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Carla Garr
Jim Wiseman is Vice-President of Public Affairs for Toyota
Manufacturing of North America.
Toyota’s employment needs : “People with Scope”
•Motor skills and dexterity
•Computer knowledge
•Engineers
•Tool and dye expertise
Hiroto Akuda is CEO of Toyota, employer of 60,000+ employees
worldwide.
“The winds of change are blowing through our industry.
Whether we’re toppled by them or carried along by them is up to
us.”
• Indicative of strong verbal skills
• Indicative of ability to organize thoughts
• Indicative of competent presence in public
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People with scope demonstrate:
Intelligence
Judgment capabilities (flexibility)
Broad interests
Creativity (in management and production)
Global view
Problem solving
Admit problems (e.g., “stop the line”)
Discuss problems
Create “culture” of solving problems
Respect for diversity
Embracing diversity
Embracing different ideas
Enjoyment of the challenge
Ability to nurture talent in others
Leadership
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Creating culture changes within industry
• Discussion/Assessment at the top
• Commitment from the top
• Defining problems to be solve
• Asking “why” at least five times
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Why is learning
about
differentiation
important?
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The biggest mistake of past
centuries in teaching has been to
treat all children as if they were
variants of the same individual and
thus to feel justified
in teaching them all the same
subjects in the same way.
~Howard Gardner
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When a teacher tries to teach
something to the entire class at
the same time, “chances are, one-
third of the kids already know it;
one-third will get it; and the
remaining third won’t. So two-
thirds of the children are wasting
their time.”
~Lilian Katz
Willis, S. (November 1993). “Teaching Young Children: Educators Seek „Developmental
Appropriateness.‟” Curriculum Update, 1-8 7
To learn a particular concept,
“some children need days; some,
ten minutes,” but the typical
lockstep school schedule ignores
this fundamental fact.
~Marilyn Hughes
Willis, S. (November 1993). “Teaching Young Children: Educators Seek „Developmental
Appropriateness.‟” Curriculum Update, 1-8.
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The Law and Specially Designed
Instruction
• IDEA
• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
• Kentucky Revised Statues
• Kentucky Administrative Regulations related
to Exceptional Children
• Kentucky Administrative Regulations related
to Gifted and Talented students
From the PowerPoint Presentation: Launch Into Differentiation “Differentiating Instruction in the Social Studies Classroom”
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More About the Law
• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974
• Title VII, Bilingual Education Language
Enhancement and Language Acquisition
Program under Improving America‟s School
Act
• American Disabilities Act
From the PowerPoint Presentation: Launch Into Differentiation “Differentiating Instruction in the Social Studies Classroom
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Differentiation can be planned
using
• Historical and Current Curriculum Documents
• Academic Expectations
• Transformations: Kentucky’s Curriculum
Framework
• Program of Studies
• Core Content for Assessment
• Program of Studies Implementation Manual
• Performance Level Descriptions
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What avenues of
research will
help us learn more
about
differentiation?
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Differentiation
can be enhanced by our
knowledge of
• Brain research
• Learning Preferences
• Multiple Intelligences
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Differentiation
Instruction based on differences in
• Students’ readiness
• Interests
• Learning profiles
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Multiple Intelligences
A
Ka/eidoScOpe
of Choices
Kinesthetic Verbal
Logical Mathematical Visual
Naturalist Rhythmic
Intrapersonal Interpersonal 17
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We need to minimize the “shoot to the middle”
approach in which the teacher “aims” the lesson at a
level that seems accessible to the majority of students.
Schools are gateways to the future for children who
enter them.
Students with learning difficulties and students who
are very advanced have “nonstandard” learning needs.
Differentiation makes sense for teachers.
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1. Differentiating instruction is
not a new idea.
Teachers have always worried that some students
have serious gaps in learning.
Visions of student anxiety and student
boredom accompany teachers home on most nights.
Over the years, teachers have developed many approaches
to addressing student differences in classrooms.
The quest to address student differences will likely
continue as long as there are schools.
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2. “One-size-fits-all”
instruction is not a good
fit for many learners in an
academically diverse classroom
because…
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Students vary widely in readiness.
