Resource Highlight!

Every now and then, I am going to highlight a product that I think is essential for differentiation in the classroom. Here is the first! Please let me know what you use in your classroom!

Successful Teaching in the Differentiated Classroom is a great resource by Carolyn Coil. Every teacher should own this book! Its a comprehensive guide, to do just that, GUIDE you through implementing and perfecting differentiation in your classroom.
 

Successful Teaching in the Differentiated Classroom

From the website description:

Coil presents the most comprehensive, practical resource you will need to successfully implement the concept of differentiation in your classroom. Following a brief overview of the components and a teacher self - assessment awareness checklist, are chapters with reproducibles, forms, and practical examples for administrators, teachers, students, and parents:

• Flexible Grouping
• Curriculum Compacting
• Independent/Individualized Work - learning centers, resident experts, contracting, anchoring activities
• Learning Profiles
• Product Differentiation
• Strategies: ILP™, Tic-Tac-Toe, Tiering, Encounter Lessons, Technology, Mentors, Mini-classes, Literature circles, Questivities™
• Differentiated Assessment - rubrics, criteria cards, tiering
• Special Groups
• Special Needs
• District and Schoolwide Planning

Use this resource in the school and college classroom, with professional learning communities, as a study group resource, and in staff development workshops. The CD includes customizable WORD files of forms and handouts for teacher and student. Written by Carolyn Coil.

You can purchase the book at www.piecesoflearning.com.

Two Essential Questions in Differentiation:

What is "fair?"

Does fair always mean "the same?"

“Good afternoon," the receptionist greets you. “We’re preparing for your root canal.” “Oh no,” you quickly reply. “I’m just here to have my teeth cleaned!” “Well, I’m sorry but today is our root canal day. Everyone who comes in the office today gets a root canal. That’s only fair!”

It seems many people have the impression that ‘fair’ most assuredly means ‘the same.’ When needs are different, however, fairness has quite a different interpretation.

The idea of fairness is embedded deeply in our culture. Most people interpret being fair as doing the same thing in the same way for everyone. However, in a differentiated classroom being fair doesn’t always mean "the same." Fairness in school does not mean giving everyone the same assignment to complete within the same time period. Instead, it means looking at each student's needs and learning goals, and planning ways to meet those goals in a way that is most appropriate for that student.

You, your students, their parents, and the administrators at your school must all believe in this concept of fairness in order for differentiation to be successful. Because our students and their various learning needs are so different, the necessity for differentiation is obvious. All teachers would like to accommodate each child and meet the diverse needs they have. On a practical level, teachers look for workable strategies that can help them differentiate instruction in a variety of classroom settings.

There is no one magic strategy that works for every teacher in every school with every child. Successful Teaching in the Differentiated Classroom, by Carolyn Coil, focuses on specific practical strategies that you can use to differentiate the curriculum, instruction, and assessments in your classroom. Take a look at the book, decide which strategies and techniques will work best in your classroom with your students. 

Four Important Concepts of Differentiation

There are four important concepts that help shape a differentiated classroom. Consider all four as you think about differentiation in your classroom or school. They are:

• Flexibility

The hallmark of a differentiated classroom is flexibility. Teachers skilled in differentiation must be flexible in their planning, flexible in how they structure groups, flexible in how they teach to various learning styles and modalities, and flexible in how fast or slow they proceed according to the individual learner. While flexibility is essential, it is also difficult because school systems prescribe the number of hours of instruction and the number of days in the school year or grading period. Some even stipulate the unit or pages of a textbook that must be covered within a given week.

Whatever the outside constraints, it is important to keep a flexible mind set. Try teaching in new ways. Give students multiple opportunities for learning. Be continuously creative in your teaching. This is all a part of flexibility.

• Planning

All good teaching requires planning. This is certainly true in a differentiated classroom where you must look beyond the grade-level standards and curriculum and focus on the learning needs of each student. Without careful planning, learning time can be wasted or the classroom can quickly degenerate into chaos.

On the other hand, no teacher has unlimited planning time. Most teachers are stretched with all the obligations and duties that are part of teaching in today’s schools.

• Resources

A differentiated curriculum requires many different resources. This may be quite a change if you have been using one text book, with every child on the same page. Most schools already have many resources that are appropriate for differentiated classrooms. Rediscover the books, workbooks, manipulatives, computer software, and reference materials in your classroom, book room, or file cabinets. Ask your self how you can use these materials to meet the needs of individuals or small groups of students.

Know what resources your school has. Often teachers have access to plenty of resources but need to spend time locating and organizing them and then choosing the ones that are appropriate to use. This is time well-spent and in the long run will save you planning time. Ask your school media specialist to help you find the resources you need for a differentiated unit or lesson. He or she is often your best human resource in locating other resources.

An excellent web site for locating many resources useful in differentiating curriculum and instruction is www.differentiatedresources.com. Log on to find resources in various categories, grade levels, and subject areas.

• Choices

Learning activities in a differentiated classroom often involve student choices. These choices include products and performances based on learning styles, learning modalities, Bloom’s Taxonomy, or multiple intelligences. This does NOT mean giving students unstructured or unlimited choices. It DOES mean having a set of standards-based activities from which they can choose, at least some of the time.

A word of caution – some students think that having choices means they can do nothing if they so choose. Learning time is simply too valuable. The one choice you never have is the choice to do nothing!