Lesson 3- Differentiated Activity
RATIONALE for using Differentiated Activities: Students all come to us with different levels of knowledge and skill. They all learn at different speeds using different learning styles. So, it follows that we should offer learning activities that take those differences into account.
This will be the biggest piece of this course. The first 2 lessons were somewhat easy or a matter of tweaking something you already do. This one, however will take more exploration and will require more work in creating a differentiated activity. There are several strategies and models for you to use as a guide, but you will need to make this fit your unit and style. Because of the subject specific nature of these activities, no examples are provided to edit. You will likely get good ideas from the links provided and may find ones to tweak, depending on your subject area. Browse the strategies listed in the table below and select the one you would like to use.
When deciding to take on the task of differentiating your instruction, it is important that you take on small bits at a time. To differentiate one unit with one activity is a great accomplishment. My goal along the way was to add one thing to each unit each year. After several years I had some well differentiated units - but remember it doesn't happen over night. This course will get one of your units well differentiated, and will give you the skills and ideas to continue with other units, as you can.
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Keep in mind that the typical student uses their learning time as seen in this pyramid with most on the lower levels and less on the higher. Gifted students should spend their learning time in an inverted pyramid with Evaluation, Synthesis, and Analysis at the base and less learning time spent on Knowledge, Understanding and Application. Image from http://www.officeport.com/edu/blooms.htm |
Differentiated Strategy Templates
STRATEGY |
DESCRIPTION |
LINKS |
| Cubing | Literally using paper cubes (laminated so you can write on them), that students roll (like dice) to direct them in a learning activity. Often used with the 6 levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation) on the 6 sides of the cube. This can be used in a variety of ways (see the links on the right for ideas) to allow students to work on a meaningful assignment written for their level. Teachers can either use different colored cubes, one set with high Bloom's verbs and one set with low, or use identical cubes with different questions for different levels on the worksheet. | What is Cubing? (with a few examples and a cube template) 3rd Grade Example from a Cotton Unit *Cubing pdf
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| Tiered Assignment | Developing a multi-level assignment (or assignments). Students complete different questions or components depending on their readiness or skill level. You can tier based on: Higher skills vs. Lower skills, More extras vs. Fewer extras, Less scaffolding vs. More scaffolding, or Higher Order Thinking vs. Knowledge & Comprehension. |
Fantastic Site about Tiered Instruction - Check out the Examples Tab Math Ratios - Tiered Assignment |
| SCAMPER | An Acronym to help you plan activities that will range in skill level, depth and complexity for varied learner styles. | http://library.thinkquest.org/J002783/scamper.htm |
| Independent Contracts | This involves developing a project or assignment list for students to complete independently while the rest of the class receiving instruction. Students working on independent projects will have tested out (using a pre-test from Lesson 1) of the unit. Project development is addressed in Lesson 5 - Differentiating Process and Lesson 6 - Differentiating Product. This strategy relies on the teacher giving up a great deal of control to allow students to work alone and TRUST they will still pass the SOLs. It also requires a lot of work on the front end, setting up the contract, but little on the follow-up end. | |
| Jigsaw |
This is commonly used in group explorations. Each person in the group is assigned a DIFFERENT task (to read a certain passage or complete a certain assignment). Students then work on their part alone or with the others in the class working on the same component. They then get back together with each team member being the expert of a certain area, teaching and sharing their expertise with the others. This strategy relies on flexible grouping. |
Lesson 3 Handouts Index - A list of files downloadable from the staffdev server (click here to see how).
pdf |
| Airbags Teacher |
| curriculum_compactor |
| dicube |
| strat_cubing |
| tiered_assignment_planner |
Click here to Go to Assignment 3.
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