This document provides an overview of a staff development session on differentiation. It includes examples of how to vary materials, process, and assessment to differentiate instruction for students. Ideas like the snowball activity and structured vs. unstructured chemistry questions are presented. Blooms taxonomy is displayed to help construct questions at different levels. Teachers then worked in departments to come up with their own differentiation strategies, such as creating past exam questions at varying difficulty levels. They shared these ideas through feedback to the full group. Resources from the session were made available electronically.

1. 1. Philip Banseylla
2. Jimmy Campbell
3. Ruth Cooper
4. Steve Dobson
5. Anna Finn
6. Margery Gretton
7. Claire Hills
8. Hannah Johnston
9. Danny Kuperberg
10.Maeveen Maenpaa
11.Nigel Martin
12.Wendy Oswin
13.Jal Patel
14.Christine Phillips
15.Lucy Ridgway
16.Niki Savva
17.Mary Sell
18.Cressida Tweed
19.Pete Weitz
20.Chris Wickham

2. Differentiation
Helen & Vasy
Vasy

3. Differentiation
Today we will think about differentiation..
9.00 – 9.20: Some examples of differentiation
activities shared by the AST‟s
9.20 – 11.20: Time in departments
11.20 – 12.00: Feedback in this room
• We will ask you in departments to come up with :
(1) an example of how you could use one of the ideas
(2) more differentiation ideas of your own to share
03/06/2013Helen

4. What is Differentiation?
• Simply stated, differentiation is modified
instruction
• that helps students with diverse academic
needs
• and learning styles master the same
challenging academic content.
03/06/2013Helen
What is
Differentiation?

5. How Can We Differentiate?
03/06/2013Helen
Vary Materials
Vary Process
Vary Assessment

6. Vary Materials
• Changing the materials used in the classroom
can be an effective way to differentiate
• For example.........
• Snowball activity
• Change the materials each student is given
03/06/2013Vasy

7. Snowball Activity
PLANNING THE ACTIVITY
• Create 3 differentiated „sources‟ of
information
• Eg: with diagrams, simple text, complex
text
• Each source has different information (so
they must work as a group to get an
overview of the topic)
• Using different levels of thinking...

8. Snowball Activity
STUDENT ACTIVITY
• Working in groups of 3
• As Individuals: Students read their source
material and highlight relevant points
• As a Group: They feedback information to
each other to create an overview
• Group constructs a concept map
• As a class: compare and feedback on each
others concept maps

10. Concept Maps…
How do I?

11. Secondary School
Students
Exams
Homework
Teachers
Staff Room
Cool
A Concept Map about Secondary School
Arrange
the
keywords

12. Secondary School
Students
Exams
Homework
Teachers
Staff Room
Cool
A Concept Map about Secondary School
Join up
with
arrows

13. Secondary School
Students
Exams
Homework
Teachers
Staff Room
has angelic
always do their
love
has fantabulous
plot secretly in
has a
Cool
are
A Concept Map about Secondary School
Add 1 or
2 words
You can pick your
own keywords &
Use FLOW
DIAGRAMS
ETC
BE
Imaginative...
Colourful....
Representative...
.....unique

14. QUESTIONS YOU ALL MUST ANSWER:
1. List the 3 components of a nucleotide
2. Describe how these 3 components of a nucleotide
are added together (ie what type of reaction is
used)
3. Draw the structre of a nucleotide
4. Write out the name for all 4 DNA bases (ie not
just the 4 letters!)
5. Explain which of the 4 DNA bases pair together
Extension knowledge:
1. Explain how each of these DNA base pairs are
held together in a DNA molecule
Instructions:

15. Vary Process
• Changing the instructions of activities will
allow all students to learn the same concepts
and skills
• But with varied levels of “support, challenge,
or complexity”
• For example.........
03/06/2013Helen

16. In Chemistry
• We can set a problem:
• In aqueous ammonia, cobalt(II) ions are oxidised to cobalt(III)
ions by hydrogen peroxide. The H2O2 is reduced to hydroxide
ions. Calculate the minimum volume of 5.00 mol dm–3 H2O2
solution required to oxidise the Co2+ ions in 9.87 g of
CoSO4.7H2O
• And leave it totally unstructured

17. Or make it partially structured
Q1. In aqueous ammonia, cobalt(II) ions are oxidised to
cobalt(III) ions by hydrogen peroxide. Write and
equation to show this
..........................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................
Q2. The H2O2 is reduced to hydroxide ions. Calculate the
minimum volume of 5.00 mol dm–3 H2O2 solution required
to oxidise the Co2+ ions in 9.87 g of CoSO4.7H2O
..........................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................

