Differentiating Content, Delivery, and Assessment

Earth Sciences: Minerals and Rocks

Grade 4

Content

The general formatting of science textbooks provides chapters consisting of highlighted vocabulary terms, headings and sections that organize important sub-topics, and various images and graphic organizers to help students visualize concepts. At the end of each chapter, the main idea is summarized, along with a few key supporting details. Comprehension questions are usually in various formats such as short responses, multiple choice, cloze reading/fill-in-the-blank, and/or drawing diagrams to show categorization, cause-and-effect, sequence, etc.

For English Language Learners and students with needs, supplemental materials can be provided in forms of visual aids and tangible props to assist in comprehension.

Delivery 

Lesson will begin with demonstration to catch students' attention and engagement as well as lead into activation of background knowledge. Students will be in a seating arrangement of homogeneous groups of four based on readiness and ability. Each group will be provided with sample rocks to examine and discuss similarities and differences that they observe. There will be a whole-class discussion to share their observations before the introduction to the chapter and lessons.

Students will see videos of different types of rock formations around the world to help them make real-world connections. Learning activities will consist of students using pictures and cards to help them categorize and identify the classification of rocks to further reinforce their learning.

Assessment

Objective: By the end of the unit, students will demonstrate understanding of the rock cycle and the differences of the characteristics between metamorphic, sedimentary, and igneous rocks through:

• Tier 1 (Beginner) -
• completion of a chart comparing the characteristics of three different types of rocks, completion of labeling the types of rock to the correct process in a rock cycle diagram, and a score of at least 70% on a vocabulary quiz consisting of matching questions of terms and its definitions
• Tier 2 (Intermediate) - 
• completion of a Venn diagram comparing the similarities and differences between three types of rocks, completion of labeling the types of rock and the correct processes in a rock cycle diagram, and a score of at least 80% on a vocabulary quiz consisting of multiple choice/true-false questions
• Tier 3 (Advanced) - 
• completion of a Venn diagram comparing the similarities and differences between three types of rocks, completion of labeling the types of rock and the correct processes in a rock cycle diagram with a short response regarding the similarities between recycling and a rock cycle, and a score of at least 90% on a vocabulary quiz consisting of fill-in-the-blank and multiple choice questions

Project-Based/Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Project-Based Learning is an approach to learning where students are encouraged to investigate and apply their skills in solving a real-world challenge or problem over an extended period of time.

How "Smart" is Your Food?*
Grade 5 Mathematics

Project Idea: To promote local wellness and healthy eating, students will work in groups to select four healthy recipes from USDA Recipes for Schools (one entree, two side dishes, and one dessert). Each group will perform calculations for the recipes to serve 25 for a class and 150 for an event. The amount of ingredients and nutritional information will be included in a PowerPoint presentation. Their recommended meals will be presented to a community or school event to vote for the "Smartest" Food Meal.

Content Standards & Objectives:
M.O.5.1.1, M.O.5.1.3, M.O.5.1.6, M.O.5.1.7, M.O.5.1.11, M.O.5.4.5, 21C.O.5-8.1.LS3, 21C.O.5-8.2.TT2, 21C. O.5-8.3.LS4

• Students will order and compare decimals and whole numbers to compare nutrition facts.
• Students will estimate decimals and whole numbers to justify their nutrition decisions.
• Students will add and subtract fractions/mixed numbers and decimals, use conversion within a system of measurement, and use models of equivalent fractions and decimals to present their choice of recommended meal with servings of 25 and 150.

Materials/Resources:

School/Community Individuals - Nutritionist, school cooks, local caterers (invite individuals to help start a discussion on healthy foods, how to adjust recipes to feed an entire school, etc.) 

Technology - Computer lab, internet access, word processing software, PowerPoint software, calculators 

Classroom materials - Colored construction paper and base ten blocks (manipulatives to model students' understanding and calculations of conversions and measurements), tape, scissors, glue

Day 1
Students will be introduced to the project and have the opportunity to interview and discuss with a guest (cafeteria worker, nutritionist, etc.) to explore the topic and activate background knowledge. Demonstration of nutrition labels (provide examples of different packaged foods) and discussion of what it means for a food to be "smart" (smart = a smart and healthy choice) will help students build connection to the project.

The class will be divided into groups of four, based on heterogeneous grouping by ability. Among each group, students will determine individual roles within the team: Manager, Materials Technician, Supervisor, and Director. While every role requires active participation and equally shares the group responsibility, the Manager will oversee the overall workings of the group, the Materials Technician will obtain, organize and return all necessary materials, the Supervisor will speak for the group and seek assistance if needed, and the Director will double check all math work of the project.

