed

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A choice board is a graphic organizer that allows students to choose different ways to learn about a particular concept. Choice boards are set up in a grid, generally with 9 squares. You can include more or fewer activities, but I've found 9 to be a good number.

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with lots of links

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How do you teach the same concepts and skills to students with diverse abilities and interests? Different learning profiles? And how do you do that in real classrooms, with limited time to plan?

Differentiated instruction is one answer that has been extensively documented (see "Recommended Resources" at the end of this post). I want to share two fundamental tenets of DI before describing specific tactics:

With that in mind, here are specific techniques you can use to meet the needs of students with a range of abilities.

1. Start Slow

Experiencing comprehensive student-centered instruction for the first time makes some kids uneasy. I'll never forget the high school girl who ate an entire roll of cherry Tums the day I introduced my choice-based syllabus. Gradually integrate a student-centered curriculum, says Dr. Kathie Nunley, by asking learners to " choose between two or three assignments " that can be completed before the end of class.

2. Introduce Compacting for High Achievers

Compacting curriculum lessens the tedium that elite achievers experience when they master concepts faster than their peers. The Gifted Program at the University of Connecticut recommends using pre-assessments to determine how these learners can skip specific chapters or activities. Then offer "mini-courses on research topics" or "small group projects" as alternatives in a compacting contract.

3. Provide Choice

Choice is motivating and empowering. Let students choose:

how they learn with others-individually, in pairs, in small groups, or with the whole class.

the difficulty levels of assignments,using menu-based tools like choice boards, tic-tac-toe boards (see p. 14-15), or activity menus. The digital version, Interactive Learning Menus, provide links to in-depth assignment descriptions, examples, and rubrics. Content can also be curated and remixed into Learning Playlists with online tools like MentorMob and BlendSpace.

what content they study. With Literature Study Circles, an entire English class can investigate and discuss "gender and identity" by selecting one of several books hand-picked to address that theme.

what quiz questions they answer. Page one of a test might say, "Pick three of the following five questions that you're most confident answering." Students can also vote on when to complete an exam.

what, where, when, and how they learn, via individual learning contracts. Be forewarned that students need intensive instruction and patience as they compose their own contracts.

4. Bake Assessments Into Every Class

Student-centered instruction is only as consequential as its assessment. Teachers need to know where kids are in their academic journey, how they learn best, and what interests them. These assessments can help:

Educator Chandra Manning recommends two graphic organizers, "Who I Am" and "All About Me Gazette," for collecting information about students' interests.

Kids complete the "3-Minute Pause" reflection protocol after a lesson concludes.

Teacher-student conferences can quickly help teachers determine how learners are progressing and what further support they need.

Differentiation expert Deborah Blaz reports that student-created rubrics help instructors identify schema strengths and gaps. For advanced learners, Blaz adds an extra column with challenging criteria to her rubrics.

When creating tests, include different question types that might address students' preferences: multiple choice, short answer, timelines, matching, true or false, graphic organizers to label, and sentences that are partially completed.

Have students visually document their academic progress "by creating a 'benchmark timeline' of weekly tasks. Each Friday, students initial the timeline, indicating where they are in the task sequence."

Professor Helen Barrett defines the learning portfolio as "a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student's efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas."

5. Provide High- and No-Tech Scaffolding for Reading

Rewordify, a text compactor, simplifies and shortens readings so that students with diverse comprehension abilities can comprehend and discuss the same article.

To find readings that are adjusted for high, medium, or low Lexile levels, use the informational texts in Newsela, the Smithsonian's Tween Tribune, or News in Levels-the latter also provides audio versions of the articles for additional support.

Distribute Comprehension Bookmarks (see pp. 13-26) to readers who might struggle with a complex text.

6. Offer Targeted Scaffolding for Young Writers

For academic writing, temporarily supply a word bank of transitions, an essay structure graphic, or sentence frames.