18. Or make it totally structured
Q1.In aqueous ammonia, cobalt(II) ions are oxidised to cobalt(III) ions by hydrogen
peroxide. Write an equation to illustrate this.
..............................................................................................
........................................................................................
Q2. The H2O2 is reduced to hydroxide ions. Calculate the minimum volume of 5.00 mol dm–3
H2O2 solution required to oxidise the Co2+ ions in 9.87 g of CoSO4.7H2O using the
following steps to help you.
..............................................................................................
...........................................................................................
Calculate the number of mole of CoSO4.7H2O in 9.87g
...........................................................................................
...........................................................................................
Using the ratio in your equation calculate the of mole of H2O2 solution required to
oxidise the Co2+
...........................................................................................
...........................................................................................
Using the formula Mole=Concentration x Volume calculate the volume of H2O2 solution
required
...........................................................................................
...........................................................................................

19. Extension
• When students have finished they have the option of
changing the level of structure in the question they
attempt
• By either:
(1) attempting a similar level of question
(2) attempting a more difficult question

20. Vary Assessment
• Vary methods of assessment, giving
students options when it comes to
demonstrating their understanding of
the topic
• This allows for another form of
differentiation for example...............

21. Vary Assessment
• Display Blooms Taxonomy on IWB
• Challenge students to identify the
different ways of constructing
questions, to reflect the different
levels of thinking
• Ask them to write an exam question
that covers each of the levels of
thinking & markscheme
• Asking the class to try these questions
& feeding back

22. Different Order Questions
Knowledge
List, define, tell, recall, identify, label, collect, tabulate, quote, name,
who, when, where
Comprehension
Summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, associate, distinguish,
estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend
Application
Apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, predict, show, solve,
examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover, use
Analysis
Analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide,
compare, select, explain, infer, break down, differentiate
Synthesis
Combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design,
invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite
Evaluation
Assess, evaluate, appraise, justify, defend, decide, rank, grade, test,
measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, discriminate, support,
conclude, compare, summarize

23. The Stuck Menu
Students choose 3 strategies from „The Stuck Menu‟
before putting up their hand to ask for help...
1. Leave a question that you find difficult until
later, try an easier question first
2. Look back through your notes and previous
examples
3. Use a text book/smart-phone
4. Ask someone else in your group
5. Use a dictionary to look up a word
Helen

24. The Lazy Teacher’s Handbook
Unlocking potential with language (Jim Smith’s The Lazy
Teacher’s Handbook: developing an independent learning
structure)
‘What have you forgotten to do?’
‘If you were not stuck, what would you do?’
‘Try something different...’
‘If I gave you a million pounds to be unstuck, what would
you do?’
‘What could you do to help yourself?’
Helen

25. Focus
9.20 – 11.20: Time in departments
1. Think of a way in which your department
could use at least one of the techniques we
have just shown you
2. Also discuss other differentiation activities so
that you have a new idea to feed back to use
at 11.20
3. Share your new questioning idea on the blog
11.20 – 12.00: Feedback in this room
Vasy

26. Time to
feedback

27. Where can I get the information
from today?
• Shared area – Folder called „AST‟.
• This folder has all the slides used for
today, including the other groups slides.

28. Helen

29. Differentiation
• Show students blooms question
• Construct a past paper question
• Using different levels of thinking
• Write a markscheme
• Swap and try each others questions
• Swap and mark
• Feedback to class, show example questions
and answers