This document discusses methods for differentiating instruction for higher-level learners. It defines differentiation as responding to learners' needs and outlines several key principles, including focusing on essentials, respecting student differences, and modifying content, process and products. The document provides strategies for differentiating content, process and products, and assessing student readiness, interests and learning styles to better target instruction. A variety of specific differentiation strategies are presented, such as tiered activities, learning centers, compacting content, independent projects and mentorships.

1. Differentiation to Higher Level
Learners

2. Targets
• Methods of Differentiation that we can use
and/or currently using.
• Obtain new differentiation methods you can
use for assessment, process, & content

3. What is differentiation?
• Responding to learners’ needs.
- Carol Tomlinson

4. What differentiation is not
• Giving more of the same kind of work to kids who
have shown mastery.
• Giving busy work to kids who have shown
mastery.
• Tediously planning each aspect of every learning
activity for each student at all times.
• Placing students in inflexible groups based on
ability at all times.
• Expecting kids who are “gifted” to always know
everything before it is taught or to excel in every
subject area.

5. Principles of Differentiation
• Focus on the essentials
• Attention to student differences
• Assessment & instruction inseparable
• Modification of content, process, and products
• Respectful work for all students
• Flexible working relationship between teacher &
students
– Carol Ann Tomlinson (1999)

6. 3 Keys in Differentiation
• Content – materials & elements
• Process – students gain understanding of
ideas & information
• Product – ways to demonstrate knowledge

7. Get to Know your Students
• Use Pre-assessment to differentiate
instruction.
• Assessment of:
– Readiness – where are they in relation to a topic
– Interests – curiosity or passion for a topic
– Learning Styles – how students are influenced.

8. Assessing Readiness
• Assessing Individuals:
– Pretest
– Exit Tickets
– Most Difficult First
• Assessing the Group:
– Name cards/sticks
– Individual Response Boards
– 4 corners: students explain why they chose that
corner

9. Pretest
• Use something easy, but effective (Don’t re-invent
the wheel)
• Have a mastery level (90%??)
• Students that achieve mastery level have
alternative activity to complete.

10. Exit Tickets
• One Minute Response
– Most important thing you learned today
– Main unanswered question you leave class with today
– Muddiest point (most confused about)
• A&E Card (Assessment & Evaluation)
– Show 3 different ways to complete this math problem.
– Briefly explain gravity. Give an example of gravity in the
classroom or on the playground.
– Which event is most important in the story? Why?
• 3-2-1 Card
– 3 key ideas ,2 questions, 1 thing I want to read more about
– 3 words I think are most important to this topic, 2 connections I
made, 1 thing I do not like

11. Improving Whole Group Assessment
• Individual Response Boards
• Name Cards/Sticks
• Topic Talk
– Student pairs discuss a given topic, then switch in
the middle when signal is given.

12. Ideas for Assessing Interests
• Interest Inventory – list of various topics kids
might enjoy learning about
• Note Cards / Sticky Notes
• KWL
• Sign-ups – List topics for groups/centers and
let kids sign up based on interest.

13. Determining Learning Profiles
• Learning styles inventories
• Multiple Intelligences questionnaire
• Parent questionnaire
• Observations
• The Internet is a great resource for finding
ready-to-use student learning styles
inventories

14. 3 Key Rules for Differentiation of High
Level Learners
1. Don’t bother anyone else while you’re
working.
2. Don’t call attention to yourself or the fact that
you’re doing something different – it’s no big
deal.
3. Work on activities you’ve chosen or been
assigned.

15. Differentiation Strategies
Whole Group:
• Grouping
• Tiered/Multilevel Activities
• Activity/Extensions Menus
• Learning Centers
Individual Students:
• Compacting
• Independent Projects
• Accelerated Learning (Matrices)
• Mentorships

16. Tiered Activities/Multi-Level
• Open-ended Activities - allow students to
naturally work at various ability levels.
• Tiered Lesson/Activities – have two or more
levels of difficulty/complexity in regard to
content, process, and/or product. A series of
related tasks of varying complexity.

17. Differentiated Tasks
• Pretest student knowledge and skills.
• Group students by results of the Group
students by results of the pretest in groups of
4. Provide streamlined instruction for the top
group.
• Provide task demands for the top Provide task
demands for the top group, using a problem
solving approach.

18. Other tasks for Differentiation
• initially, identify the student's areas of interest / strength
through individual conferences, student surveys, etc.
• incorporate the ideas and suggestions of the student when
making plans; work as a team to plan appropriate activities
• make curriculum connections
• facilitate regular meetings / conference with the student in
order to monitor progress, make modifications to the plans,
encourage and praise
• use the student's input in planning and implementing both
formative and summative assessments; create the
assessment tools along with the student when possible

19. Learning Center
• Task Cards or Center Activity Menus – brief, clear
directions for activities students may do at a
particular center
• Center Logs – Students record what they do at a
center (may be stored in folders in a designated
spot)
• Assignment/Choice Boards – Names of
groups/individuals are placed in pocket chart
labeled with words and/or pictures based on
students’ changing ability and readiness on a day-to-
day or week-to-week basis

20. Compacting Content
• Pre-assess to find out what students already
know and what they still need to learn
• Document to show mastery – Learning Contract
• Teach remaining skills in a whole/small group or
independently.
• Provide replacement activity: – Extension activity
– Learning centers
– Independent project
– Subject acceleration – Mentorship

21. Mentorship
• Ask a community member to volunteer to work one-on-one
with a student to develop a special project on a topic of
interest.
Ex.: A retired veteran might be willing to work with a student
interested in learning more about World War II.
Ex.: A college student in a service club might help a small group of
interested students to organize a school service project.
• Possible mentors: elderly people who are active in the
community, stay-at-home parent with special
talents/interests, college students in service organizations
• Requires very little preparation by the teacher.
• Research-proven to be especially effective for gifted
underachievers and low socioeconomic students

22. Resources
• Great website with many resources:
• http://www.cybraryman.com/assessments.ht
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23. Differentiation
Make it Work
• Start small.... But start somewhere! – Anchor
activities
– Differentiation for small blocks of time
• Grow slowly – but grow!
• – Try creating one differentiated lesson per
unit, differentiate one product per semester,
etc.
• – Give structured choices more often.