The free SAS Writing Reviser, which integrates beautifully with Google Docs, analyzes essays for sentence economy, variety, power, and identifies clarity and grammar issues. Ask advanced writers to analyze and assess their compositions' sentence variety and use of passive voice, while struggling writers can use the SAS tool to diagnose fragments, run-on sentences, and dangling modifiers.

If learners haven't adapted to our classroom, classroom instruction should adapt to learners by experimenting with student-centered strategies.

Recommended Resources

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Teaching a Class With Big Ability Differences | Edutopia

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How do you teach the same concepts and skills to students with diverse abilities and interests? Different learning profiles? And how do you do that in real classrooms, with limited time to plan? Differentiated instruction is one answer that has been extensively documented (see "Recommended Resources" at the end of this post).

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Rewordify.com | Understand what you read

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Rewordify.com helps you read more, understand better, learn new words, and teach more effectively.

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video

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Differentiating Instruction Using Learning Menus

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Virtual vocabulary builder

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Find out how strong your vocabulary is and learn new words at Vocabulary.com.

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Vocabulary.com helps you learn new words, play games that improve your vocabulary, and explore language.

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Plug in highlights & defines SAT words

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Interactive whiteboard app Riley Germanis uses for flipping math instruction

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Create interactive lessons, record video tutorials and collaborate real-time with your students.

Explain Everything, the leading digital whiteboard platform for delivering engaging lessons, is now joining Promethean.
Learn more ➜

Create interactive lessons, record video tutorials and collaborate real-time with your students.

Utilize the full power of an interactive whiteboard

Explain Everything is the leading interactive whiteboard for teaching.
Loved by 24+ M teachers and students across the globe. Check for yourself.

Create interactive presentations

Create or import an already existing presentation. Make it fun! Draw and add more slides to engage your students.

Record whiteboard videos & tutorials

Turn your teaching materials into quick tutorials and explanation videos. Share it instantly with anyone, anytime.

Collaborative projects with students

Create group assignments and let your students work on collaborative projects together. Teach them the value of teamwork.

We are on a mission to help educators provide engaging and effective learning experiences in any teaching scenario.

Meet the teacher template

Introduce yourself to your students and their parents in a warm and welcoming way. This customizable template allows you to share important information about yourself, your teaching philosophy, contact details, and classroom policies. Open template

Well-planned lessons enable teachers to make the most of the time they have with their students. Use this free template to focus on delivering meaningful content, engaging activities, and effective assessments to enhance student learning outcomes. Open template

Start off your lesson with a little icebreaker. Lesson plan templates bring structure, efficiency, and clarity to the lesson planning process, enabling teachers to deliver effective and engaging instruction that aligns with educational goals and standards. Open template

A multiplication chart is a versatile tool that can be used in various ways to support students' understanding and mastery of multiplication. Open template

Math axis template perfect for student assignments. Use this template to create visually appealing axes, and plot mathematical functions and data. Open template

This Pros and Cons template provides a straightforward structure to list the pros and cons of a specific topic without going into detailed explanations. Open template

Color theory is a fundamental concept in art, design, and various creative fields. Teach how colors interact, harmonize, and create different visual effects. Open template

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Explain Everything | Interactive Whiteboard for Teaching

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Interactive whiteboard for teaching. Record video tutorials, create interactive presentations. Join 24+ million users of Explain Everything.

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ARTICLE: getting started with differentiation

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ARTICLE: getting started with differentiation

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Useful tips and ideas

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Tiered learning, menus, cubing, tic tac toe choice, Socratic seminar, layered curriculum

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Advice on how to get started with differentiation

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Tips & Strategies for Effective Differentiation & Instruction

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Getting Started on Differentiated Instructions

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Carol Tomlinson provides an explanation on getting started with differentiate instruction. Inscribase en el Simposio en Lima, Peru: http://www.differentiatedinstructions.com Differentiation is responsive teaching rather than one size fits all teaching (Tomlinson, 2005).