Rationale: Different roles within the team allows students the opportunity to highlight their strengths and to be engage in their learning and contributions to the group.

Days 2-3
Teams will begin by brainstorming and using the computers to access the USDA Recipes for Schools website to decide on; one recipe for an entree, two recipes for side dishes, and one recipe for a dessert. A copy of each recipe will be printed out for future reference.

Using information from the nutrition facts, each group will be asked to compare the values of different components of the recipes. Each student will select one recipe of the four chosen by the team and estimate the amount of each ingredient that will be needed to serve 25 and 150 people.

Within the instruction of calculating decimals and fractions to help students make conversions, the teacher will provide different stations to differentiate students' process in understanding and meeting their learning needs for the project:

Station 1: Students will be provided with manipulatives or drawn representations to help students understand why numbers and its computations work the way they do. Students will work on an example problem individually, then share with a partner their work that is provided with drawings or manipulatives to defend their solution. In turn, the partner will use a second method to check their classmate's computation.

Station 2: At this station, students will develop their comfort, accuracy, and speed on their calculations. Students can complete a teacher-generated task or a computer program that offers a game-based practice that covers the skills of adding, subtracting, and modeling equivalent fractions/decimals.

Station 3: Students will explore other real-world situations that requires adding, subtracting, and modeling equivalent fractions/decimals, such as purchasing groceries (monetary transactions). Individual students can access the internet and report their findings through an example scenario with provided computations.

Rationale: Different stations will give students different ways to process the concept based on their preferred learning style. Station 1 involves in manipulatives and drawing representations to give the students a more hands-on learning experience while Station 2 gives students a more engaging way of practicing and working on the accuracy of their calculations. Lastly, Station 3 is a supplemental option for higher-achieving students who can independently complete tasks that encourages them to explore the concepts more in-depth.

Days 4-5
Students will complete all their computations and begin putting together their PowerPoint presentations; they will be required to use a minimum of four slides and present their recommended meal around the length of 3 minutes.

Presentations will be graded based on a teacher-created rubric with criterion including application of knowledge, accurate calculations, and creativity. In addition to equal responsibility of the effort and appearance toward the overall presentation, each team member is responsible for creating a slide containing the recipe they helped calculate for the change in servings.

Each student will complete a self-evaluation and team evaluation of the collaboration for this project.

Rationale: Student accountability for the final product is ensured by having every team member be responsible for the presentation of one recipe each. In addition to grading the overall presentation, teacher may assess student performance and learning progress based upon their individual slide as well.

Source:
*http://wveis.k12.wv.us/teach21/public/project/Guide.cfm?upid=3495&tsele1=2&tsele2=105

Cooperative Learning

Both heterogeneous and homogeneous grouping patterns can be applied in lesson instruction and activities to teach grade level standards within specific content areas and to help students master grade level standards.

Advantages to heterogeneous grouping, where students of varying interests and performance levels learn and work together, include developing interpersonal relationships, increasing acceptance of classmates of different diversities and background, student tasks, roles, and accountability, and peer mentoring and leadership opportunities. In subjects such as history or science, students can benefit from wider exposure to the different viewpoints others may have on the subject matter or topic. Higher-achieving students within heterogeneous group can gain roles as a leader or mentor to assist and support those who may be struggling with the lesson. Furthermore, within a mixed ability group, students are held accountable for their efforts and the work they contribute because their task--while each are different from other's (such as discussion leader, note-taker, reporter, etc.)--are equally essential towards the completion of the overall product.

Advantages to homogeneous grouping, where students are grouped based on similar interests and/or performance abilities, include being able to target specific skills based on students' learning needs and allowing students to move on with their learning within being restricted to the pace of the entire classroom. For example, homogeneous grouping is beneficial for reading and math where students can be organized into small groups where each focuses on different concepts that the individual requires more clarification and support in (writing with more text evidence, text analysis, solving multi-step word problems, unit measurement and conversions, etc.). Lastly, by ability grouping students, creative dynamics among the team may start to form and students who usually do not actively participate in groups will explore new roles that they hadn't tried before.

In all, cooperative learning--whether it be heterogeneous or homogeneous grouping--allows for differentiation and increase in student performance by creating the opportunity for students to develop various interpersonal relationships and dynamics through different combinations of student groups and gain more access to content through those different interactions. In groups, students can explore the material more in depth, learn through different perspectives, and actively apply their skills towards a product that demonstrates their understanding.

