‘Coping with differences’.

‘Learning for all’

‘Success for all’.

What practice do you agree with?

What practice do you not agree with?

Why do you not agree with it?

• Mastery Tasks that can be mastered by all learners in a short period of time regardless of their prior learning. This allows weaker learners to succeed. Without this success they will probably give up.

• Mastery tasks• E.g. Recognise and name the main constituents of a simple cell.• Copy and label a diagram of a hydroelectric power station • Find the cost of sending a fax in this country and abroad.• Express one figure as a percentage of another using (A/B) X

100 •  • ‘Mastery’ tasks have the following characteristics: • they are easy, typically involving only knowledge and comprehension• they are not dependent on prior learning • They can be attained in a short time, perhaps minutes. • 100% of the students should be able to get them 100% right! •  • Because they are time rather than ability dependent mastery tasks allow

weaker students can enjoy the success, reinforcement, self belief and motivation which makes learning possible.

 

• Developmental tasks that stretch the more able, develop the skills required for academic success, and for the world of work. These tasks develop the skills required for progression to the next educational level. They also create deep learning, that is, real understanding.

• Developmental tasks• E.g. Write a clear, scientifically argued laboratory report ...... • Evaluate the importance of full to high employment in western

societies........• How did the early life of Harold Macmillan influence his political thinking?• Survey leisure time opportunities in Your nearestCity, and report on your

findings•  • Developmental tasks have the following characteristics.: • they are more difficult• they are highly dependent of prior learning• Students can’t get 100%. Development is slow and requires considerable effort. • they involve higher order skills such as evaluation, synthesis, etc.• • The importance of developmental objectives lies in their ability to maximise

individual development and to stretch the more able. Continuous development rather than complete mastery is expected.

• A mix of developmental and mastery tasks ensures that weak students achieve some success while the able are stretched.

 • Difficult Developmental tasks can be broken down into introductory mastery tasks, followed by a simpler developmental

task. The mastery tasks should prepare the student for the developmental task. In this way Bloom’s Taxonomy is used as a ladder allowing all students to climb to success.

•  • Take for example• “Survey leisure time opportunities in your nearest city, and report on your findings”•  • This is a developmental task, but could be broken down into a ladder of tasks such as:• List ten or more leisure time activities which are available in your nearest city• Find sources of information on other leisure time activities such as local papers and Tourist Information Offices• Make a fuller list of leisure opportunities in your city.• Group these opportunities into general categories such as sport, music, theatre etc. You will need to make up some

new general categories.• Group the opportunities by the age of those most likely to be interested in them• Group your activities by geographical area, and by cost. • Think of some other useful ways of grouping the activities.• Use the above to help you plan a report on leisure activities in Worcester. Your plan could either be a mind-map, or an

ordered set of headings.• Write a report on your survey of leisure time opportunities in your nearest city.• Proof read your report before handing it in.•  • An essay such as “How can learning theory inform the teaching of mathematics” or “In what way did Charles 1 prepare

the way for Cromwell?” can be turned into a ladder of tasks, with mastery tasks being chosen to lead the way to the writing of the essay. Such assignments can allow students without effective essay writing skills to succeed.

•

Mastery and Developmental Tasks

• Decisions-Decisions A generic game for differentiation•  • We have seen that high order tasks help deep learning. • Higher order tasks help weak learners develop real understanding (deep learning)• High order tasks can also challenge the most able •  • High order tasks such as ‘evaluation’ ‘synthesis’ ‘analysis’ and so on are not necessarily

difficult. For example asking an Advanced Level mathematics student whether the following expression is correct involves ‘evaluation’ but they should not find it difficult:

• +2 - 3 = -1•  • They would find the low order task of memorising a long and complex formulae much more

difficult.•  • The distinction between high and low order tasks is not their difficulty but the mental

processes involved. In particular high order tasks require understanding. They cannot be completed unless the student has developed their own understanding of the material, so they force the student to make their own sense of what they are learning.

•  • Low order tasks do none of these things, they only require recall and understanding may be

minimal or even non existent.

