Differentiated Instruction Pag3

Taking Baby StepsGiving Teachers Beginning Strategies to Implement

Differentiated Instruction

Planning for Differentiation through• Students’ Learning Profiles• Interest Inventories •Readiness Assessment

Goals• To introduce several learning style inventories

which can be used by elementary teachers to gather information about the students in their classrooms.

• To look at tools that can be used to determine students’ interests.

• To discuss informal and formal diagnostic testing that can be used to gather information about learning strengths and weaknesses.

• To see how all these tools can target learners’ needs.

Learning Style Inventories

• Several on-line interactive and paper and pencil inventories are available on-line for use in the classroom.

• Let’s look at a few:• http://www.internet4classrooms.com/di.htm

By completing the survey you will see which modality you favor when taking in new information

Are you Visual

Auditory Or

Kinesthetic/Tactile?

Think Pair Share

• Think what implications this would have for you as a teacher in planning reading instruction of your students.

• Write down you thoughts.• Pair with a partner and discuss.• Share out with the group.

Implications

There is no one right way to teach reading. One size does not fit all.Using a variety of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile strategies in each lesson will benefit all learners.Knowing a child’s learning style will guide instruction and help all children to succeed.

Interest Inventories

• Teachers can determine student interest by using interest inventories and/or including the students in the planning process.

• Let’s take a look at a some sample interest inventories:

• www.st.cr.k12.ia.us/reading/readinginterestinventoriesChoicePage.htm.

Implications

Knowing our students’ interests gives us a springboard for planning instruction.Children learn if the material is meaningful and if they can relate to it.Knowing what they are not interested in gives us information on the background building that will be necessary if the topic is presented.

Use of Diagnostic Assessments to Determine Student Readiness

With a partner, discuss some assessment strategies that can be used to determine student readiness for a topic in reading or math. The test can be formal or informal.

Possible Assessments

• Pre-tests• Questioning students about their background

knowledge• KWL Charts (Charts that ask students what

they know about a topic, what they want to know, and what they have learned about a topic)

• Webbing

In Conclusion

In order to get teachers on-board for implementing differentiated instruction we need to do so in small steps.

A starting point would be to begin planning for differentiated instruction using these 3 tools:

Learning Style Inventories

Interest Inventories

Diagnostic Assessments

We can then begin the process of planning our instruction so that all children can succeed.

Resources

Periodicals• Brimijoin, K. (2006) Using Data to

Differentiate Instruction. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

• Tomlinson, C. (1995) Differentiating Instruction for Mixed Ability Classrooms. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

• Tomlinson, C. & Allan, S. (2009) Understanding Differentiated Instruction: Building a Foundation for Leadership. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Technology• Differentiated Instruction – Abiator’s

Learning Style Inventory Test 2. www.internet4classrooms.com

• Reading Interest Inventory. www.st.cr.k12.ia.us/interestinventory