Beginning Differentiation

Differentiation of instruction within a classroom begins with providing various forms of content presentation as well as implementing different learning activities to supplement and reinforce the new content.

English Language Learners:
Many ways to different content for English Language Learners include using varied supplementary materials, advanced/note-taking organizers, and leveling questions, and providing different levels of explanations.

Content Presentation:

Using varied supplementary materials may benefit English Language Learners because the content can be organized and presented in a way that can be processed easier. Supplementary materials can include adapted text where the content is broken down into smaller chunks and is less demanding in terms of readability and specific terminology. Also, supplementary materials can include manipulatives that can be used for demonstrations or applications to further support a concept--such as using tangrams or gumdrops and toothpicks to help students understand shapes and geometry.

Structuring advanced or note-taking organizers for student may also help them process the content easier as the new information is divided into comprehensible chunks and categories. As an example, in analyzing the components of persuasive writing, English Language Learners can complete a chart that breaks down the main components of a strong persuasive writing (opinion>reasons>details/examples).

Leveling questions and providing different levels of explanations appropriately addresses the student's pace of learn and abilities. For example, in teaching about ecosystem, questions can be structured to allow students in the preproduction stage of English proficiency to actively listen and use nonverbal gestures, like pointing ("Where is the canopy/forest floor/etc. in the forest ecosystem?"). For students within the early production stage of English proficiency, questions ("Who.../What.../Where...") can be structured to allow them to answer in words or phrases. To appropriately address the learning stages of students in intermediate fluency and advanced, questions should target for comprehension and responses in complete sentences with native-like proficiency and fluency.

Learning Activities:

Integrating physical/hands-on activities into learning activities can help English Language Learners to make connections with new information. In discussing and analyzing certain events in history or genres of literature, students can work in groups to create a skit to demonstrate the key actions or events of historical figures/plot. In reading Shakespeare, students can demonstrate comprehension of the content through acting out the scenes of Macbeth to show the character's key thoughts, emotions and actions that contributes to the conflict and plot of the overall play. For learning vocabulary terms (root words, biology terms, etc.), students can gather different images and pictures that associates and provides examples for better understanding of the meaning of the word.

Students with Exceptionalities:
Some methods of differentiating content for students with exceptionalities involve in preteaching, chunking, and copycatting.

Content Presentation:

Preteaching can improve student learning by giving them early exposure to familiarize them with the new topic or lesson. Teaching in detail and reviewing vocabulary terms, such as the parts of a plant, prior to a lesson may decrease the chances of confusion when students begin reading their textbooks on photosynthesis. Furthermore, activating background knowledge is another way of preteaching as it prepares and directs the students towards the relevant topic of the lesson.

Copycatting lets students become familiar to the patterns of sentences or steps of a math problems by having them copy down what the teacher writes. Chunking is another strategy where the teacher can break down a concept into more manageable steps for students; for an example, in summarizing a text, the teacher may first ask students to identify and highlight/underline the main idea and it supporting details before writing a paragraph or sentence for the summary.

Learning Activities:

Peer pairing is beneficial in learning activities as students can support and learn from each other. Students with exceptionalities can be paired with higher achieving students who can encourage, mentor, and provide modeling. On the other hand, working well with others may be one of the challenges students with exceptionalities face. Learning activities can be designed for independent participation where it involves in picture/cue cards and simple steps and directions to avoid overwhelming of senses and frustration in learning.

Advanced or Gifted Learners:
Integrating technology, offering various texts, asking deeper questions, and allowing personal goal setting can be ways to differentiate content for advanced or gifted learners.

Content Presentation:

With wider range of texts and resources (encyclopedias, maps, journal or newspaper articles, internet sources, etc.), advanced or gifted learners can have deeper access to the lesson topic or concept. Moreover, creating more challenging tasks and offering a quick learning pace for advanced learners can maintain their motivation in their learning progress.

Learning Activities:

Modification of learning activities can allow for more independent and self-reflective learning for advanced students. For example, within the unit of U.S. history and media literacy, students will be researching for three websites about the Spanish-American War by comparing and contrasting each based on a given criteria. The assignment will be modified for advanced learners where they will create their own 4-point rubric for evaluating the websites based on five or more features; furthermore, the students will find a website to exemplify each level of their rubric, providing justification for each website selected.