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Start at 4:00 for strategies ie "tiering" 

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Start at 4:00 for strategies ie "tiering" 

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Video featuring expert Rick Wormelli

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Communal Google Sheet to share and find ideas to support differentiation with social media

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Possibilities for  extended or remedial learning activities at no cost

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Record audio instructions and embed quizzes in You-Tube videos

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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Online resource allows you to adjust reading levels of internet articles to meet student needs

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It's time to improve literacy skills during social studies instruction and ensure that readers of all abilities have what they need to access grade-level social studies concepts.

Join us on Thursday, December 7 for a look at scaffolded materials that provide extra literacy support while building key social studies concepts and skills.

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Newsela | Content and assessment platform

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Content Aligned To National & State Standard, Flexible To Support Relevant Curriculum. Find the Perfect Piece Of Content For Lessons. Go beyond the book.

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Resource Round-up

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Differentiated Instruction

In this collection of tools and advice from Edutopia and the web, find resources to help you adjust instruction in response to diverse learner needs and interests.

Levels of Understanding: Learning That Fits All: Learn how to develop a framework to support creating homework or practice to meet the needs of all learners. (Edutopia, 2015)

Making Failure Harder Work Than Passing: Discover how one chemistry teacher uses incremental learning goals, formative assessments, and differentiation to inspire students to work hard and reach their potential. (Edutopia, 2015)

5 More Ways to "Remove the Walls" From Your Classroom: Explore five ways to rearrange students across the usual groupings and grade levels while differentiating, hitting the standards, ensuring proficiency, and boosting engagement. (Edutopia, 2015)

Students Matter: 3 Steps for Effective Differentiated Instruction: Check out three strategies for differentiated instruction: knowing students' strengths, involving them in planning, and leveraging the strengths of fellow educators. (Edutopia, 2014)

3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners: What Teachers Do: To differentiate learning in the classroom, focus on content, process, and product. For more planning tips, also see 15+ Readiness Resources for Driving Student Success, which provides resources to help teachers meet the readiness needs of all students. (Edutopia, 2014)

Understanding Differentiated Instruction

Make Learning Last: How Diverse Learners Can Process Their Understanding: Find out how quick reflections, surveys, and diverse-perspective assessments can help students to process more deeply and check their own understanding. (Edutopia, 2016)

How Learning Profiles Can Strengthen Your Teaching: Explore ways that collecting data about learners can inform differentiation. (Edutopia, 2014)

3 Guidelines to Eliminating Assessment Fog: Break through assessment fog by identifying and communicating clear learning targets, separating logistical guidelines (like following directions) from academic learning targets, and providing students with different ways to demonstrate their learning. (Edutopia, 2014)

Dipsticks: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding: Within this primer to formative assessment, you'll find a printable list of 53 ways to check for student understanding. For more ideas, you might also want to check out David Wees' community post with 56 Examples of Formative Assessment and Edutopia's formative assessment page. (Edutopia, 2014)

Tools for Teaching: Ditching the Deficit Model: Read about how to gain knowledge of students' strengths, interests, and hidden talents in order to best determine out how to meet their needs. (Edutopia, 2013)

Planning and Implementation Ideas

Equity vs. Equality: 6 Steps Toward Equity: Explore seven steps toward classroom equity: knowing every child, celebrating their potential, recognizing their challenges, becoming flexible, acknowledging inequity, and using culture as a resource. (Edutopia, 2016)

Serving Gifted Students in General Ed Classrooms: Consider do's and don'ts for meeting the needs of gifted students. (Edutopia, 2015)

Bridging the ADHD Gap: To support the needs of children with ADHD, make the learning child-centered, differentiate, integrate movement and mindfulness, create supportive learning environments, and document the process. (Edutopia, 2015)

Integrating ELL Students in General Education Classes: Learn about differentiated-instruction and formative-assessment strategies that can help general-education teachers of English-Language Learners (ELLs).

