How to Differentiate Instruction
Change the Pace:
- pre-testing
- Curriculum Compacting
- tiered activities
- most difficult first
- alternate assignments
- learning contracts
- Independent Study
- Learning Centers
Change the Delivery/Content:
- mini-lessons
- different resources
- Curriculum Compacting
- Independent Study
- open-ended questions
- teacher conferences
- reading journals
- previewing resources
Change the Product:
- choice boards
- Tic Tack Toe menus
- RAFT (role, audience, format, topic)
- game show menu
- student choice options
- game creation
- technology-based products: websites, podcasts, movie making
Change the Process - Add Depth:
- tiered activities
- open-ended activities
- higher-level questions
- curriculum ladders
- student experts
- increase complexity
- decrease structure
Change the Process - Add Breadth:
- Tic Tack Toe menus
- interdisciplinary units
- orbital studies
- simulations
- “your own idea” options
- choice boards
- RAFT assignments
- interest centers
- case studies
- role plays
Guiding Principles of Differentiation:
-
Respectful work for all learners.
- Assessment & instruction are inseparable.
- Assessment before, during, & after instruction is critical for making appropriate modifications for gifted learners.
- Focus on the essentials.
- Modification of content, process, and products.
- Content = what is taught and how students access information.
- Process = how a student makes sense of or comes to understand the information, ideas, and skills that are that the center of the lesson.
- Product = assessment or demonstration of what students have come to understand & know.
- Replacement tasks should be respectful works that serve a purpose (not busy work)
Pace – Delivery -- Product -- Process (Depth & Breadth)