Three Phases of Planning Instruction

Differentiation

Planning Stage

Northern Middle School

July 13, 2004

Three Phases of Planning Instruction:

Phase 1: Information Gathering

Major Questions

· What is to be studied?

· What are student needs relative to content?

· Where should instruction start?

Basis for planning

· Lesson outline

· Curriculum guide (Curriculum Map)

· Textbook outline

Specific type of information needed

· Do students already have mastery of any of lesson content?

· What have students studied before?

· Do students have prerequisites for lesson?

· What is present student status in mastery within sequence?

· Do certain topics have special interest for students?

Possible sources of information

· Lesson pretest

· Standardized achievement test

· Performance events

· State standards test

· Student records

Phase 2: Guiding Instruction

Major Questions

· How should instruction be delivered?

· When is the student ready to progress?

Basis for planning

· Identification of possible instructional alternatives

· Specification of mastery criteria for objectives, topics (Performance Level Descriptions)

Specific type of information needed

· Do students already have mastery or partial mastery of some topics within lesson?

· What type of instruction is most effective?

· Have students mastered what they have been studying?

Possible sources of information

· Lesson pretest

· Student interview

· Quiz

· Unit posttest

· Student Work

· Open Response

Three Phases of Planning Instruction:

Phase 3: Results of Instruction

Major Question

· Have students mastered and retained important learning outcomes?

Basis for planning

· Specification of essential content and skills (Program of Studies

Specific type of information needed

· Have students retained essential content and skill? (Core Content for Assessment)

Possible sources of information

· End-of-lesson test

· Projects

Differentiation

Key Points

Planning Stage

Differentiation is a complex topic and involves educators thinking about change. There are no easy or automatic answers. Northern Middle School does have support and resources available to implement changes within the classroom.

Remember: Differentiation is an opportunity for special education, gifted/talented and regular education teachers to collaborate in ways that focus their combined skills on improving instruction in the regular classroom.

An appropriately differentiated classroom offers different routes to content, process, and products in response to differing learner needs.

A teacher in a differentiated classroom constructs different avenues to

• Content – what students learn;

• Process – activities through which students process, or make sense of

understandings and skills;

• Products – how students demonstrate and extend what they have

learned.

Sometimes options for learning tasks are based on teacher assessment of student readiness and at other times on student interests.

Teachers often provide students with learning profile choices.

Readiness levels of learners:

It is often not the ideas and skills that will vary with readiness in a differentiated classroom, but rather the degree of difficulty or complexity in the way students interact with the ideas or skills. In other words

v All learners should work with the essential ideas and skills that build toward understanding the subject and proficiency in the subject.

v Some learners need to work with ideas and skills at a concrete level using manipulatives, diagrams,

or other devices that allow them to experience the idea in a clear, specified, guided, and tangible way.

v Other learners are ready to work with the ideas and skills

at a greater level of abstractness, in fuzzier problems, and with minimal guidance.

Differentiation

Key Points

Planning Stage

Type of work to prepare for learners - “respectful tasks”.

v All students should be offered tasks that encourage them to think at high levels of thinking.

v All students should have consistent opportunities to be active learners.

v All students work with a wide variety of peers over time.

v All students should sometimes be teachers.

v All students should be involved with learning that is new to them.

v All students should be consistently pushed a bit beyond their comfort zone.

Flexible grouping of students enables all learners to work in a wide variety of configurations and with the full range of peers, while targeting specific learning needs.

v Students sometimes work with peers of similar readiness so that the teacher can target the complexity of the task to student needs or target task by similar interest and learning profile.

v At other times, students work in mixed readiness or interest groups with tasks that enable alls students to play essential roles in the group's success.

v Sometimes the whole class works as a unit, or students work independently, or students make choices.

