BOY WP DRA2 Letter ID PLAN
PSA QSI EXPLORE EMS
directs ?
by Martha Doennig, SPS Professional Learning SpecialistPuzzled by the meaning of the title? Curious what these acronyms lead to? Explore with me. To date, teachers around Springfield have been collecting data on students using one of the above acronyms and discovering a range of student need. Now that the data is collected, the expectation is to use the information to support instruction to achieve student growth in a variety of curricular areas. This expectation can quite possibly be one of the most overwhelming responsibilities of a teacher. So what strategies can be used to meet the spectrum of needs while effectively moving learning forward for each learner?
?=Differentiated Instruction
"Differentiated instruction is a way of thinking about teaching and learning. It is also a collection of strategies that help you better address and manage the variety of learning needs in your classroom (Heacox, 2002)."
Knowing Differentiated Instruction (DI) is not a new concept to your role in the classroom, please take a moment to refresh your thinking on how you can best implement differentiation using the data that you have collected from a variety of beginning-of-the-year assessments.
To begin with, there are six elements of differentiation that should be considered when developing lessons that will maximize student engagement and growth. These six can be divided into the following:
Teachers can differentiate in three areas:
Content: “what” students are expected to learn
Process: “how” students are expected to learn the content
Product: the end result of the “what is learned” and “how it is learned”
Teachers can differentiate according to students’:
Readiness: the level of preparedness of a student when working with knowledge,
understanding, or skill
Interest: areas of passion for students that can be utilized to push learning beyond
the prescribed curriculum
Learning Profiles: a student’s preferred mode of learning
How you manipulate the elements above is at your discretion based upon the data you have gathered on your students. Ideally, you will move some part of your instructional class time toward smaller group instruction based on a single or combination of the above elements.
Regardless of the arrangement of small groups in your classroom, keep in mind that differentiation should be very flexible. By providing fluid, flexible groups, you are keeping the students’ interests, knowledge, and performance in mind. In Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn't Fit All, Gayle Gregory and Carolyn Chapman share an effective tool to check grouping in the classroom, TAPS. TAPS considers the balance necessary in group configuration to afford students the opportunity to be thinkers in a variety of settings. The acronym TAPS stands for the following:
Regardless of the arrangement of small groups in your classroom, keep in mind that differentiation should be very flexible. By providing fluid, flexible groups, you are keeping the students’ interests, knowledge, and performance in mind. In Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn't Fit All, Gayle Gregory and Carolyn Chapman share an effective tool to check grouping in the classroom, TAPS. TAPS considers the balance necessary in group configuration to afford students the opportunity to be thinkers in a variety of settings. The acronym TAPS stands for the following:
T
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Total Group
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There may be information or new skills that need to be shared or demonstrated to the whole class.
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A
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Alone
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Sometimes students need to practice by working alone. In life, we often work and think independently of others.
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P
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Partners
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Partnering gives students a narrow audience with whom to share ideas, discuss new information, or process learning. These partnerships may be random or teacher-constructed.
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S
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Small Groups
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There are many ways to construct small groups; keeping in mind that any group larger than three or four has the potential for off-task behavior or lack of commitment to the goal.
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When thinking about your classroom, TAPS is a great reminder of the need for balance. By providing learners the opportunity to engage in many group configurations within any given day, you are naturally decreasing the attention drawn to the grouping. This is important so students do not identify themselves or their peers with any particular group. Depending on the activity and the purpose of the activity, you can group students homogeneously, heterogeneously, randomly, or based on student choice. Regardless of the grouping method, keep in mind that your decisions for groups should be intentional and flexible.
I challenge you to take the beginning of year data you have collected on your students and start small. Don’t attempt a sweeping reform in your classroom if this is all new to you. Begin with one subject or one project; differentiate the activities. For those of you already working through a differentiated lens, I challenge you to take your practices to the next level. Think of new content that would benefit from being differentiated. In the end, remember that there is no single method to execute DI; Differentiated Instruction is more of a guiding principal that supports you as you adapt or modify curriculum and instruction for the variety of learners in your classroom. You have the power to meet the needs of all your students as you integrate Differentiated Instruction into your instruction.