Differentiated Instruction For Professional Development

Differentiating instruction is a valuable instructional management and delivery tool, which can be used to assist teachers in meeting the needs of the diverse populations of students which they now find in their classrooms. In using these strategies, a teacher may use pre-assessments to determine the learning styles, interests and readiness of the students, prior to the introduction of a lesson or unit. After developing a learner profile, the teacher may then differentiate according to the readiness of the student, by process of delivery, and by the product which the student may produce to

Guskey (1986) and Hashweh (2004) describe professional development as a systematic attempt to bring about change. Guskey (1986) and Griffin and Barnes (1986) specifically describe the change components: (a) change in the classroom practices of teachers, (b) change in teacher’s beliefs and attitudes, and (c) change in the learning outcomes of students. When developing his model, Guskey (1986) questioned the order of these components.

Differentiation of instruction is the process of teaching in a way to meet the needs of students with differing abilities in the same class, including those with special learning needs. One way to do this is by providing several different avenues by which all students can learn the same material. In differentiating instruction, teachers plan out and implement a variety of approaches to content, process, product, and environment. Differentiated instruction is used to meet the needs of student differences in readiness, interests, and learning needs. Many people in the education field believe differentiation has the potential to transform teaching and learning in a way that raises expectations for all students.

Professional Development measures the degree to which teachers value continuous personal development and school-wide improvement.

Prior taking this RETELL class I thought differentiating meant “dummying down” work. I struggled with the concept of differentiating strategies because I thought it help students to be all they can be. Taking the class have given a clear understanding the meaning and the usage of differentiating teaching, matter of fact, some the strategies I use in class are similar to some of the strategies taught in the RETELL class. I realized that Differentiated instruction is about using teaching strategies that connect with individual student's learning strategies. The ultimate goal is to provide a learning environment that will maximize the potential for student success. The important thing to remember is to hold on to the effective teaching strategies that lead students to positive learning outcomes and to make adjustments when necessary. It's about being flexible and open to change. It's also about taking risks and trying teaching and learning strategies that you would have otherwise ignored. It's about managing instructional time in a way that meets the standards and also provides motivating, challenging, and meaningful experiences for school age

Professional Development Assignment Rachel Hanson RN Aspen University Teresa Harden FNP February 1, 2016 Professional Development assignment Thesis Statements Explanatory Thesis An explanatory synthesis essay is used to help the reader get a complete understanding of the subject under consideration. The writer has to write the relevant information about a certain topic in an objective (or reasonably objective) and comprehensive way. The paper should be written like all papers, based around a solid thesis, but the purpose is to educate on all aspects rather than persuade a particular opinion.

Differentiation is the tool used by educators who recognize that all students come to them with different readiness levels and learning styles. It allows us to meet the needs of each individual student while meeting the standards developed by state and national education associations. Additionally, there are many different types of differentiation that can be used in a classroom: teachers can create learning centers, use differentiated assessments, and develop anchor activities, etc. Currently, I utilize differentiated assessments, but my goal for the upcoming school year is to utilize more learning centers and to incorporate anchor activities into my daily classroom routine.

A final way differentiated instruction prepares students from the 21st century workplace is through direct instruction. Whether students go to college or enter the workforce, students will be required to receive information directly from one, or many, people and think critically about it. Whether it is sitting through a lecture in college, or a meeting at work, students will need to have the ability to take in information verbally and apply it to their area of study or expertise. In my classroom, I try to begin a lesson and end a lesson with some form of short discussion or lecture. I believe that it helps to either set up, or bring closure to, the information we are covering. For example, at the beginning a lesson this week I spoke for about fifteen minutes introducing the struggle for equality that African-Americans faced in the early 1900s. This short lecture helped lay the groundwork for the next two days and assisted in giving my students context for the upcoming hybrid stations.

According to the article Differentiated Instruction: A Primer, I learned from Sarah Sparks how to evaluate students and come up with strategies with the use of differentiation instruction. Sparks states, “Differentiated instruction is the process of identifying students’ individual learning strengths, needs, and interests and adapting lessons to match them” (Sparks, 2015). Sparks explains how individualization is used by teachers for breaking material down into smaller steps to see which students are on different paces. Teachers use differentiation by giving students a variety of different material covering the same subject to see the students’ strengths, needs, and interests.

Today, Ms. Laura Garner did a professional development on Differentiation. It was amazing! I’ve read professional articles and books on this topic, but never actually saw it up close as a participant. I was not just a participant but I was an active participant. I was engaged in the learning process. In fact, every teacher in the room was actively engaged in the learning process. Everyone was not doing the same activity, but the topic at hand was the same for all participants. Thus, instruction, in a classroom, should not be one size fits all. It should be catered so the needs of each student that enters into a classroom to learn are met and more importantly, students’ weaknesses are not highlighted for everyone in the classroom to

Differentiated instruction is personalized for students of different levels of achievement, which allows students to choose what kind of teaching they want to use to learn. It lets students grow at their own pace through new material. For a differentiated classroom, teachers use assessments to determine student readiness. Assessments such as pre-tests are effective in determining what a student needs to learn or what level the student is. It lets teachers teach students based off of the common core standards but they do it also based on each child’s learning style and what level of knowledge they are at, at the same

The PD’S that have and still are the most successful to me are those that fulfill my need or focus on what I enjoy teaching and want to improve upon as an educator. I love any PD on social studies and literacy. It is what I enjoy teaching, but I also yearn to be technology savvy, a competency that must be fulfilled in this growing age of social media. Professional development is great when there are resources to use, time to collaborate with your building staff, teachers from other buildings and the time allotted to process the information presented. When sessions incorporate video clips and activities to motivate and excite, you are more interested. One aspect mentioned in the Mizell article,” Why Professional Development Matters,” is the ability to analyze information presented and share experiences related to the learning.

As classrooms become more and more diverse, the growing challenge of K-12 teachers is to respond appropriately to the differing needs of the students (Anderson, 2007). Throughout recent years the number of students with diverse learning needs, who have been placed in

This week I had the pleasure to interview Barlow School principal Mr. Aponte. We discussed, analyzed and evaluated his school’s professional development program. Through the conversation we were able to discuss all the requirements that need to be taken in consideration when creating a PD program. We were also able to analyze his role as instructional leader, teachers’ role, the alignments of the PD to the Continuous Plan, the need of research based for instruction, as well as delivering and evaluating of the PD. I was surprise to learn that in there are many parts of the professional development program puzzle. Indeed, I learned that in order to create better learning opportunities for all learners, the school instructional leaders need

When teachers develop differentiated instruction strategies for students they provide several different avenues for the student to achieve the same learning goal regardless of which path they choose. Student choice in which avenue they ultimately select creates a sense of ownership with the students and actively engages them in the lesson. The different avenues all lead to the same learning goal just as many roads might lead to one destination. Differentiated thinking empowers teachers to be responsive rather than reactive to the unique and individual personalities,