•Matching learning opportunities to readiness levels
ensures that students master key skills and
understandings rather than glossing over them.
•Students continue to progress in skills and
understandings rather than repeating them.
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Students vary in what interests
them and in their learning profiles.
Matching learning opportunities to student interests
increases the likelihood that a student sees school as
relevant.
A student finds and develops passions for learning
and personal talent areas.
Matching learning opportunities to learning profiles
maximizes efficiency and effectiveness of
learning for individuals.
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3. Teachers in appropriately differentiated
classrooms continually study their students.
Teachers seek opportunities to understand various
students‟ “points of entry” into topics and skills, what
individual students like both in and out of school, and the
sorts of learning environments and conditions in which
various students succeed.
Assessment is no longer something that comes at the end
of a unit to see who learned what.
Assessment is a continual reading of vital signs related to
readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles of each
student for the purpose of better understanding today how to
modify tomorrow‟s instruction. 25
4. Good teaching is predicated upon a teacher’s clarity
about what a learner should know, understand, and be
able to do as a result of a given learning experience and
set of learning experiences.
•Teachers are clear about the essential information,
understandings, and skills that a student must develop during
each lesson and unit.
•Brain research tells us that learners cannot remember
everything about a topic over an extended period of time.
•Teachers must identify essential concepts, essential
principles, and essential skills – carefully building lessons
that cause learners to grapple with those essentials until they
“own” them.
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5. In an appropriately differentiated
classroom, all learners focus much of
their time and attention on the key
concepts, principles, and skills identified
by the teacher as essential to growth and
development in the subject – but at
varying degrees of abstractness,
complexity, open-endedness, problem
clarity, and structure.
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All learners should work with the essential ideas and skills
that build toward understanding the subject and
proficiency in the subject.
Some learners need to work with ideas and skills at a concrete level
using manipulatives, diagrams, or other devices that
allow them to experience the idea in a clear, specified,
guided, and tangible way.
Other learners are ready to work with the ideas and skills at
a greater level of abstractness, in fuzzier problems,
and with minimal guidance.
It is often not the ideas and skills that will vary with readiness in a
differentiated classroom, but rather the degree of difficulty or
complexity in the way students interact with
the ideas or skills.
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6. In an appropriately differentiated classroom,
all learners should work with “respectful tasks”.
All students should be offered tasks that encourage them to think at
high levels of thinking.
All student should have consistent opportunities to be active learners.
All students should work with a wide variety of peers over time.
All students should sometimes be teachers.
All students should be involved with learning that is new to them.
All students should be consistently pushed a bit beyond their individual
comfort zones.
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7. An appropriately differentiated
classroom offers different routes to
content, activities, and products in
response to differing learner needs.
A teacher in a differentiated classroom constructs different avenues to
• Content – what students learn;
• Activities – opportunities through which students process, or
make sense of understandings and skills; and
• Products – how students demonstrate and extend what they
have learned.
Sometimes options for learning tasks are based on teacher
assessment of student readiness and at other times on student interests.
Teachers often provide students with learning profile choices.
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8. Flexible grouping of students enables all
learners to work in a wide variety of
configurations and with the full range of
peers, while targeting specific learning needs.
Students sometimes work with peers of similar readiness so that the
teacher can target the complexity of the task to student needs or
target task by similar interest and learning profile.
At other times, students work in mixed readiness or interest groups
with tasks that enable alls students to play essential roles in the
group's success.
Sometimes the whole class works as a unit, or students work
independently, or students make choices.
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9. Learning to effectively differentiate instruction in
academically diverse classrooms is complex and requires
support for teacher over extended periods of time.
•For most of us, developing and refining the skills of differentiation is complex,
uncertain, and carries an initial price tag of discomfort and added effort.
•Teachers need training and assurance from the administration that they will be
valued for attempting positive change than for preserving the status quo.
•Teachers need time for planning, support for in-classroom coaching, and time to
visit and work with other teachers who are pursuing differentiated instruction.
•Policymakers need to help teachers reconcile the call for responsive and flexible
classrooms with practices that discourage responsiveness and flexibility.
