Differentiation Strategy Guide
Teacher/Parent
Student
Name:
Grade:
Date:
Strengths
Evidence
Differentiation Strategies
Content | Process | Product | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Behaviours |
Abstractness
|
Complexity
|
Extracurricular topics
|
Lives & living
|
Organization for learning value
|
Real life topics
|
Self-selected content
|
|
Complex thinking
|
Expert methods
|
Group interaction
|
Individual pursuits
|
Inquiry-based learning
|
Open-endedness
|
Pacing
|
Reasoning & reflection
|
Self-selected process
|
Variety
|
|
Authentic audiences
|
Feedback & assessment
|
Self-selected product
|
Transformations
|
Variety
|
|
Humour | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Imagination & creativity | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Inquiry | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory & processing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sensitivity | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Expressiveness | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reasoning | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Problem-solving | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Intuition | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Learning | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Interests | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Moral & ethical concerns | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Motivation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ranking |
Recommended Strategies
All differentiation strategies are recommended
Behaviours
- Humour : Exceptionally keen sense of the comical, the bizarre, or absurd.
- Imagination & creativity : Extraordinary ability to use ideas, processes, materials or anything else in ingenious, flexible or surprising ways.
- Inquiry : Probes deeply while exploring ideas & topics; asks deep questions; experiments with events, ideas, feelings, sounds, symbols, movement, etc.
- Memory & processing : Tremendous capacity for dealing with large amounts of information & skills.
- Sensitivity : Unusually aware of or responsive to her/his own experiences & feelings &/or those of others.
- Expressiveness : Extraordinary ability to communicate meaning or emotion through words, actions, symbols, sounds, or media.
- Reasoning : Loves to think; thinks things through; considers implications or alternatives; rich, flexible, highly conscious, analytical or logical thought. Thinking is not necessarily directed toward a goal or solution.
- Problem-solving : Outstanding ability to find systematic solutions to problems; is able to invent & monitor many paths to a goal; seeks out challenging problems.
- Intuition : Suddenly discovers connections or deeper meanings without conscious awareness of reasoning or thought.
- Learning : Extremely able to grasp & use sophisticated new understandings quickly & easily.
- Interests : Advanced, intensely focused curiosity; passionate; may focus on unusual topics; interest is sometimes fleeting but always intense.
- Moral & ethical concerns : Extreme need for fairness & justice; will take action to resolve injustices; deeply concerned with the consequences of her or his actions.
- Motivation : Persistent, intense need to know, do, feel, create, or understand.
Differentiation Strategies
Content
- Abstractness : The content focuses on abstract concepts, themes, generalizations & theories, not concrete facts. It addresses ideas that have a wide range of applicability.
- Complexity : Complex content focuses on the interconnections among concepts, principles, generalizations & theories. It is usually interdisciplinary.
- Extracurricular topics : The content includes ideas & content areas not taught in the regular curriculum in any grade. It may include the student's interests.
- Lives & living : The content involves the study of creative, productive people (living or dead), their motivations, social characteristics, challenges & career paths.
- Organization for learning value : The content of an entire unit addresses a broad, interdisciplinary theme (like 'systems' or 'patterns') rather than small, sequential bits of information.
- Real life topics : The content addresses issues, controversies, problems or provocative questions inspired by students' interests, experiences, questions & concerns. Students may need help focusing, analyzing, &/or defining their topic or questions.
- Self-selected content : The student chooses the content. Some will need help choosing & reducing their interests to topics that are manageable.
- :
- Complex thinking : Emphasize learning processes (verbs) that stress the use, rather than the acquisition of information (higher level thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking, etc.).
- Expert methods : Learning with & about methods used by experts in a discipline.
- Group interaction : Students collaborate with peers who have similar abilities & share their passions in order to enhance their social & leadership skills, learn perspective-taking & become more empathetic.
- Individual pursuits : Individual projects on which students work relatively independently but with the support of a teacher or mentor available as needed.
- Inquiry-based learning : Inductive reasoning processes are used to discover patterns, underlying principles & generalizations. Students take greater responsibility for their learning than in deductive learning experiences.