The Power of Introverts: An Essential Understanding for Teachers: Understand the characteristics of an introvert to better serve shy and quiet students. (Edutopia, 2013)

Knowing and Assessing Students

Integrating Technology and Literacy: Explore digital tools for text and video annotations, teacher feedback, and formative assessment. (Edutopia, 2016)

100+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media: Find out how social media can enhance differentiated instruction if the tools are selected with a careful eye on individual students' readiness, interests, and learning profiles. (Edutopia, Updated 2016)

Mixing it Up With Mangahigh: Using Games to Differentiate Instruction: Learn how one teachers uses the online math game site Mangahigh to better differentiate instruction. (Edutopia, 2014)

Enhancing Learning Through Differentiated Technology: Discover three tech tools -- SAS Curriculum Pathways, Newsela, and EDpuzzle -- that can help differentiate instruction by showing where students are and offering appropriate formative assessment. (Edutopia, 2015)

Teaching Diverse Learners

Tools for Differentiating Instruction in PBL: Differentiate the content, process, and product of your PBL lessons with tools and practices like Learning Profile Cards, narrative feedback, and design thinking. (Edutopia, 2016)

6 Strategies for Differentiated Instruction in Project-Based Learning: Learn about six simple, effective approaches to differentiated instruction in project-based learning. (Edutopia, Updated 2016)

How Does PBL Support Differentiated Instruction?: Understand how PBL can be designed and managed to factor in students' readiness, interests, and learning profiles. (Buck Institute for Education, 2012)

Differentiating With Technology

Differentiation in Project-Based Learning

Examples and Downloads From Schools That Work

Sample Student Exit Tickets -- Download sample exit tickets that Humboldt teachers use as a quick check for comprehension of that day's lesson; these tickets let teachers know who might need additional help in a small group setting.

Edutopia's flagship series highlights practices and case studies from K-12 schools and districts that are improving the way students learn. Below, find downloads used by practitioners at featured schools, and dive into real-world examples of differentiated instruction.

Small Group Work With "I Choose"
When teachers began asking for time to work with students in small groups, Humboldt Elementary in Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona found the time, adjusted the schedule, and empowered students by mixing scaffolded supports with a variety of student-friendly elective enrichments. Watch the video, and download sample exit tickets used by teachers:

Academic Success for All Students: A Multi-Tiered Approach
At P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School in Gainesville, Florida, Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) enables teachers to differentiate and provide each student the right level of instruction to succeed. Learn more, and check out one of this school's tools:

How do you approach differentiated instruction in your classroom? Share tools, resources, experiences, or advice in the comments.

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In this collection of tools and advice from Edutopia and the web, find resources to help you adjust instruction in response to diverse learner needs and interests.

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to "Challenge Every Student In The Room"

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Easy ways to quickly gather student data every day-and how you can use it to reach all of your students, whether they're ahead or behind.

Summit students working together

Children are people, not data points-but can data help educators meet the needs of each student?

At Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, California, every teacher gathers real-time data-daily. They do this to gain insight into their students' needs, informing how they teach every day. They use a variety of tools ranging from a free online personalized learning platform to Google surveys, paper assessments, and quick and easy formative assessments, like counting thumbs up and down.

I remember my own high school experience. If I was ahead, I thought to myself, 'How am I going to kill 55 minutes?' And if I was behind, I felt overwhelmed, frustrated, and like I was wasting my time. Chris Kelly, Summit history teacher

Gathering real-time insights allows Summit teachers to differentiate instruction, give their students' choice in how they learn, and create scaffolds and extensions to meet their students' needs. It also helps them see how their students can support each other.

"There might be a peer who's doing really well on a cognitive skill," says Chris Kelly, a Summit history teacher. "Knowing that there are four other students who need support on that, I can create that relationship between these students on that given day."

