Instruction

=Instruction =

=__Strategies__= Below are various strategies which could be used to differentiate, a general overview of the strategy, and provided examples. (Of course, this is only a brief sampling of what's available.)

from //[|The Differentiated Classroom]//
 * Tiered Activities** can be used to provide students with opportunites to focus on essential understandings at different levels of complexity, abstractness, and open-endedness. Here are the steps to developing tiered activities.
 * 1) Begin with a concept in mind and an activity with which you've already experienced success. The activity should be interesting and require abstract thinking.
 * 2) Visualize a ladder as representation of higher-level thinking, the top rung being the most complex and the lowest rung being the most simplistic thinking. Where on this ladder would you place your lesson?
 * 3) With the ladder in mind, "clone" the activity to fit the cognitive needs and success of your students. There is no magic number when cloning, which should be based on student need and task requirements. Consider the following:
 * materials--basic to advanced
 * form of expression--from familiar to unfamiliar
 * from experience--from personal experience to removed from personal experience
 * learner readiness
 * 1) Match the students with the appropriate activities.


 * Tic-Tac-Toe Activities ** can be used to provide students choice in assignments which reflect their learning style strength. It offers them nine choices based on different learning styles. Students select three assignments to complete. (They may or may not choose to complete them by "row".)

**Activity Boards** also give students classroom choices. They are similar to Tic-Tac-Toes, the primary difference being that an Activity Board provides choices for in-class activities.

Flexible grouping allows students to be appropriately challenged and avoids labeling a student's readiness as static. Students should not be be kept in a static group for any particular subjects as their learning will probably accelerate from time to time. Even highly talented students can benefit from flexible grouping. Often they benefit from work with intellectual peers, while occasionally in another group they can experience being a leader. In either case peer-teaching is a valuable strategy for group-work.
 * Flexible Grouping ** as student performance will vary it is important to permit movement between groups. Student’s readiness varies depending on personal talents and interests, so we must remain open to the concept that **//a student may be below grade level in one subject at the same time as being above grade level in another subject.//**

**Inquiry-based Learning ** includes the requirement that learning should be based around students’ questions. Students work together to solve problems rather than receiving direct instructions on what to do from the teacher. The teacher's job in an inquiry learning environment is not to just provide knowledge, but to help students along the process of constructing knowledge themselves. In this form of instruction, it is proposed that teachers should be viewed as facilitators of learning rather than vessels of knowledge.

An easy tool for accomplishing this is to put posters on the classroom walls with key words that identify the varying levels of thinking. For example I used to put 6 posters on my walls (based on Bloom's taxonomy) one for Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. These were useful cues for me when conducting class discussions and useful for my students when they were required to develop their own research questions. Different students may be referred to different posters at certain times depending on ability, readiness or assignment requirements. With written quizzes the teacher may assign specific questions for each group of students. They all answer the same number of questions but the complexity required varies from group to group. However, the option to go beyond minimal requirements can be available for any or all students who demonstrate that they require an additional challenge for their level.
 * Adjusting Questions ** occurs during large group discussion activities, teachers direct the higher level questions to the students who can handle them and adjust questions accordingly for student with greater needs. All students are answering important questions that require them to think but the questions are targeted towards the student’s ability or readiness level.

** Literature Circles ** "In literature circles, small groups of students gather together to discuss a piece of literature in depth. The discussion is guided by students' response to what they have read. You may hear talk about events and characters in the book, the author's craft, or personal experiences related to the story." Schlick Noe, K. L. & Johnson. N.L., // Getting Started with Literature Circles //, 1999 Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc. p. ix. "Literature circles provide a way for students to engage in critical thinking and reflection as they read, discuss, and respond to books. Collaboration is at the heart of this approach. Students reshape and add onto their understanding as they construct meaning with other readers. Finally, literature circles guide students to deeper understanding of what they read through structured discussion and extended written and artistic response." Schlick Noe, K. L. & Johnson. N.L., // Getting Started with Literature Circles //, 1999 Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc. p. ix. 1. Select members for the Literature Circles (discussion groups). 2. Assign roles for the members of each circle. 3. Assign reading to be completed by the circles inside or outside of class. 4. Select circle meeting dates. 5. Help students prepare for their roles in their circle. 6. Act as a facilitator for the circles. Some roles may be: The teacher will determine what roles should be used depending upon the age and ability of the students as well as the reading selections.
 * What is the purpose? **
 * How do I arrange literature circles? **
 * discussion director - develops questions for the group to discuss
 * passage picker or literary luminary - chooses a selection that the group rereads and discusses because it is interesting, informative, the climax, well written....
 * vocabulary enricher - chooses words that are difficult or used in an unfamiliar way
 * connector - finds a connection between the story and another book, event in their personal llife or the outside world
 * illustrator - draws a picture related to the reading
 * summarizer - prepares a brief summary of the passage read that day
 * travel tracer - tracks the movement when the characters move a lot
 * investigator - looks up background information related to the book

__Examples__

 * Purposefully Choose a Teaching Strategy **
 * [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/mime/32/application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.png width="32" height="32" link="http://jeffcodifferentiatedinstruction.wikispaces.com/file/view/Teacher+Quick-Pick+Ideas+for+Engaging+Instruction.ppt"]] [|Teacher Quick-Pick Ideas for Engaging Instruction.ppt]

BY CONTENT Language Arts ** [|call of the wild- tiered lesson.doc]

[|Mystery Unit-Tic-Tac-Toe.htm]

[|Connecting Jeffco CAP and Literacy Strategies.doc]

[|division - activity board.doc]
 * Math **

[|math-party-inquiry based learning.doc]

[|math-party-tiered lesson.doc]

[|current events in space - tic tac toe.pdf]
 * Science **

[|earhquakes & volcanoes- tiered lesson.pdf]

[|rocks-tiered lesson.doc]

[|rocks-tiered lesson page.htm]

A tiered lesson link: []

[|Explorers - activity board.doc]
 * Social Studies **

** World Language ** [|language-french-menu-tiered lesson.doc]