Differentiation is a word that is used a lot in teaching. We know a good teacher uses differentiation strategies daily to meet the needs of…
Confused about differentiating for gifted and talented students? This post offers two powerful strategies to try. Free download included.
How to Differentiate Activities for Special Ed... it can be easily done by adapting the content, process, project, or environment. Read more with ideas to help!
When trying to differentiate instruction for our students, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Here are 6 Easy Ways to Differentiate Instruction
Personalize the content, process, product, or learning environment.
Differentiated instruction allows students to feel respected and builds confidence in the classroom. View easy to use strategies to help make differentiated learning work in your classroom.
You don't have to create a whole bunch of separate assignments.
Make differentiating by process a staple in your instruction practices with this no-fail, easy to use guide. Everything you need to get started today!
There are different ways to differentiate instruction. Which is the best one for math teachers? Which will have the best impact on your students?
Essential Elements of Differentiated Instruction This is from differentiated lesson plan template , image source: www.pinterest.com
Looking for some new and unique ideas to help you differentiate your reading instruction? I've got 4 awesome differentation strateigies to try!
Last summer I attended a GT training and was introduced to choice boards! I LOVE THIS IDEA!!! I think that students are more engaged and even challenge themselves more when they are given choices. The great thing is....they aren't just for GT students. Choice boards work similar to tic-tac-toe; the student completes 3 activities in a row {up, down, diagonal} They can be adapted for ALL students and actually lend themselves well to differentiated instruction. On Tuesday, I will be attending another GT training specifically on choice boards and differentiated instruction {I'm super pumped about it!} I can't wait to learn more about these learning tools! {I promise to share what I learn!} Choice boards can be set up in many different ways. You can base them off of abilities, learning styles, intelligences, and even levels of questioning. I have found it easier, if I focus on just one of these types. When creating the board, you want to plan out what type of activity each square will focus on. {You don't want to have 2 of the same type of activities in a row} The goal of the CBs are to have equally acceptable activities that you want the students to complete that are similar end products, but have varying ways to accomplish the final product. {For example, you are studying the Alamo. Students could choose activities from writing a diary from the viewpoint of being in the battle, recreating a model of the Alamo, creating a movie, etc.}The wonderful thing about CBs though...students can choose an activity they are willing to complete {taking into consideration their own likes/learning style/intelligence}, but they will have 2 other activities they will need to complete that will focus on other skills that they possibly may need to strengthen {but at the very least they're practicing other skills}! It's a win-win situation! I recently put the choice boards I created for my homework reader's responses in my shop. My students are required to read 20 min nightly, however I found that many of them weren't really reading every night! These choice boards give student's different options to respond to their books, while focusing on varying skills. I've also included 4 blank {editable} choice boards so that you can create your own boards! .....And I used the adorable sneakers clipart to jazz them up from KPM Doodles {love her stuff!} Here is an example template of how to begin creating a choice board based on Multiple Intelligences: Source: Dare to Differentiate Here are some great resources: Dare to Differentiate (AWESOME site for resources!) PVUSD Choices based on intelligence
We all have students who struggle and require differentiated activities in order to access grade-level concepts, but how many of you put the same attention into differentiating for your stronger students? Here are some suggestions for how you can differentiate activities for your high achievers. #differentiatedlearning #differentiate #differentiatedinstruction #teaching #highachievers
TRANSFORM YOUR MATH INSTRUCTION! Looking to build strong differentiation habits in your upper-grade classroom? This essential differentiation guide is just what you need! Complete with a differentiation flow chart, tools,...
I use a variety of resources to help me in my journey towards a differentiated classroom, and I've had so many readers ask which resources I find most useful so I thought I would share a few of the things that have been helpful for me. I decided to separate this into two different posts. This post will focus on actual printed resources or guides that I use and later I will show you specific items and tools that I use in my class (including some items I wish I had but haven't acquired yet). Above all, resources that I feel have been most helpful to me are any and all publications by the Differentiated Instruction guru, Carol Ann Tomlinson. She is the queen of D.I. I'd LOVE to meet her someday but until then, I stalk her through her publications and books. My favorites are: This is a super easy read, tons of great 'get right to work' suggestions and ideas. Great resource guide for elementary specifically. Great read for those getting started. Knowing that instruction should focus on core principals, I also reference the following website quite a bit to keep up on the latest Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten. It's a great reference site for everything Common Core. A couple of guides that I have made up myself that help me greatly in my day-to-day planning are: Click on the picture above to get a copy of the explanation. And this template I use (not as much anymore more but quite a bit when I first started out) to remind me of the what process I should use for tiering. You can click on the form to get a copy for yourself. Another chart that I use quite often when I think about differentiating in response to learning profiles and intelligences is I put this in the front of my planner to remind me of all the intelligences I should be considering when planning learning centers and other activities. If you'd like a copy for yourself, just click on the picture above to download it. These are just a few references that I use regularly to keep me on the straight and narrow. If you have any great resources that you use, please drop me a comment. I'd love to hear from you. And come back and check out my favorite tools used for differentiating in the next couple of weeks.