Lesson Planning Ideas

Visual Learning Styles

Reading / Math / Science / Social Studies
Use highlight markers to color different parts of a story or poem. / Add, subtract, multiply, and divide using various manipulatives. / Categorize pictures of organisms in to various kingdoms, families, species, etc / Draw maps of the country being studied.
Draw pictures of the different stages of a story. / Use graphs to display data. / Identify Newton’s Laws of Motion demonstrated in a cheerleading performance / Make maps out of clay and show geographical features.
Make a flowchart of the different events in the story. / Draw pictures representing the way you solved a math problem. / Describe transfer of energy in an observed chemical reaction / Match pictures of a geographic region with those depicting its economics, government, culture, and society

Auditory Learning Styles

Reading / Math / Science / Social Studies
Listen to a story and then read the story. / Count the number of beats heard in a songs. / Listen to sounds of things in nature. / Listen to music from different cultures.
After hearing a story read aloud, retell the story. / Learn addition and subtraction through drum beats. / Predict motion of an object by observing its Doppler effect / Include guest speakers from other countries or regions
Listen to the reading of two poems. Compare and contrast the two poems. / Learn mathematical operations through songs and jingles. / Model stresses caused through plate tectonics by bending and cracking sticks. / Listen to performance or recording of famous speeches, discussing their impact on society

Kinesthetic/Tactile Learning Styles

Reading / Math / Science / Social Studies
Play the parts of a story. / Use body parts to measure things. / The class members act as the solar system to create the rotation of planets. / Learn folk dances of a culture being studied.
Learn the alphabet by body movements and physical gestures. / Act out mathematical equations / Conduct hands-on science experiments. / Demonstrate population density
Play charades to learn about parts of a sentence. / Build three dimensional models / Role-play the parts of the life of a cell. / Walk across a map of Europe, discussing differences in culture, geography,

Subject: Teacher: Grade:

Unit Concept/Skill:

Core Content Addressed:

Original Lesson Plan

Differentiated Lesson

Content:
What students will learn and the materials that represent that.
Process:
Activities through which students make sense of key ideas using essential skills
Product:
Students demonstrate and extend what they have learned.

Subject: Teacher: Grade:

Unit Concept/Skill:

Core Content Addressed:

Differentiated Lesson

Teacher Self-Assessment

A Reflection of Lesson Plan______Date(s):______

Check all areas that are addressed in the lesson plan.

Verbal/
Linguistic / Logical/
Mathematical / Spatial / Bodily
Kinesthetic / Musical / Interpersonal / Intrapersonal / Naturalist
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic

A Reflection of Lesson Plan______Date(s):______

Check all areas that are addressed in the lesson plan.

Verbal/
Linguistic / Logical/
Mathematical / Spatial / Bodily
Kinesthetic / Musical / Interpersonal / Intrapersonal / Naturalist
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic

A Reflection of Lesson Plan______Date(s):______

Check all areas that are addressed in the lesson plan.

Verbal/
Linguistic / Logical/
Mathematical / Spatial / Bodily
Kinesthetic / Musical / Interpersonal / Intrapersonal / Naturalist
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic

A Reflection of Lesson Plan______Date(s):______

Check all areas that are addressed in the lesson plan.

Verbal/
Linguistic / Logical/
Mathematical / Spatial / Bodily
Kinesthetic / Musical / Interpersonal / Intrapersonal / Naturalist
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic

Terms associated with Differentiation

Application and Demonstration of Knowledge

The process of transferring learning to real life situations by making connections among familiar and unfamiliar ideas

Complexity of Task

Level of sophistication of task, depth, approach to problem, process for solving problems, dimensions, degree of decision making required level of challenge.

Content

The material that students learn (concepts, skills, principles, etc.)

Environment of Learning

The variety of settings, situations or domains necessary for learning; access and need for specialized resources; physical characteristics of environment.

Level of Support and Independence

Degree of dependence/independence; need for direct or indirect guidance, encouragement.

Motivation

Incentives (extrinsic or intrinsic) that match to the student’s needs, interests, and abilities.

Order of learning

Attention to student’s prior knowledge to determine the appropriate instructional sequence, priority, or progression of learning experiences.

Pace

Rate, velocity, speed, acceleration of learning.

Participation

Degree of interaction for optimum learning.

Procedures and Routines (Input-Output)

The variety of methods used to organize, manipulate and translate content, skills and processes into understandable structures for students.

Process

Activities through which students process, or make sense of understandings and skills;

Product

How students demonstrate and extend what they have learned.

Purpose and Appropriateness of Task

Matching the intent, goal, or reason for the task to the interests, needs, and abilities of the student.

Resources and Materials

The software, equipment, fixtures, gear, supplies, print, non-print,

human resources, and furnishings appropriate for learning.

Size of Task

Quantity, scope, size, proportions of task.

Time

Duration,

Cycle, length or intervals for learning and demonstrating knowledge.