Chapter 15

Differentiate instruction and assessment for middle and high school students

By MYRIAM BELFORTMARLEY PALMER

LAKISHA WILLIAMSCELIA MARTINEZ

INTRODUCTION

Differentiate instruction refers to different methods strategies combine to

develop students critical thinking.

Components of differentiated instruction

Curriculum enhancement which involves no changes to students

curriculum but instructional strategies that promote learning. For example

vocabulary words , and graphics organizers.

Curriculum modification targeted students individual needs which

includes accommodation and adaption and learning contract.

Accommodation , adaptions, learning contract

Accommodation Modify how the material is presented to the students.

Adaptions refer to students who have difficulties in writing may be assigned in

writing activities.Learning contract help teacher and

student to negotiate on a project to determine mastery

Differentiate instructing using flexibility grouping.

Is a differentiated instruction implement in you classroom with a flexible group

which often change according to students goals and lessons. But in the

middle school and high school it is identified as “tracked” which students

are place by achievement level.

Grouping

Grouping pasterns are determined by two variables

Homogeneous students with the same achievement levels

Heterogeneous students with a wide range of achievement levels.

Cooperative learning group students work together to achieve the same

goal.

Assignments and homework

Assignment should be clear and comprehensible

Students needs to know why the assignments is important , when is due,

what support they need and the steps for getting the job done. Complete info

help motivate students.

How can I plan for differentiated instruction?

Planning should be base on individual needs.

Be consistent, do a planning pyramid, have a universal design learning,

mapping curriculum and most of all have a routine

WHAT AND HOW MUCH DO YOU EXPECT, ALL, MORE, OR SOME OF YOUR STUDENTS TO LEARN?

Planning PyramidCan be used as a framework for planning

Not only for students with learning or behavior problems but for gifted and talented students

The bottom of the pyramid-topics that all groups would research & which all students would be tested

The middle & top of the pyramid-student-selected material

Additional notesPlanning needs to include accommodations to help

students with disabilities learn contentAside from state-adopted textbooks

Choose fundamental ideas you want students to learnDivide the class into mixed-ability cooperative

learning groupsProvide the students a checklist of your expectations

Include differentiated assessment

Accommodating gifted & talented students

Students who are gifted or talented and other high-achieving students already know the

material being covered in the general curriculum.

As a teacher, you’ll need to recognize the characteristics of students with extraordinary gifts and talents so that you can help identify

students for special services and provide appropriate instruction for gifted students.

Investigate local policies and understand your role in identifying students with special gifts and talents and designing instruction that

meets their needs.

Underidentified High-Achieving StudentsCharacteristics:

Advanced vocabulary for chronological ageOutstanding memory

Asks endless questionsIs comfortable with abstract thinking

Has many interests, hobbies, and collectionsMay have a passionate interest for many years

IntenseStrongly motivated to do things of interest

Prefers complex and challenging tasks to “basic” workCatches on quickly

Comes up with “better ways” for doing thingsAware of global issues

Sophisticated sense of humor

Underidentified High-Achieving Students cont’d

High achieving students who are not identified for special programs because they do not meet state or

school district criteria to qualify.It’s the teacher’s responsibility to provide these

children support, encouragement, and stimulating they need to feel productive and successful.

Become familiar with policies and procedures for identifying and instructing students who are gifted

and talented.Learn what resources are available and policies

related to acceleration and enrichment.Two commonly recommended approaches for gen. ed. Classrooms are curriculum compacting and the

Parallel Curriculum Model.

VocabularyAcceleration: the procedure of moving students

quickly through the grades or through the curriculum

Enrichment: Alternative to acceleration. Adding breadth and depth to the traditional curriculum. Curriculum compacting: Provides students with

the opportunity to demonstrate what they already know about a subject by eliminating

repetitive or review content and replacing it with advanced learning experiences.

Parallel Curriculum Model (PCM): A framework for differentiated instruction that takes into

consideration four curriculum design components. (Core curriculum-Curriculum of

Connections-Curriculum of Practice-Curriculum of Identity)

How can DI Accommodate Multiple Intelligences?

Howard Gardner proposes the theory of multiple intelligences. He suggests that human beings are capable of exhibiting

intelligence in 7 domains:Linguistic

Logical-MathematicalSpatialMusical

Bodily-kinestheticInterpersonalIntrapersonal

Later, Gardner identified an 8th intelligence-the naturalistic and 9th

intelligence-the existential.

How can DI Accommodate Multiple Intelligences? Cont’d

Traditional intelligence test taps only linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence.

Gardner advocates a revamping of assessment procedures to evaluate ALL 8

AREAS in ways that are sensitive to culture, age, gender, and social class.

The main tenet of Gardener’s theory to remember when planning educational

programs is the responsibility to help all students realize and enhance their potential and strengths by showing children joy and interest in learning while helping them with

the mastery of skills & curriculum.Teachers need to design rich learning

experiences that nurture each student’s combination of intelligences’.