- Open-endedness : Activities involve open-ended questions, activities, projects & methods. These have no predetermined correct outcome. They are provocative, stimulating students to think broadly.
- Pacing : Students learn at a pace commensurate with their ability to go quickly through or deeply into content. Examples include pretesting, 'compacting', or 'telescoping' curriculum, or other forms of acceleration.
- Reasoning & reflection : Students explain their conclusions & the reasoning that led to them as well as the metacognitive aspects of their thinking. They are encouraged to evaluate both the process & products of their own & others' thinking.
- Self-selected process : Students choose the ways they will learn. Some may need assistance identifying their preferences or following through on their choices.
- Variety : A range of methods of thinking & feeling involved in learning by using different types of problems, resources & technologies.
- :
- Authentic audiences : Results of the learning activity should be shared with real & appropriate audiences to the greatest extent possible. This may involve the scientific community, the city council, a government agency, art critic, etc.
- Feedback & assessment : Products should be assessed using real, predetermined procedures & criteria, & as often as possible, by a member or members of the real audience for the product. Students should also be encouraged or required to self-evaluate their products using the same criteria.
- Self-selected product : The student chooses an appropriate format for the product that reflects what was learned. Students' interests, strengths & prior experiences may influence these choices. Teachers may need to provide assistance in the selection & development of the product.
- Transformations : The results of the learning process should represent a "conversion of known information into new entities - changes in meaning, significance, use, interpretation, mood, sensory qualities,or shape" (Guilford, 1967).
- Variety : Students learn about & use different types of production techniques & media throughout the school year or term. They should also learn to select an appropriate format for the audience & content.
Process
- Abstractness : The content focuses on abstract concepts, themes, generalizations & theories, not concrete facts. It addresses ideas that have a wide range of applicability.
- Complexity : Complex content focuses on the interconnections among concepts, principles, generalizations & theories. It is usually interdisciplinary.
- Extracurricular topics : The content includes ideas & content areas not taught in the regular curriculum in any grade. It may include the student's interests.
- Lives & living : The content involves the study of creative, productive people (living or dead), their motivations, social characteristics, challenges & career paths.
- Organization for learning value : The content of an entire unit addresses a broad, interdisciplinary theme (like 'systems' or 'patterns') rather than small, sequential bits of information.
- Real life topics : The content addresses issues, controversies, problems or provocative questions inspired by students' interests, experiences, questions & concerns. Students may need help focusing, analyzing, &/or defining their topic or questions.
- Self-selected content : The student chooses the content. Some will need help choosing & reducing their interests to topics that are manageable.
- :
- Complex thinking : Emphasize learning processes (verbs) that stress the use, rather than the acquisition of information (higher level thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking, etc.).
- Expert methods : Learning with & about methods used by experts in a discipline.
- Group interaction : Students collaborate with peers who have similar abilities & share their passions in order to enhance their social & leadership skills, learn perspective-taking & become more empathetic.
- Individual pursuits : Individual projects on which students work relatively independently but with the support of a teacher or mentor available as needed.
- Inquiry-based learning : Inductive reasoning processes are used to discover patterns, underlying principles & generalizations. Students take greater responsibility for their learning than in deductive learning experiences.
- Open-endedness : Activities involve open-ended questions, activities, projects & methods. These have no predetermined correct outcome. They are provocative, stimulating students to think broadly.
- Pacing : Students learn at a pace commensurate with their ability to go quickly through or deeply into content. Examples include pretesting, 'compacting', or 'telescoping' curriculum, or other forms of acceleration.
- Reasoning & reflection : Students explain their conclusions & the reasoning that led to them as well as the metacognitive aspects of their thinking. They are encouraged to evaluate both the process & products of their own & others' thinking.
- Self-selected process : Students choose the ways they will learn. Some may need assistance identifying their preferences or following through on their choices.
- Variety : A range of methods of thinking & feeling involved in learning by using different types of problems, resources & technologies.
