What is differentiated instruction tomlinson

Here are a few factors to keep in mind:. What differentiated instructional strategies can you use in your classroom? There are a set of methods that can be tailored and used across the different subjects. Tiered assignments are designed to teach the same skill but have the students create a different product to display their knowledge based on their comprehension skills.

Choice boards allow students to choose what activity they would like to work on for a skill that the teacher chooses.

On the board are usually options for the different learning styles; kinesthetic, visual, auditory, and tactile. Compacting allows the teacher to help students reach the next level in their learning when they have already mastered what is being taught to the class. Interest centers or groups are a way to provide autonomy in student learning. Flexible grouping allows the groups to be more fluid based on the activity or topic.

These contracts can allow students to use their preferred learning style, work at an ideal pace and encourages independence and planning skills. High-quality curriculum engages students in exploring important ideas and challenges students to develop the skills and attitudes needed to do rigorous, quality work.

Assessment is the element that steers instruction in the differentiated classroom. Formative assessments such as exit cards, questions for the day, journal prompts, observation and one-on-one conversations with students all help in identifying when there is a need to re-teach something to certain students or to raise the challenge higher for some students. Summative assessments can also be differentiated based on readiness, interest and learning profile.

Students come into our classrooms seeking affirmation, contribution, challenge, power, and purpose. Respectful tasks are responsive to those needs. In any classroom, it is critically important that the task we ask students to do is respectful — that it is challenging, interesting, and worth doing. In a differentiated classroom, students often work on different tasks simultaneously.

The tasks may be adjusted for different readiness levels, interests, or learning preferences, but regardless of which task a student is assigned to or selects it should be respectful. Right now, too many middle schools place students in a curriculum in which everyone reads the same text and completes the same assignments.

Unfortunately, this leaves too many students behind instead of moving them forward Tomlinson, You and I need to explore and try ways to teach our students at their instructional levels. This is the heart of differentiation, and this is the primary reason I have written this book. They might even like school because they can be part of a discussion. So what does differentiated reading instruction look like?

I invite you to step inside my eighth-grade classroom at the beginning of my reading workshop. After a brief warm-up exercise, and a read aloud for enjoyment, I introduce an essential component of my approach to differentiated reading instruction — the teaching read aloud. In fact, the read aloud has become the common mentor or teaching text for my students, and a primary teaching tool.

These are the important strategies that all students — not just proficient readers — need. Not only will these important strategies help students do well on tests, but — even more gratifying — they will make reading joyful and exciting. My experiences with teaching students who are reading below grade level continue to show me that although these students may have difficulty reading, they are capable of inferring, drawing conclusions, and making connections to characters, events, people, and information.

My read aloud shows that struggling readers can think at high levels. When I provide them with books at their instructional levels, they also know that they can analyze and think while they read. Stay longer in my classroom, and you would observe that writing has taken center stage. During my read aloud, conferences, and small-group meetings, students write to explore hunches, concepts, meaning, and connections.

This writing is critical in a differentiated reading classroom. You would also notice that I use multiple texts for my instructional reading lessons. Sometimes, I use a whole-class instructional approach, where each students is reading a different text while exploring an issue or practicing the application of a reading strategy that I have modeled in my read aloud. Other times, students work in small groups.

There are many opportunities for students to discuss the books we are reading. Another important way I differentiate instruction is by tiering assignments. Tiering asks teachers to adjust class experiences to meet students where they are so students can complete meaningful tasks that move them forward Tomlinson, ; Wormeli, All Rights Reserved. Learn more. What Is Differentiated Instruction?

By: Carol Ann Tomlinson At its most basic level, differentiation consists of the efforts of teachers to respond to variance among learners in the classroom.

Content Examples of differentiating content at the elementary level include the following: Using reading materials at varying readability levels; Putting text materials on tape; Using spelling or vocabulary lists at readiness levels of students; Presenting ideas through both auditory and visual means; Using reading buddies; and Meeting with small groups to re-teach an idea or skill for struggling learners, or to extend the thinking or skills of advanced learners.

Process Examples of differentiating process or activities at the elementary level include the following: Using tiered activities through which all learners work with the same important understandings and skills, but proceed with different levels of support, challenge, or complexity; Providing interest centers that encourage students to explore subsets of the class topic of particular interest to them; Developing personal agendas task lists written by the teacher and containing both in-common work for the whole class and work that addresses individual needs of learners to be completed either during specified agenda time or as students complete other work early; Offering manipulatives or other hands-on supports for students who need them; and Varying the length of time a student may take to complete a task in order to provide additional support for a struggling learner or to encourage an advanced learner to pursue a topic in greater depth.

Products Examples of differentiating products at the elementary level include the following: Giving students options of how to express required learning e. Learning environment Examples of differentiating learning environment at the elementary level include: Making sure there are places in the room to work quietly and without distraction, as well as places that invite student collaboration; Providing materials that reflect a variety of cultures and home settings; Setting out clear guidelines for independent work that matches individual needs; Developing routines that allow students to get help when teachers are busy with other students and cannot help them immediately; and Helping students understand that some learners need to move around to learn, while others do better sitting quietly Tomlinson, , ; Winebrenner, , References References Click the "References" link above to hide these references.

Vygotsky, L.