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•Like students, teachers are a diverse group. They, too,
need a differentiated approach to learning and growing along
supportive, responsive environments.
Teachers may need assistance in
Developing a sound rationale for differentiation
Identifying and understanding the needs of diverse
learners
Preparing students and parents for differentiated classes
Managing differentiated classrooms
Identifying key understandings and skills in their subjects
Applying principles of differentiation
Using instructional and management strategies that
facilitate differentiation
Steps in beginning to implement differentiation.
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10. Differentiation is not a license to eliminate specialists,
but rather an opportunity for specialists and generalists
to collaborate in ways that focus their combined skills
on improving instruction in the regular classroom.
Differentiation will work best when time and support are provided
for a team of educators – special educators, educators of the gifted,
remediation experts, librarians, guidance counselors, and others – to
collaborate in reconfiguring classrooms and redesigning
curriculums in ways that draw on the expertise of each participant
in the planning process.
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1. Describe one or two students you 2. What do those learners need in
teach who have unique learning their classes to make a great year.
needs.
3. How do you currently address the 4. What factors make it difficult to
needs of students with diverse modify curriculum and instruction for
learning needs? diverse learners?
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Differentiation is a complex
topic and involves educators
thinking about change. There
are no easy or automatic
answers.
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Extensions for Diverse Learners
Purpose and Appropriateness of Task
Matching the intent, goal, or reason for the task to the interests, needs,
and abilities of the student.
Complexity of Task
Level of sophistication of task, depth, approach to problem, process for solving
problems, dimensions, degree of decision making required level of challenge.
Size of Task
Quantity, scope, size, proportions of task.
Time
Duration, cycle, length or intervals for learning and demonstrating knowledge.
Pace
Rate, velocity, speed, acceleration of learning.
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Environment of Learning
The variety of settings, situations or domains necessary for learning;
access and need for specialized resources; physical characteristics of
environment.
Order of learning
Attention to student’s prior knowledge to determine the appropriate
instructional sequence, priority, or progression of learning experiences.
Procedures and Routines (Input-Output)
The variety of methods used to organize, manipulate and translate content,
skills and processes into understandable structures for students.
Resources and Materials
The software, equipment, fixtures, gear, supplies, print, non-print,
human resources, and furnishings appropriate for learning.
Application and Demonstration of Knowledge
The process of transferring learning to real life situations by making
connections among familiar and unfamiliar ideas.
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Level of Support and Independence
Degree of dependence/independence; need for direct or indirect guidance,
encouragement.
Participation
Degree of interaction for optimum learning.
Motivation
Incentives (extrinsic or intrinsic) that match to the student’s needs, interests,
and abilities.
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Pathways of Learning David Lazear
Teaching with the Brain in Mind Eric Jensen
A Celebration of Neurons Robert Sylwester
How to Differentiate Instruction
In Mixed-Ability Classrooms
(Second Edition) Carol Ann Tomlinson
Teaching Gifted Kids in
The Regular Classroom Susan Winebrenner
(Second Edition)
Gifted Program Standards Landrum, Callahan, Shaklee
The Parallel Curriculum NAGC service publication
Teaching Young Gifted Children
In the Regular Classroom Walker, Smutny, Meckstroth
The National Research Center for Gifted Education http://www.teachinteract.com
Dr. Joseph Renzulli-Director http://www.brainconnection.com
Dr. E. Jean Gubbins-Associate Director
ASCD Videos
At Work in the Differentiated Classroom
Differentiating Instruction—Creating Multiple Paths for Learning
Differentiating Instruction—Instructional and Management Strategies
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The Power of One
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Research Resources
•ASCD-Differentiating Instruction Facilitator's Guide1997
•Willis, S. (November 1993). “Teaching Young Children:
Educators Seek „Developmental Appropriateness.‟”
•Curriculum Update, 1-8
•From the PowerPoint Presentation: Launch Into Differentiation
“Differentiating Instruction in the Social Studies
Classroom”Kentucky‟s Program of Studies
•Research by Carol Ann Tomlinson
•A Framework to Provide Successful Learning Opportunities for
Gifted and Talented Students~Kentucky Department of
Education Spring, 2000
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