How does DI relate to RTI?Students at secondary levels are more likely to be placed in departmentalized

settings.Scheduling problems can inhibit time for

Tier 2 and Tier 3 instruction.The pacing of instruction is much more

rapid with little time for review or reteaching.

Much is to be learned from research & practice about how best to provide tiered

instruction for middle & high school students.

The steps that you take to address individual needs through implementation

of evidence-based strategies can form the foundation for RTI.

Preparing Engaging Lessons for Middle and High School Students

Find new ways to students participation

Prelearning Activities

Prelearning activities are strategies used by teachers in order to bring on

students prior knowledge .Prelearning activities set the stage for

learning and helps build common vocabulary.

Prelearning activities saves lots of reteaching time.

Purpose Setting Activities

Provides students with a reason for completing reading assignments.

Provides students reason to actively listen to a lecture.

Helps to guide reading and listening process.Helps students improve their comprehension.Works well for all learners, but is particularly

used for student with motivational and attention problems.

Preteaching Vocabulary

Use a variety of methods to preteach vocabulary.

Should identify the key concepts that are most helpful for students to learn from the lesson.

There are seven principles of excellent vocabulary instructions:

.1Should develop awareness of stages of word knowledge.

.2Should build experiential background for students.

Preteaching Vocabulary cont..

3 .You should relate word learning to the

students background.4 .Have depth of meaning through multiple

sources and repeated exposure.5 .Always foster excitement and appreciation to

word learning.6 .Teach independent building of word learning7 .Always teach words in context

Keep these principles in mind.

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers is describe as a diagram that uses content vocabulary to help students

anticipate concepts and their relationships to one another in the reading material.

Can be used to provide visual representation of key ideas to students with reading comprehension

difficulties and learning disabilities.Is used to arrange key technical term that are

important to the concepts which need to be learned.

Assist in learning materials typically used in classroom instuctions.

Sematic Maps

Commonly used in prelearning activities.Is used as a visual aid which will help

students see how ideas are related to one another and what they already know.

Student can use maps as a listening or reading guide.

Can be used as the framework for postlistening and postreading discussions and as an aid for studying for quizzes and

test.

Concept Diagrams

Concept diagram is similar to a semantic map.

Helps students to determine definitions, characteristics, examples, and non-

examples of a concept.It is time consuming, always choose

those that important to the curriculum and the students need to understand.

Timelines

Timelines are used to provide students with a way to visualize.

Sequence content-area information as they read, listen, and discuss.

Math, science, reading, and art can be used as a study skill tool.

They can also be illustrated or included by using photographs as well.

Create Listener-Friendly Lectures

Facilitate listening and learning by creating a listener- friendly lectures. Listener-friendly

lectures are creates to do just so.Lectures should be well designed in order to

benefit students with learning disabilities.Also to benefit English language learners, and

listeners with relatively limited language skills.Lectures should enhance students

understanding.

Instructional Clarity

Instructional clarity is one key to enhancing students understanding.

Clear, direct, and explicit presentation of information.Five components of instructional clarity:(1Understanding- connecting new information with what

students already know.(2Structuring- providing a clear format for the presentation,

that students will be able to follow.(3Sequencing- Arranging a presentation in a logical order.(4Explaining- defining key terms and providing examples as

necessary.(5Presenting-delivering materials in an articulate and lively

manner with correct pacing, and using visual aids and multimedia as necessary.

Pause Procedure

Is another way of making lectures more friendly.

Is a technique that helps students learn more from lectures.

During lectures teacher pauses to allow students to compare their notes.

Make certain they have recorded key concepts of the lecture.

Teacher ask if students have any questions, and then return to the lecture.

Giving Demonstrations

Demonstrations can be used to show students how to perform a skill.

Demonstrations can be used to show students how to complete, and solve a

problem.Can be used in small group setting,

individual students, or the entire class.

Giving Demonstrations cont..

Demonstration Plus Model Strategy is used to demonstrate to students who have

learning problems.When using this strategy you should add

these two steps.(1After the students have viewed the

demonstration, choose a student to perform and verbally complete each step.

(2Have students complete additional practice exercise independently, by using the steps.

Giving Demonstrations cont..

Thinking aloud is a metacognitive strategy used to model how to think

and learn.Are most frequently used to model

reading processes.Can be used to model thinking during a

demonstration.

Five Powerful Uses of Think Alouds

(1Making predictions or showing students how to develop hypotheses

(2Describing your visual images(3Sharing and analogy or showing how

prior knowledge applies)4 Verbalizing confusing points or

showing how you monitor developing understanding

(5Demonstrating fix-up strategies

Facilitating Student Participation

Student engagement can be fostered by the use of cooperative learning

groups and involvement in hands-on learning activities.

Questioning is important for helping the teacher monitor the students

understanding of the content.Questioning helps the teacher

understand how students are processing what they learned.

