DEFINING THE ESSENTIALS OF A DIFFERENTIATED CLASSROOM FOR PLANNING OF INSTRUCTION

In just four easy steps!

Tim RobinsonGifted and Talented Education

CREATING A COMMUNITY

WHY DIFFERENTIATE

Novice- Have very little knowledge or experience

Beginning intermediate- some knowledge or experience

Advanced intermediate- a good working knowledge and proficient

Expert- a vast amount of knowledge and expertise

DEBRIEF

Discuss with your Second Base Partner the following:

How did that activity help you to answer the question “Why differentiate?”

Would you find benefit in doing this in your own classroom? If so what benefit?

KEY ELEMENTS OF DIFFERENTIATION

1. Mindset/environment

2. Curriculum (Absolute Clarity about the destination)

3. Assessment (Where are my students at now)

4. Instruction (Adjusting teaching as appropriate)

5. Management (Flexible Classroom Routines)

UNIT/LESSON PLANNING

How many of you are submitting lesson/unit plans to someone in your building?

How will what you learn today influence that planning?

Disclaimer: Please do not change what is required of you when it comes to your lesson plans.

YOU MUST KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING

We have to know where we want all students to end up before we can think intelligently about how we want them to get there!

Differentiation is seldom about different outcomes for different kids. It’s about different ways to get kids where they need to go.

BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY

THE POWER OF ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS21ST CENTURY CURRICULUM MODEL

4 STEPS TO DEFINING THE ESSENTIALS OF CURRICULUM

1. Define the Key Components of Curriculum

FactualJust the facts Mam

• Vocab• Dates

• Must knows

Procedural• The “know how”

• Skills• Processes

• tools

Conceptual1. Concrete (5 senses)

2. Abstract

We must search for the Abstract concepts within our curriculum!

4 STEPS TO DEFINING THE ESSENTIALS OF CURRICULUM

2. Form Objectives for What Students Will Know, Be Able to Do, and Understand

LOOK FOR THE CONCEPTUAL LEARNING

4 STEPS TO DEFINING THE ESSENTIALS OF CURRICULUM

3. Create Essential Questions for the unit

• What are the concepts embedded in the curriculum?

• These form the journey through the curriculum

• These should cause students to generate more questions than answers

• They should engage students in higher levels of thinking and conversation, decision making, and problem solving

• Answering an essential question is a process, not an end product!

• They should be open-ended and written in ways that challenge and intrigue the students in discourse

• They should spark curiosity, provoke wonder, and use the skills of inference and interpretation.

LET’S TRY IT

Either pick a random abstract concept from the list found on page 16 to start with.

ORIdentify a standard or group of standards within your grade level and look for the concepts found within.

1. Find your First Base Partner for this exercise

SOME EXAMPLES USING SOCIAL STUDIES

When is it ok to cause others misfortune for the benefit of our nation? (Western Expansion, etc)

Can we learn from our past?

Are there always two sides to an issue?

Can old wounds really be healed?

When is the use of power justifiable?

Why are ethics overlooked by nations?

How long does memory last?

When is a democracy no longer a democracy?

When does the power of a nation outweigh the needs of a few?

What is worth fighting for?

How should governments balance the rights of individuals with the common good?

Why do people move?

READING ACTIVITY

Read the provided text from Essential Questions. Then discuss any Ah-hahs you may have had while reading it with your 1st base partner. Be ready to share with the group as I may call on you.

4 STEPS TO DEFINING THE ESSENTIALS OF CURRICULUM

4. Create unit questions that break down the essential question

• These are designed to guide the learning to help students better understand the content.

• The point of these is to help the students gain insights to the Essential Question.

• These are meant to be the framework of the learning experiences you have purposefully chosen.

• These are specific and use the vocabulary of the discipline.

Do your planning forms identify the KUDo’s?

THE DIFFERENTIATOR http://byrdseed.com/differentiator/

SO THE BIG QUESTIONIs what I’m having students do in class helping them gain better understandings around the essential question(s)? Are the learning experiences helping them formulate their own answers?

Teachers ask questions for different reasons in the U.S. and in Japan. In the U.S., the purpose of a question is to get an answer. In Japan, teachers pose questions to stimulate thought. A Japanese teacher considers a questions a poor one if it elicits an immediate answer, for this indicates that students were not challenged to think.

WHAT POWER IS THERE IN A QUESTION?

Question Stems Packet

KQED article – Teaching students to ask their own questions http://rightquestion.org/education/

John Gast, American Progress, 1872

New Orleans, After Katrina 2005

Schoolgirls walk by as British soldiers aim at a sniper after British troops came under fire in Basra. The incident came as British troops on foot patrol in the center of the city were forced to take cover after a number of shots were fired near them. It was not clear if the British soldiers were the target. Although pockets of resistance remain, schools reopened Saturday for the first time since the start of the war on March 20 (Saturday, April 19, 2003)  Source: Tim Sloan (AP)

HOW CAN THIS BE USED IN OUR CLASSROOMS?

In helping us formulate better questions

With Students!

• Active learners are always questioning!

• As an Entry Event to a unit or lesson

• With a piece of complex text to allow students to dive deeper

• To generate questions for questions sake. It’s ok to not answer questions.

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