This document discusses differentiating instruction by content. It provides examples of ways to differentiate content, such as by assessing students' skills and knowledge to match them with appropriate activities, allowing student choice in topics, and providing basic and advanced resources. It then lists several educational websites teachers can use to find lessons, activities, and other materials to differentiate content according to students' readiness levels, interests, and other variables. Teachers are instructed to choose a lesson to teach and search one of the websites for ways to differentiate the content.

1. DIFFERENTIATION BY
CONTENT

2. Everybody is a genius. But,
if you judge a fish by its
ability to climb a tree, it’ll
spend it’s whole life
believing that it is stupid.
- Einstein

8. WHAT IS DIFFERENTIATING BY
CONTENT?
 Delivery of and access to material
CONTENT
 Learning outcomes
 Learning objectives
 Standards

9. VARIABLES TO CONSIDER
Learning styles
Skill level
Learning rates
Special Education
ELL learners
Background knowledge
Student motivation
Student interests
Student social/emotional development
Multiple intelligences

14. DISCOVERY EDUCATION
o http://app.discoveryeducation.com/explore
o Steps:
o 1) curriculum standards search (under
search bar at the top)
o 2) enter criteria for MN
o 3) Click on the standard you want
o Videos, clips, lesson plans and blackline
masters
o Don’t forget about the teacher center and the
lesson plans available there!

15. BRAINPOP
 http://www.brainpop.com/user/loginDo.weml
 Click on “standards” on the left hand side
 Choose your subject, grade level, etc…

16. TRUEFLIX
http://tfx.grolier.com/

17. IXL MATH
www.ixl.com
• Click on “reports”
• Click on “state standards”
• Standards performance
• Standards performance by student
• Standards trouble spots
• Improvement by strand

18. READ WRITE THINK
http://www.readwritethink.org/about/standards.html
• Click on “classroom resources”
• Click on “lesson plans”
• Enter a phrase from the standard under “search by keyword”
• There is a standards tab for each lesson
• ** check out the “student interactives” section for interactive
graphic organizers, writing organizers and other activities!

19. SMART EXCHANGE
https://exchange.smarttech.com/account/login?continue=http%253A%2
52F%252Fexchange.smarttech.com%252Findex.html

20. THINKFINITIY
http://www.thinkfinity.org/welcome
• Click on “state standards”
• Enter state, grade and subject

21. ELM LIBRARY
http://www.elm4you.org/standards

22. MN LEARNING LOOP
http://learningloop.informns.k12.mn.us/resources
Filter by grade and by content area

23. THINK QUEST
http://www.thinkquest.org/pls/html/think.library
• Browse by age and content
• Variety of websites, lesson plans, interactives, etc

24. HOW DO I DO THAT?
 Teach the same content
 Questions to ask yourself
 What do I want my students to:
 know?
 understand?
 do?
 How do I want them to learn it?
 How will they show what they know?
http://www.slideshare.net/jjmorris/differentiation-basics

25. CONTENT IS DIFFERENTIATED WHEN…
(a) when you preassess students’ skill and
knowledge, then match learners with appropriate
activities according to readiness;
(b) when you give students choices about topics
to explore in greater depth;
(c) when you provide students with basic and
advanced resources that match their current levels of
understanding.
(Diane Heacox)

26. WEBSITES I

27. YOUR TURN TO DIFFERENTIATE BY
CONTENT
• Choose a unit/lesson/concept you need to teach or
reteach
• Choose one of the resources you just learned about
• Search for lesson plans, activities, interactives, etc.
that will help you
• Be ready to share out what you are doing at the end