This document discusses differentiation in a nontraditional school. It recommends that teachers do whatever it takes to maximize student learning instead of relying on one-size-fits-all instruction. Teachers should also prepare students to advocate for their own learning and handle situations that are not differentiated. The document provides cognitive science structures and tips to help teachers differentiate, such as building background knowledge, priming the brain, exploring similarities and differences, incorporating novelty, meeting survival needs, engaging social interaction, and more. The overall message is that differentiation requires understanding how students learn best.

1. DIFFERENTIATION IN A
NONTRADITIONAL SCHOOL

2. Today’s Classroom
Students are more diverse than ever,
culturally, emotionally, economically,
physically, and intellectually.
The public wants educators to be held
accountable for students’ success, no matter
their circumstances.
Our students must be prepared to compete in
the global economy, which requires an
increasing level of knowledge and skills.
Mental dexterity is the new currency.
We have accumulated a critical mass of new
and compelling research about how the brain
learns.

3. Two Simple Charges of Differentiation
1. Do whatever it takes to
maximize students’ learning
instead of relying on a one-
size-fits-all, whole-class
method of instruction.
2. Prepare students to handle
anything in their current and
future lives that is not
differentiated, i.e.,to become
their own learning advocates.

4. Cognitive Science Structures and Tips That Help us
Differentiate
Read widely about how the adolescent mind
works.Here are some suggestions.
How the Brain Learns, David Sousa
The Primal Teen, Barbara Strauch
Brain Matters, Patricia Wolfe
The Adolescent Brain; Reaching for
Autonomy, robert Sylvester
Different Brains, Different Learners, Eric
Jensen

5. Building Background Knowledge
In order for the brain to
commit information into long-
term memory it must connect
to something already there.
Tap into that prior knowledge
or create it.

6. Priming the Brain and Structuring Information
The initial stages of learning should provide
clear structures that students can grasp and
use to create learning.
When we prime students’ minds we must first
tell or show them what they will get out of the
experience. Then we tell or show students
what they will encounter as they move through
the lesson.

7. Primacy-Recency Effect
We remember best what we
first experience, and we
remember second best what we
experience last.

8. Explore Similarities ad Differences, Examples and
Non examples
Powerful long-term memory
retention happens when we
create frequent and intense
experiences examining the
characteristics of related and
unrelated terms.

9. Hydration
Dehydration causes fatigue
and irritability.
Push students to drink water
not Hawaiian Punch or
caffeinated drinks.
Fluorescent lighting makes us
tired as well. Get an
incandescent lamp, open your
door, raise your blinds.

10. Emotional Content
Cultivate relationships with
students everyday.
Talk less and listen more.
Be specific when you give
praise.
Use students’ names in every
interaction.

11. Find out all you can about
your students, then consider
that information as you teach
them.
Don’t play “gotcha” with
students. Seek and affirm
their successes.
Teach as if you were selling
the subject to your students.

12. Affirm positive risk-taking in
the classroom.
Don’t punish the whole class
because of the actions of a few.
Ask students to coteach with
you.
Give students leadership
positions.

13. Be willing to revise your
thinking about a student in
light of new evidence.
Make sure students experience
real competence in your
classroom.

14. Novelty (Shake it Up)
Ask students to teach the
lesson with you.
Incorporate students and their
culture in your lesson.
Ask students to think
divergently.
Use props in your
presentations.

15. Make random statements in
the middle of your lessons.
Take unusual field trips.
Use simulations, small, large,
frequently.
Incorporate drama.
Add music to the lesson.
Teach backwards.

16. Meeting Survival Needs
Our brains will always choose
to conserve energy and
maintain dignity.
If we want students to learn,
we have to care about their
lives both in and out of school.

17. Memory Ideas
Elements of memories are
stored in different parts of the
brain.
Give students a variety of ways
to engage with the topic.
Make sure to spiral the
curriculum. Revisit
information.
Learning takes diligence.

18. Social Interaction
We must engage our students
in substantive conversations
about their learning.
Whoever is responding to
students in the classroom is
doing most of the learning.
Make classroom
conversational inquiry habitual
and compelling.

19. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes time to create a
differentiated classroom. As teachers we must seek a balance between our
professional and personal lives or else we won’t be affective.