This training teaches proven strategies that are research-based, practical, proactive, and easy to implement. I will provide flexibility in order to best meet the unique needs of your campus. Participants will learn techniques to capture attention, engage students' emotions, promote deeper learning, meet students where they are, and lead them where they need to be.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION TAKEAWAYS

TEACHERS WILL LEARN...

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how to build interest and motivate the unmotivated.

how to quickly assess lesson effectiveness.

how to use Storytelling for Project-Based Learning.

how to grab and keep student interest.

how to incorporate fun and divergent ways of learning.

how to develop critical thinking in the student’s approach to learning.

how to use human graphing to get immediate feedback from students.

how to modify these strategies for all kids and communities.

...how to become real to their students.

8:30 am – 12:00 pm

Make the connection between differentiated instruction and student engagement and motivation

Clarify your understanding of what differentiated instruction is and isn’t.
Learn the pillars of differentiated instruction.
Assess which components of student engagement and motivation would be most valuable to focus upon.
Understand how multiple intelligences and learning modalities impact student engagement.

Gain tools for promoting positive feelings in the classroom

Explore ways to bring more of yourself into the classroom.
Use movement to stimulate positive affect and deepen understanding.
Learn fun strategies to ask for and respond to student feedback.

Discover strategies for stimulating attention and interest

Keep students on their toes with a variety of randomization techniques.
Capture students’ attention and lead them to deeper levels of understanding through specific questioning techniques.
Rediscover storytelling as a way to draw students into learning.

Lunch 12:00 – 1:00 pm

1:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Design lessons that are high on the “meaningful and relevant” meter

Guide students to make personal connections to key concepts.
Use a fresh approach to visual images to stimulate interest and engagement.
Encourage input from everyone with brainstorming.

Help students build confidence and self-efficacy

Prepare kids to respond on demand and under pressure.
Learn safe, fun ways for students to show what they know.

…and much more!

Reach students you’ve never reached before.
Facilitate deeper levels of understanding and learning.
Be better equipped to recognize and respond to individual needs and interests.
Collaborate with your colleagues to enhance your learning and teaching effectiveness.
Have more fun with your teaching!

We know that students come into our classrooms and schools with different backgrounds and cultures, but their cognitive abilities, assets, and experiences are just as wide ranging.

Sometimes the only thing students have in common is their age! When students feel alienated, alone, and unsure about what is going on in school it is difficult for them to be able to adapt to and perform in the classroom. In an age where drama rules the day (check out reality TV!), it is important to remember students will be more ready and willing to learn when they feel positive about their classroom experience. Our strategies set the stage for that to occur.

Differentiated Instruction Beliefs

All students are different
DI is the implementation of strategies to reach multiple learning styles and intelligences.
Students should be taught content in the best way that they learn.
DI is for all learners! Big or small, experienced or young, all learners deserve the best opportunity to learn.
DI should be used in every lesson we teach!
In order to be fair to all students we must differentiate their learning and our instruction.
Students have different modalities of learning.
Depth of knowledge is as important as breadth of knowledge.
Students need a reasonable amount of pressure to perform at peak academic levels.
Not all kids learn the same information at the same time or even at the same rate. Not all teachers teach the same and not all curricula can be taught the same. (Robinson, 2008)

Today, you must compete for student attention. You compete with hundreds of channels available through cable and satellite television. Our phones and tablets stream most of them too! This is not to mention computer games, social media, and everything else available through the internet and cyberspace.

Our kids are overstimulated and our teachers overwhelmed as they endeavor to get their students interested and involved in the curricula. Paradoxically, it is our own lessons that teach students when they can be off-task and when they can minimally participate in class! The notion that fairness and that everyone must participate the very same way often create habits and gaps in student attention in the classroom.

The good news is that promoting attention and interest is immediately doable!

Differentiated Instruction Benefits for Students

Students in Differentiated Instruction classrooms enjoy a number of advantages over those in traditional “one-size fits all” approach settings. Students are able to be active participants in their own learning.
The curriculum is no longer pointed to the middle of the group but available and interactive to all students. Those students that found a traditional classroom lesson too difficult or something they had already learned which led to feeling of being “bored” or “not engaged” are now excited about their learning.
Students receive the content and curriculum in ways that ensure they are engaged. This engagement allows students to connect and learn the content at a deep level of understanding.