Questioning

Effective questioning strategies include the following:

Distribute questions evenly among all students

Make certain that questions are clearly stated

Ask a variety of question typesAsk all kinds of students all kinds of

questionsGive students specific feedback about

their answersLet students explain why their answer is

rightEtc..……

Discussion

Classroom discussion can be stimulating for students and for

teachers as well.Can be also be challenging for teachers.Vibrant discussions students

participation are high, stimulated, and students have opportunities to connect what they are learning to their personal

knowledge and experience.Vibrant discussions help students learn

how to express ideas, justify positions, listen to ideas of others, and ask for

clarification when they don’t understand.

Discussion cont.

Discussion web is a graphic aid to help students prepare for classroom

discussions in the content area classes.

Effective Content-Area Reading Instruction for Middle and High School Learners

Familiarizing Yourself with the TextbookReadability Level: expressed as a grade

level.Friendliness Level: also known as

considerate text it is written and formatted in such a way that

information can be extracted easily and support is available when the reader

does not understand.Friendliness text has organization,

explication, conceptual density, metadiscourse, and instructional

devices.

Understanding how students interact with & respond to

text FLIP chart strategyFriendliness – Language – Interest – Prior

knowledgeMaking textbook adaptations

Research indicates that most content-area teachers seldom implement many adaptations

Adapting textbooks takes timeTextbook adaptations often slow down instructionIt’s not fair to the high-achieving students

Text highlighting

Underlining or highlighting key points in the textbook can help students attend

to the most salient information.Information you think is most importantIntermediate stepUse cooperative learning groupsStudents can work collaboratively to

develop text coding or “text graffiti” systems using colored pens & sticky

notes

Multiliteracies

Living in a digital age requires students to learn skills for dealing with multiple

sources of informationTrade books (both fiction & non-fiction)

– magazines – journals - autobiographies – internet - Select books that are engaging – grab

interest – share enthusiasm

Listening to learn

CD-ROM & downloable versions of recorded books to assist students who are blind, have low vision, or learning

disabilities.SLICKSet up the CD-ROM playback machineLook ahead to identify headings,

subheadings & key wordsComprehend the recorded textKeep notes for further review for tests

DIFFERENTIATING ASSESSMENT

Learners have different assessment needs; some children with challenges in

learning basic skills may need more intensive monitoring than others.

Accommodations and adaptations are needed to meet individual needs.

4 ways assessment & instruction can be linked

Pre-assessment: what a student knows and needs to learn

Ongoing assessment: monitor student learning and see if

adjustments are needed.Have students demonstrate what

they have learned.Students set instructional goals

and self-assessment

Preparing Students for High-Stakes Tests

The NCLB(No child left behind) Act mandated assessment for ALL students including English language learners and

students with disabilities.These tests vary depending on what

accommodations the student qualifies for.

A teacher must follow the state and school district policies and procedures

when preparing students for high-stakes tests.

Developing Test Taking Strategies 1 .Test Approach Skills: mentally and

physically helps students prepare for tests. It helps alleviate anxiety. Ex- flyers sent home to parents about

nutrition and rest to prepare for the test.

Test taking Skills: skills used during specific kinds of exams. Ex-multiple

choice (eliminate all wrong possibilities first). Essay questions (re-read the

question twice).Test preparedness skills: knowing the

general content and format of the test .

Standards, Test Content, & Student Motivation

Learning and knowledge goals: set goals created by teacher and student.

Real-world interactions: make connections between academic curriculum and personal

experiencesInteresting subject content- if a student

enjoys a topic, they will put forth more effort.Strategy instruction: teacher needs to have

direct instruction, scaffolding, and guided practice.

Praise and rewards: compliments in order for students to feel pride and accomplishment in

their work.

Teacher-Made TestsSome department made tests can not be

representative of what was taught in class .Also known as student-friendly testsCan be used to find out a students prior

knowledge and what they need to learn.Student-friendly tests are based on

information covered in class. The students are told explicitly what they are responsible for

learning and reviewing.The test format should be clear and easy to

understand, there should be enough room for the students to write and the directions clear.

Consider the adaptations and accommodations needed for students with

special needs.

Alternative AssessmentsIn addition to tests, alternative assessments

can be used for pre-assessment or monitoring a students prior and current knowledge

Audio/Video tapesSelf checklists

Lists of books readList of

accomplishmentsJournals and self

reflections

Individual student progress graphs

Samples of home learning

Copies of passages read fluently

Self checklists

Assessment portfolios

Can be use as evidence of students performance and as well as a form of organization of different subjects in

order to keep track of students progress.

Grading can be use in a form of rubrics or scoring guides.

Types of rubrics

Analytic rubrics break an activity into pieces

holistic rubrics uses pieces that are together. However it takes a long period

of time to set. never less it helps parents to keep an eye in their

students progress .