Summit's Personalized Learning Platform

Cady Ching, a Summit biology and AP environmental science teacher, uses a handful of strategies to check in on her students' needs-including Summit's personalized learning platform (PLP). Summit's PLP (a free platform that comes with professional development tools and customizable, teacher-created, project-based curricula, including virtual textbooks, curated resources, and assessments) allows students to learn at their own pace, track their progress, and reflect on feedback. It also allows teachers to gather data on their students to help inform their instruction.

"The great part about knowing our learners," says Penelope Pak McMillen, executive director of Summit, "is that the students get to know themselves as learners too. The data that we see is the data that they see."

Each day, their students know what they need to do, what resources they'll need, and what questions to ask their teachers to get extra help or additional challenges.

Get Started With Summit's PLP

1. Ensure everyone is on board. As a team, watch one of the webinars.

2. Schedule a 30-minute chat with Summit staff to better understand the program.

Over 100 public schools are using the platform and resources through the national Summit Learning Program (formerly known as the Summit Basecamp program). Teachers can register for free, and grade level teams can apply (also free).
Summit Learning Program
Summit's PLP Teacher Guide

In-Class Assessments

Sometimes Ching differentiates her class using insights from Summit's PLP-but with 160 students, it's not always a realistic strategy. "A lot of times, I don't have time to do that," she says. "I am a huge advocate for teacher sustainability, and it can be challenging to go home and do that level of differentiation outside of my workday."

Temperature checks, like thumbs up or down and fist to five fingers. Teachers ask questions like: How comfortable are you? How much did this workshop help you understand this skill? How much additional support will you need to show mastery of the skill?

Written assessments, like five- to 10-question content checks and cognitive skill quizzes

Google surveys

Summit teachers use a variety of in-class tools to assess and differentiate their classes:

Grades 9-12 | Redwood City, CA

Enrollment

388 | Charter, Suburban

Per Pupil Expenditures

Free / Reduced Lunch

47%

Data is from the 2014-2015 academic year.

Creating Survey Questions

1. Why do I want students to take this survey?

2. How am I going to use the survey results to group students?

3. What is my plan for each group of students?

4. What check for understanding will follow that plan to ensure learning has happened in my classroom?

Before creating a survey, Ching recommends asking yourself four questions:

Ching uses surveys to assess cognitive skills. "Each survey is different, dependent on the language of the rubric," she explains.

For example, she has her students check their cognitive skills scores on Summit's PLP and asks them, "Which cognitive skill do you need the most support on? What can you do in class today to revise that skill score?"

We need to see real-time data on a daily basis to ensure that the way that we are spending our time as teachers is actually meeting the goals of all the kids that are in our classrooms. Penelope Pak McMillen, executive director of Summit

She also creates opt-in opportunities for her students based on survey results. By senior year, through Summit's personalized learning model, most students know their strengths and the areas where they need to grow. "Today, I'm going to offer a workshop on interpreting data and information," says Ching. "If a student knows that he or she is struggling with graphs and with analyzing data sets, then they should opt into this workshop so they can get this extra teacher support."

For freshmen, differentiation is more intentional in terms of guiding students to the resources they need. "Developmentally, their perception of where they are is often misaligned to the teacher's assessment," Ching says.

Setting Up the Learning Environment

To help differentiate and arrange the classroom, Summit staff ask whether students want to work alone or in groups, whether they want to learn from a video or a debate, whether they need a mini lesson on a particular topic, and what they plan to work on that day-and whether they need extra help.

Kelly will often place his students in optimal learning environments based on their survey results. Students who want to work independently face the wall; students who want to collaborate work at designated tables; and students who need more direct instruction work in the center of the room with him.

"[Differentiation ensures that] all of the students' time is valuable, has purpose, and enables them to reach mastery," says Kelly.

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Easy ways to quickly gather student data every day-and how you can use it to reach all of your students, whether they're ahead or behind.

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VIDEO: Differentiating with Learning Menus in Social Studies

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VIDEO: Differentiating with Learning Menus in Social Studies