Differentiation
What is the purpose of differentiation? What is it supposed to accomplish?
The purpose is to cater to all student learning needs, including their interests, readiness levels, and learning styles in order to enhance their learning.
What should a teacher consider when crafting the learning objectives for a lesson?
The teacher should consider the following: the thinking levels of your learners based on Bloom's Taxonomy; the activities that will determine if the objective was achieved; and the success criteria. Remember: The objectives should use appropriate verb and should be one level above where the students started the class.
What are the essential components of an effective lesson plan? Hint: From start to finish. From beginning to end.
Mentions all of the following and more with clear details about each: lesson objectives, diagnostics, starter activities, teacher and student activities, questions, plenary, reflection.
What is the difference between formative and summative assessments? When might you use each one?
Formative is considered practice and is typically assessed but not for a grade. Formative happens during a lesson and throughout the unit. This is assessment for learning. Summative assessments are also known as tests or exams. They are often high stakes and mark the end of a unit. They are for a grade and are evaluative. This is assessment of learning.
What is the best way to apply differentiation successfully in the classroom? Provide examples. Hint: There are four. Give an example of each.
Differentiation by the content, the process, the product and the environment. (Examples should be given for each.)
What components of a lesson plan are determined by the learning taxonomies?
The learning objectives, the level of questioning, the selection of teaching strategies and methods, the activities, and the level and methods of assessment
How might you use your academic curriculum plan when planning to create your lessons? What is the relationship between these plans?
The answer mentions some of the following:
The clear link between a curriculum plan and a lesson plan.
Objectives are broken down from long-term overview to achievable short-term goals.
Lesson plans will determine the activities to be conducted to meet the long-term objective.
The lesson plans will have the assessments to assess student learning that are linked to the standards of the long-term curriculum plan.
If the majority of your class has performed poorly on a formative assessment or performance task, what would you do as a result?
Provide descriptive feedback to eventually reassess. You might also need to revisit the topic, plan for remedial actions, and re-teach the topic.
In your lesson plan, what are the various ways to implement differentiation in order to cater to the different learning styles? In other words, what can be differentiated? Hint: This is not the four types of differentiation.
Plan differentiated objectives, differentiated activities, differentiated assessments, and differentiated questions for different learning styles.
Why is it important to know your learners before you plan a lesson?
It is important to know your learners before a lesson as this will help the teacher know the student learning styles, interests, and academic levels, which will in turn help the teacher in planning a differentiated lesson that caters to the needs of all learners.
What do you consider when selecting the activities for the lesson?
Mentions 3 or more of the following:
The thinking level identified in the learning objectives/outcomes
Student interest
Student readiness level
Student academic level
Student learning styles
Teacher time management
Feasibility of the activity
How might teachers typically assess students during a lesson?
Mentions the use of diagnostic and formative assessment at the beginning of the lesson, the use of formative assessment during and at the end of the lesson, and the use of summative assessment at the end of a unit. Mentions observational assessments, exit tickets, reflection, questioning, white boards, hand signals etc.
Please describe the different ways to create a learning environment in your lesson plan that supports differentiated instruction and teaching.
Create flexible groupings, create a balance between group work and individual work, provide a challenging learning environment, use technology effectively, and make assessments flexible and adjust the difficulty.
In Bloom's taxonomy, which thinking levels are HOTS and which ones are LOTS? As a teacher, when and how do you utilize both in your class?
Answers may vary. The answer should mention at least two examples such as differentiation, diagnostic, hinge questions, essential questions, formative and summative assessments, sequence of unit, etc.
What do you do if a lesson doesn't work well?
The answer should give a specific example of when a lesson didn't work. It should highlight how you analyzed what went wrong and identified the weaknesses with the lesson.
Describe how you went about improving the lesson by various means such as:
Please share a specific example of when you might prefer to use objective questions and when you might prefer to use subjective questions to assess student learning? Please provide specific examples of each.
Describes more than 3 uses of subjective and objective questions.
Mentions a clear example of when to use subjective questions such as when: a) when the test is evaluative in nature and the writing is assessed as well as the content, b) you are more interested in exploring the student's attitudes than in measuring his/her aptitude at test taking c) there are myriad ways to respond.
Mentions a clear example of when to use objective questions such as when: a) the group to be tested is large and the test may be reused, b) highly reliable test scores must be obtained as efficiently as possible, c) impartiality of evaluation, absolute fairness, and freedom from possible test scoring influences are essential, d) a quick quiz or diagnostic, e) hinge questions.
Share an example of how you have used or might use differentiation by product with your students in your classroom. Please be specific.
Answers may vary but need to be specific and accurate.
Please share an example of how you have used learning taxonomies in your teaching and classroom planning? Please be specific on subject, topic, and grade level.
Answers may vary. A specific topic and subject should be specified. The example should highlight the use of taxonomies in writing the objective, in the selection of teaching strategies and methods, in the questioning used, and in the creation of formative and summative assessments.
Can you identify the three steps of reverse/backward planning and explain the importance of reverse planning in general?
The answer should identify the following:
1) Identify the desired outcomes i.e., the results, the big ideas, the skills the understandings.
2) Determine the type of summative assessment and the acceptable evidence.
3) Plan learning events, lessons, and instruction along with formative assessments.
Backward planning is important because you need to know where your students are going before you can begin to take them there.
How can teachers effectively use assessment data to plan for future effective lessons? Please share examples of when you have effectively used assessment data to plan effective lessons.
Give examples of how assessment data was used to plan effective lessons. Answers may vary. Should connect to AFL (Assessment for Learning)
The collection of data from formal and informal assessments gives teachers a way to understand student needs. In addition, it allows teachers to group students based on strengths and weaknesses and to design and adjust lesson plans to ensure that students continuously improve or revisit topics.