• Other examples of the higher order tasks can be found in the thinking and learning presentation on the web site stivodifferentiation.wordpress.com

• Next session is for those people who were not present in last years session on thinking and learning

• Homework task for the others!• Using the presentation on thinking and learning.• Please implement one new idea into your teaching.

Perhaps compare it with a control group if possible. Think how you can esertain whether it was successful.

• Pupil feedback, teacher feedback, quality of pupil responses, quality of classwork/test results.

• Please bring your results/finding to the next but one meeting. Examples of the task/resourse would be great.

Which teaching methods differentiate best?1.In your pairs you have been provided with cards describing commonly used

teaching methods. Imagine each method being used in isolation. First, discard those methods you would never be able to use to differentiate, and add methods you use but which do not appear on a card.

Remember,

Differentiation = Accommodates differences between pupil ability, prior learning & motivation

 2.Now place all method cards in one of the following categories assuming the

teaching method is used by itself:

A. Can differentiate wellB. Can differentiate reasonably wellC. Does not differentiate well

3. When you have finished categorising the cards rank them for differentiation within each category, the best on the left, the worst on the right.

4. Discuss and compare your order with another pair.

For each of the methods you placed in category ‘C’, decide as a group how you can make it differentiate better if you use it with other methods.

• E.g ‘Teacher Talk’ would differentiate better it were punctuated with Question

and Answer, or short sessions of group work, especially if the questions were high order and sufficient ‘wait time’ and help was given to allow all students to answer the questions.

 

Assertive Questioning Buzz Group (Assertive style) Students create a leaflet or poster Individual writing task for students – depends on the task

though! Worksheet Formative Tests and Quizzes Experiment/practical ‘discovery style’ Students create a handout Formative Quizzes and tests Case Studies Visits or visitors Explaining Tasks Student Presentation Guided Discovery

Teacher questions with wait time

Buzz Group

Paired student practice

Peer checking

Teacher led whole class discussion

Researching - does better if weak students, or those not working well, are discovered,and given the help they need

Teacher talk/Lecture Teacher questions, students answer Teacher demonstrates Students watching a video or film Past Paper exam questions – though this could differentiate

well if the questions were graduated well and of varied difficulty allowing all students to succeed and all to be stretched.

Tests and Quizzes Experiment/practical ‘recipe style’ Quizzes and tests Reading

   Teacher talk/Lecture: can be improved by keeping it short and punctuating with question

and answer. This is especially effective if high order questions are used with long wait times, and if the ‘assertive style’ answering approach is used.

Many teachers ‘teach to the middle’ all the time, but it is more effective to also ‘teach to the top’ and ‘teach to the bottom’ at least some of the time. For example a teacher can sometimes make a challenging point, and sometimes state the blindingly obvious, or explain a point in a ‘simplistic way’ - with a warning that the explanation was rather simplistic if necessary.

  Teacher questions, students answer: mix mastery and developmental questions; use

substantial ‘wait time’ and have high expectations of the quality of the answers; use ‘assertive questioning’; etc

  Teacher demonstrates: The teacher could use questions such as ‘why am I doing it like

this?’ ‘What would happen if I did it like that instead?’ Etc. Also the teacher can ask students to ‘talk me thought one’: the students then give the teacher instructions with reasoning, and the teacher follows these instructions supporting the students’ points if necessary.

 

Students watching a video or film: Give students questions that the film will answer before showing it. Make some questions mastery and some developmental.

    Past Paper exam questions: If there are no easy questions, write

some, and ask students to do these before the past paper question. Many exam questions differentiate well, it depends on the exam.

  Tests and Quizzes: Use formative tests and quizzes   Experiment/practical ‘recipe style’: Use the ‘discovery style’ or

set developmental ‘extension tasks’ for students who have competed the ‘recipe’ satisfactorily.

  Reading: Have a range of differentiated materials including some at

a level below the students and some that is almost the level above. Then let students choose, or alternatively prescribe some texts to some students.