The teacher is clear about learning goals. The teacher specifies what students should know, understand, and be able to do for each unit of study.
The teacher groups students flexibly. At times, the class works as a whole. At times, students work alone. Sometimes the students are grouped homogeneously or in mixed-readiness groups. The goal is to give the students opportunities to work together with a wide range of peers and in productive ways.
The teacher uses time, space, and materials flexibly. The teacher looks for ways to arrange the classroom to match materials to learner needs and to meet with students in varied formats.
The teacher involves her students in understanding the nature of the classroom and in making it work for everyone.
The teacher emphasizes individual growth as central to the success of the classroom. The teacher works with students and parents to help them understand the importance of competing with oneself to achieve one's "personal best."
The teacher works to ensure that all students have respectful work. Every student should consistently have work that respects him or her as an individual. Each student is required to think at a high level to complete his or her work.
The teacher makes sure differentiation is always "a way up," never "a way out." The goal is to cause each learner to stretch to complete a task that is difficult but achievable.
The teacher sets her own sights high, just as she asks her students to set their sights high.
The teacher seeks specialists' active partnership in her classroom. The teacher is ready to call on the expertise of specialists whenever a student's needs indicate that would be helpful.
The teacher's differentiation is largely proactive rather than reactive. The teacher systematically plans for student differences. She does not make a single plan for all learners and "hope to adjust" on the spot if she realizes the plan is not working well for one or a few learners.
Guess what... you have just introduced most of what we will be learning as the "hallmarks" of differentiation! These are principles that have to be "happening" in a classroom in order for differentiation to be there! Good for you! 5 pts.
ReplyDeleteEach item you have spoke about above are the Hallmarks of a Differentiation Classroom. Being in the classes we have attended for differentiation has talked about at least one of this hallmarks each time. Today we watched the video about Mr. Wormelli's class about differentiation and almost each one of these were done during his classroom. This video was able to show me how much we can differentiate in the classrooms and how important it is. As Mr. Wormelli said in his video, it is hard work to teach a classroom and differentiate it. But if you do all the planning before hand the better it will come out in your classroom. Tomlinson also talks about pre-planning for differentiation in your classroom. You are not going to be perfect at it, but each year you will get better and better at it. She described in a video I watched on one of her commentaries that Tiger Woods was not born with a golf club in his hand. It took him years to get great at golf. She compared this to differentiating in the classroom. You will need a lot of practice before you are great at it. But implementing each one of these hallmarks is so important for us to use to differentiate in our classrooms.
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