- :
- Authentic audiences : Results of the learning activity should be shared with real & appropriate audiences to the greatest extent possible. This may involve the scientific community, the city council, a government agency, art critic, etc.
- Feedback & assessment : Products should be assessed using real, predetermined procedures & criteria, & as often as possible, by a member or members of the real audience for the product. Students should also be encouraged or required to self-evaluate their products using the same criteria.
- Self-selected product : The student chooses an appropriate format for the product that reflects what was learned. Students' interests, strengths & prior experiences may influence these choices. Teachers may need to provide assistance in the selection & development of the product.
- Transformations : The results of the learning process should represent a "conversion of known information into new entities - changes in meaning, significance, use, interpretation, mood, sensory qualities,or shape" (Guilford, 1967).
- Variety : Students learn about & use different types of production techniques & media throughout the school year or term. They should also learn to select an appropriate format for the audience & content.
Product
- Abstractness : The content focuses on abstract concepts, themes, generalizations & theories, not concrete facts. It addresses ideas that have a wide range of applicability.
- Complexity : Complex content focuses on the interconnections among concepts, principles, generalizations & theories. It is usually interdisciplinary.
- Extracurricular topics : The content includes ideas & content areas not taught in the regular curriculum in any grade. It may include the student's interests.
- Lives & living : The content involves the study of creative, productive people (living or dead), their motivations, social characteristics, challenges & career paths.
- Organization for learning value : The content of an entire unit addresses a broad, interdisciplinary theme (like 'systems' or 'patterns') rather than small, sequential bits of information.
- Real life topics : The content addresses issues, controversies, problems or provocative questions inspired by students' interests, experiences, questions & concerns. Students may need help focusing, analyzing, &/or defining their topic or questions.
- Self-selected content : The student chooses the content. Some will need help choosing & reducing their interests to topics that are manageable.
- :
- Complex thinking : Emphasize learning processes (verbs) that stress the use, rather than the acquisition of information (higher level thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking, etc.).
- Expert methods : Learning with & about methods used by experts in a discipline.
- Group interaction : Students collaborate with peers who have similar abilities & share their passions in order to enhance their social & leadership skills, learn perspective-taking & become more empathetic.
- Individual pursuits : Individual projects on which students work relatively independently but with the support of a teacher or mentor available as needed.
- Inquiry-based learning : Inductive reasoning processes are used to discover patterns, underlying principles & generalizations. Students take greater responsibility for their learning than in deductive learning experiences.
- Open-endedness : Activities involve open-ended questions, activities, projects & methods. These have no predetermined correct outcome. They are provocative, stimulating students to think broadly.
- Pacing : Students learn at a pace commensurate with their ability to go quickly through or deeply into content. Examples include pretesting, 'compacting', or 'telescoping' curriculum, or other forms of acceleration.
- Reasoning & reflection : Students explain their conclusions & the reasoning that led to them as well as the metacognitive aspects of their thinking. They are encouraged to evaluate both the process & products of their own & others' thinking.
- Self-selected process : Students choose the ways they will learn. Some may need assistance identifying their preferences or following through on their choices.
- Variety : A range of methods of thinking & feeling involved in learning by using different types of problems, resources & technologies.
- :
- Authentic audiences : Results of the learning activity should be shared with real & appropriate audiences to the greatest extent possible. This may involve the scientific community, the city council, a government agency, art critic, etc.
- Feedback & assessment : Products should be assessed using real, predetermined procedures & criteria, & as often as possible, by a member or members of the real audience for the product. Students should also be encouraged or required to self-evaluate their products using the same criteria.
- Self-selected product : The student chooses an appropriate format for the product that reflects what was learned. Students' interests, strengths & prior experiences may influence these choices. Teachers may need to provide assistance in the selection & development of the product.
- Transformations : The results of the learning process should represent a "conversion of known information into new entities - changes in meaning, significance, use, interpretation, mood, sensory qualities,or shape" (Guilford, 1967).
- Variety : Students learn about & use different types of production techniques & media throughout the school year or term. They should also learn to select an appropriate format for the audience & content.