Differentiated Instruction:

Getting in Synch with Our Students

Presenter: Bill Richwilliam_rich@ymail.com

Charlotte Central School February 1, 2011

Working with Bill“The main problem with educational systems and corresponding innovation and policy making is that they are intrinsically, endemically, inevitably overloaded and fragmented. Therefore, the main solutions have to be ones that contribute to coherence making and connectedness.”

-Michael Fullan

Forecast Exit Card/Google Survey

1. What are 2-3 of the most meaningful ideas and/or tactics raised during today’s session with Bill?2. Describe one or two simple ways that you can use what we considered today to help get in better synch with your students. 3.Do you have any suggestions/observations/requests for Bill?

Individual Retrieval Task

For the next 5 minutes, write down/organize (as best as you can) what you recall from Bill’s August 30 presentation.

Partner Retrieval Task

Team Task1. Listen to these two stories.

2. Identify the key concepts that educators could transfer from these stories to their classroom.

3. Prioritize the list.

4. Prepare to share your list with all of us.

5. Have some fun.

Partner Retrieval Task

With as much detail as you can recall, describe the two stories that Bill read to us.

Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code

Story #1Clarissa & Her Clarinet: The Thirteen-Year-Old

Girl Who Did a Month’s

Practice in 6 Minutes

Story #2Clifford’s Quest: Discovering the Secret to Brazil’s Soccer Success

Partner Retrieval Task

After reading the stories, Bill identified four key concepts from the stories, concepts that we could apply in our settings to increase the velocity of our students’ learning. What are the four key concepts?

Four Key Concepts1. Mental Models (Absorb the whole thing.)

2. Targeted Practice (Compress the field.)

3. Rapid Feedback (Tighten the loop.)

4. Emotional Trigger (Find the feeling.)

Partner Retrieval Task

Bill talked with us about the book How People Learn, a groundbreaking meta-analysis of the scientific findings from cognitive science and education research. Bill shared the three key findings from this text.

With as much specificity as you can, recall these three key findings.

Fish is FishLeo Lionni

Three Key Findings fromHow People Learn

1. Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside of the classroom.

Fish is FishLeo Lionni

Three Key Findings fromHow People Learn

2. To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.

Three Key Findings fromHow People Learn

3. A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.

This Hand Gesture Means?

Wiki Remindercharlottelearning.pbworks.com

New Learning

4-Way Thinking

Radio Lab

How does this connect to what we know about

how people learn?

Three Key Findings fromHow People Learn

3. A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.

Four Key Concepts1. Mental Models (Absorb the whole thing.)

2. Targeted Practice (Compress the field.)

3. Rapid Feedback (Tighten the loop.)

4. Emotional Trigger (Find the feeling.)

Dr. Robert DukeOur least favorite questions that students ask?

What kind of questions would we like to hear?

What matters most?

Learning Habits

Cultivating a Growth Mindset in Our Students

Mindsetby Carol Dweck

Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset

-Believes that intelligence is fixed;-Desires to look good so avoids mistakes;-Resists complex challenges.

-Believes that intelligence is malleable;-Desires to learn, and understands that learning requires mistake making;-Embraces complex challenges.

Learning is like...walking up a snowy hill,

slipping and struggling as you go. go.

To grow more neurons (to get

smarter) we must practice:

Persisting!

The brain is like...

Dweck’s Math Experiment

Exit Card/Google Survey

1. What are 2-3 of the most meaningful ideas and/or tactics raised during today’s session with Bill?2. Describe one or two simple ways that you can use what we considered today to help get in better synch with your students. 3.Do you have any suggestions/observations/requests for Bill?