The worse thing we can do is become Charlie Brown’s teacher! Subject matter that is irrelevant and meaningless (“whaa-whaa-whaa”) is easily ignored as simply…noise. If you are not connected with your students and they feel your subject matter has no relevance in their lives, you will feel as Sisyphus did at the end of every school day. The good news is that we teach you how to end the “myth of the struggle.”

By creating relevant points your students have a chance to attach meaning and value to what you teach which is critical in helping them care about what is being taught and to embrace the knowledge for themselves! Strategies that help students find their voice and explore your subjects are extremely valuable. Synectics, connecting relevant terms through visual and auditory methods, are some of the ways we help our students attach value and meaning to what we teach.

Differentiated Instruction Benefits for Administrators

Differentiated Instruction allows administrators to know that teachers are deeply covering the standards in their content or grade level so that students have a deep and solid understanding of the material.
Administrators in Differentiated Instruction schools know that each student is a part of an appropriately challenging and rigorous learning environment that will benefit them now and in the future!
Administrators have the tools to support their teachers and focus on instructional leadership!

The true purpose of an education is to discover how we learn best so that we may continue doing so throughout life. Because of our busy lives and the many extra tasks thrown at us, we as teachers often feel we have to give away the facts instead of having the students earn them. When we struggle yet overcome the obstacle, we become stronger.

The same is true for learning. If we have to think a bit harder and deeper and arrive at the answer, we have earned that knowledge. Our strategies emphasize this simple concept: The student is responsible for the learning and the teacher is the guide to help them discover how to do it. We can never learn for our kids, nor should we, but we can most certainly help them learn to work under pressure and discover how they can truly perform above and beyond our expectations.

We will show you how to do this!

Differentiated Instruction Benefits for Teachers

Teachers “buy-in” because this is not a training full of fads and buzzwords. Teachers are not asked to hear more “theory” and then figure implementation out on their own.
Teachers are always looking for ways to improve their craft and Differentiated Instruction does just that by giving strategies that can be modified for all kids and communities – for all grades levels and curriculum.
Differentiated Instruction is an effective way to reach all students in the classroom and the stress of meeting the high expectations for all students is alleviated. Educator’s energy can be poured into the students they work with.
Differentiated Instruction brings attention and engagement to each and every lesson. Students are actively involved in the content and excited about the learning they are undertaking
Differentiated Instruction strategies promote having a strong understanding of the students that we teach. Understanding our students in their learning styles on the deep level allow for accurate assessing the learning as well as strong relationships between student and teacher.
Differentiated Instruction fosters reflective practice in our lessons, which is an essential aspect of most evaluation systems.

By virtue of the physical structure of our educational institutions and the habits they have kept in place for so long, we have become a profession of loners. This is truly a shame since so many teachers are creating magic in their classrooms, yet other teachers struggle with the very same lessons and populations.

Through the use of our matrix, we demonstrate how the individual teacher can share their best efforts and successes with others, as well as entire schools sharing best practices across the grades and subjects they teach. By encouraging each other to share, we will prevent others from reinventing the wheel or suffer through ineffective methods already tried by others.

This guided strategy is both powerful and useful as we learn to share successes and celebrate the great learning going on in our classrooms. We are great at helping you to share your best practices.

Differentiated Instruction Benefits All Students

Sometimes the only thing students in a classroom have in common is their age! Students come into our classrooms and schools with different backgrounds and cultures. Their cognitive abilities, assets and experiences are just as wide ranging.
When one lesson resonates with one student but not with another, we owe it to students to offer the learning in many different approaches to help them receive it in their strengths and abilities.
Fair does not always mean equal – sometimes we need to go an extra step for a student. In order to be fair to all students we must differentiate their learning and our instruction.

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Amazing! This was one of the most valuable presentations I have seen!

Elementary Teacher