Applying Differentiation and Addressing Various Learning Preferences

An "Archaeological Dig" Writing Assignment
Grade 6-8

Prompt: Students imagine they are an archaeologist at an active dig. While excavating, they come across an object; as they touch the object, they suddenly go back in time. Invisible, they witness their object's creation and use.*

As part of the unit of creative nonfiction writing, I would structure this assignment to allow for differentiation and address various learning preferences in the following ways:

Writing Requirements

Grading Rubric: 1 (24 points)

Tier 1 (At-risk Learners, English Language Learners, Students with Exceptionalities)

• Describe the creator/inventor of the object
• Describe the creation process of the object (materials used, length of time, etc.)
• Describe the time era that the object was created during

Tier 2 (Students at Grade Level)

• Describe the creator's/inventor's purpose behind the creation of the object
• Describe how the object made an impact to the time era

Tier 3 (Advanced or Gifted Learners)

• Describe how the culture or prior events of the time era influenced the creation of the object

Summary Presentation

Grading Rubric: 1 2 3 4 (16 points)

Option 1: Prepare a poster

Option 2: Build a model (physical or virtual)

Option 3: Create a PowerPoint

Option 4: Perform a skit

Rationale
With this particular prompt, students are able to incorporate historical research into their writing as well as provided student choice to ensure their consistent motivation, focus and effort throughout their assignment. The writing requirements for this creative nonfiction prompt is organized into tiers based on the appropriate level of challenge that students are most capable of performing. While all of the students' completed assignments will address the prompt, their products will be varied based on their development of descriptive writing and critical thinking skills. For example, the writing requirements the higher tiers requires higher level of critical thinking by having the students consider the implications and consequences of the creation of the object, evaluating the inventor's point-of-view, and/or using reason and evidence to explain the impact of the object.

In addition to their creative nonfiction writing, students will put together a summary presentation to share their story and knowledge with the class. Multiple options of forms of presentation are available to them based on the student's different learning styles. Visual learners may prefer preparation of a poster for their presentation as they can organize their knowledge and thoughts through means of images and drawings. Kinesthetic learners may benefit from the option of presenting their summaries through model as it gives them the opportunity to use their sense of touch and hands to create a tangible product. With the choice of performing a skit as their presentation, students who are either or both kinesthetic and verbal learners have the chance to communicate their information through speech and actions. Lastly, the assignment addresses the reflective aspect of solitary learning which is appropriate for students to edit and further develop their own personal style of writing which may be different from others.

Source:
*https://www.csn.edu/sites/default/files/legacy/PDFFiles/Library/Cosgrove1.pdf 

MAT674 Differentiated Instruction

Hello all,

I am thrilled to begin my first course towards specialization in Best Practices in teaching. I graduated from University of California, Irvine in 2013, attaining my B.S. degree in Biological Sciences and a minor in Educational Studies. My decision to teach is a result of my interest in helping and connecting with others as well as seeing students light up when they learn something new. I can't think of anything more rewarding than interacting with young minds and being a part of their personal and academic growth.

While my classroom teaching experience is limited, I have had many opportunities working with children and students through a variety of other settings, such as children's hospital volunteering, child behavioral undergraduate research, and after-school/tutoring programs. I have thoroughly enjoyed every single opportunity of being a role model and teacher to others; all of the experiences thus far has confirmed that I am undoubtedly making the best decision towards my career path. As I am nearing the completion of my Multiple Subject Teaching Credential program, I am looking forward to having my own classroom one day and to be able to work with great potential of all the young minds that I will meet in the future.

Differentiated Teaching and Learning Activities

I believe one of the most important aspects in differentiated teaching is the understanding and acceptance that every student steps into the classroom with a unique mind, background, and needs. As an aspiring teacher, I hope to provide a learning environment that nourishes the confidence and self-esteem of each individual student in their capabilities across all subject areas. Since students will demonstrate a diverse range of strengths and weaknesses, each of their strengths and talents should be acknowledged and celebrated while their weaknesses are embraced as opportunities of improvement.

From my experiences as a tutor and after-school teacher, a strategy of differentiated teaching that I always fall back on is addressing the different learning styles (visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic) of my students. For each new topic or lesson that I introduce to my students, I try to provide more than one means of teaching the content, such as the use of graphic organizers to support visual learners, and the use of learning tools and manipulatives for kinesthetic learners.

Also, I have found that student choice especially helps to avoid redundancy as well as boost their motivation and engagement in learning a new topic and allow them to perform within their own zone of proximal development. In teaching 4th-6th grade students in learning and memorizing root words and affixes, I allow students to choose their own expression of "wordplay" where they can either draw, act out, write a short poem, etc. in regards to an assigned root word to share with their peers. With this wordplay exercise, students can remember their root words and affixes more effectively when their interests and learning styles align.

C