Differentiation

Kelly Bauer

Know/Need To Know

Differentiation?

Below age level Age Level Above age

level

Below age level Age Level Above age

level

Won’t these students achieve anyway?

Students not challenged

Behaviour issues

Finish work within a period

for a whole project

Given “more” work

Or Peer Tutoring

Still bored.

How do you know who is in your class?

PretestOR

“Elicitation Activity”

Then…what do you do?

More difficult, not more volume

How this fits in with PBL?

•Research suggests…PBL is THE gifted strategy.

•Task design: Open ended tasks with differentiation in product, process, content, or the learning environment (Maker model)

Maker Model

•Specifies Learning environments that are open, student centred, encourage independence, accepting, complex and highly mobile

•Content Modification: • Increase abstractness, complexity and

variety

Maker Model

•Product Modification: •Real problems, Real audiences, Real

deadlines, Evaluation, Transformation (manipulation of information, not just regurgitation)

•Process Modification: • Increase high level thinking, creativity,

open endedness, variable pacing, variety of learning processes, debriefing and freedom of choice

Below age level Age Level Above age

level

Special Needs

• Modification of work based on need

• Sometimes modification of entry document is important

• Offer “optional” workshops to support

An example…Year 10 Cath Tech

•A driving question that allows for differentiation:

How can different ways to design electronic games alter the experience lower secondary students have in giving them an understanding of the influences of the Church in the Middle ages?

In Programming….

Outcome

Student Learns about:

Student Learns to

Special Needs

Intermediate

Advanced Notes

5.1.1 Control structures• sequencing• selection such as binary and case• repetition and/or iteration such as pre and post test

devise algorithms to solve everyday problems incorporating the use of control structures• examine and analyse the existing code of a selected example and identify control structures• develop prototypes using basic control structures

All Students: •Write a step by step procedure of how to put on a jumper•Have student give instructions to teacher to put on jumper•Teacher follows instructions explicitly to put on jumper (which will generally be a problem)•Discussion of importance of control structures in algorithms to define a series of steps in a precise order

Guess the number program (includes all control structures with binary selection and pre test repetition)

Temperature monitor (includes all control structures with case selection and post test repetition)

Auto Teller algorithm problem (involves all control structures including both types of repetition and selection in a complex way)

Students present back to whole class. Q: What is the difference between pre and post test, binary and case selection

In Process…

•Students that given the option to select Flash or Scratch to program with

In Classrooms…

In Classrooms…• Predict the type of people that live in our community

(Westmead), based on the groups located on the fringe of Australian society (unemployed, homeless, indigenous, mental disabilities, physical disabilities, financially disadvantaged, single parent homes, migrants / refugees)

• What type of people live in our community (Westmead)? How many unemployed people might we find in Westmead? How many indigenous people might we find in Westmead? How many people who are born overseas, might we find in Westmead?

In Classrooms…

In Rubric…

•A level of “advanced skills” written into the rubric.

Further info…

IMAGE CREDITS

•Karate Image by The Consortium•Test taking by Peruisay @ Flickr.com