Differentiated Instruction
Differentiated instruction is a practice of adapting instruction to meet the needs of the individual students in the class. It means providing multiple options for research, gathering of facts, understanding concepts and communicating information. The challenge that teachers face is motivating all students and ensuring that they are involved in rich, quality activities. By differentiating pace, process and content, teachers are more able to support students in all stages of their learning.

"The goal of differentiated literacy instruction is to maximize each student's growth and progress. Differentiated instruction means that students receive qualitatively different instruction based on their needs, not simply more or less of the same thing. It may require teachers to adapt all aspects of their literacy programming including teaching strategies, content, resources, assessment methods and student groupings."1

Differentiating instruction requires an understanding of the whole child; likes and dislikes, preferred learning styles, multiple intelligences, background and the prior knowledge that the child brings to the new learning. Diversity does not merely refer to external differences, but also to the way students learn. As teachers, we need to consider these differences when using various instructional approaches to build on current strengths. Students in classrooms where differentiated instruction is used are encouraged to learn and communicate their ideas in a variety of ways. Providing choice allows students to highlight individual preferences and develop into more independent learners.

Before beginning instruction, teachers must collect baseline data about what students already know and what they need to learn. To do this, we use a wide variety of common assessments such as inventories, reading records and surveys. The data gathered allows teachers to identify strengths and needs to facilitate planning instruction. In order to identify how students are progressing, teachers gather data to analyze student skill development before, during and after instruction. This allows us to refocus and scaffold instruction to meet the needs of students.

The curriculum tells us what to teach, while differentiated instruction tells us how to teach in order to meet the diverse needs of our students. In order to focus on the needs and strengths of our students, we need to scaffold our instruction by gradually releasing responsibility in a variety of ways, including through oral language and practice. We can make minor adjustments to our daily practice in order to differentiate for our students. Some adjustments include providing choice, grouping and regrouping, offering a variety of materials, auditory and visual cues, building in movement and providing extra time and practice.

As teachers navigate students through their journey of learning, they must provide them with various paths to reach their destinations. Not all students will reach that destination in the same way; it is the teacher's responsibility to make sure they provide students with the best possible routes to achieve success. "It seemed we saw millions of ways to do things, to learn things. We saw all kinds of possibilities and all kinds of people with new and exciting ideas. Everyone was working together. Some people were good with numbers, others were good with words and still others were good with pictures."2

Mary Cairo, Colleen Hayward and Al Ricci, TCDSB

1Literacy for Learning: The Report of the Expert Panel in Literacy in Grades 4 to 6 in Ontario, 2004,P.41.
2 Carolyn Sollman, Barbara Emmons and Judith Paolini, Through the Cracks (Worchester, Massachusetts; Davis publications inc., 1994).

Print Resources
Gregory, Gayle and Chapman,
Carolyn (2003) Differentiated
Instructional Strategies - One Size
Doesn't Fit All, Thousand Oakes,
CA: Corwin Press.

Gregory, Gayle and Chapman,
Carolyn. (2003) Differentiated
Instructional Strategies in Practice -
Training, Implementation and
Supervision, Thousand Oakes, CA:
Corwin Press.

Tomlinson, C. (1999) The
Differentiated Classroom:
Responding to the needs of all
learners, Alexandria, V. A.
Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.		 Tomlinson, C. (2000) The
Differentiated Classroom,
Alexandria, V. A.: ASCD.

Tomlinson, C. (2003) Fulfilling the
Promise of Differentiated Classroom,
Alexandrai, VA: ASCD.

Tomlinson, C. and Caroline
Cunningham Eidson. (2003)
Differentiation in Practice: A
Resource Guide Differentiating
Curriculum Grades K-5,
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Tomlinson, C. and Jay McTighe.
(2006) Integrating Differentiated
Instruction + Understanding by
Design, Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

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President's Message
Another Wonderful Conference...
Planning is near completion for our 31st annual Reading for the Love of It conference which takes place Feb. 15 and 16, 2007 at the Westin Harbour Castle.

Thanks to Vangie Kalanderopoulos and her committee for their efforts in creating a wonderful conference programme. We have a range of exciting speakers including Eric Walters, Cris Tovani, Debbie Miller, Jeff Wilhelm and Sharon Taberski. David Booth, Jane Yolen, Susan Aglukark and Justin Trudeau will be speaking at meal functions, and extraordinary children's singer and child advocate Raffi Cavoukian will be our Thursday night Awards Banquet speaker.

We are accepting nominations for the East York-Scarborough Annual Reading Award. Please consider nominating a deserving colleague for this prestigious award by December 5. For more details, see page 8.

Thank you for your continued support of Reading for the Love of It. We hope to see you at our conference in February.

Lise Hawkins, President

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Take the DI Challenge
Test your understanding of Differentiated Instruction by answering this short True or False quiz.

  1. Differentiated Instruction involves responsive teaching and scaffolding of student learning. T or F
  2. Differentiated Instruction is just about modifying curriculum content. T or F
  3. Offering a choice of assessment tasks is a way to differentiate assessment. T or F
  4. The Gradual Release of Responsibility model and Vygotsky's theory of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) facilitate differentiation of literacy instruction. T or F
  5. Differentiated Instruction is synonymous with individualized programming. T or F

For answers, click here.

Susan Remedios and Marisa Liscio
Special Education and 5th Block Teachers, St. Lawrence School, TCDSB

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Webcasts Worth Watching
Experts in various fields of education are available for your professional learning with just a click of a mouse. The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, in partnership with Curriculum Services Canada, has made available a number of informative webcasts that teachers will find extremely useful. A new webcast, focusing on a current educational issue, is featured towards the end of each month. Differentiated Instruction, released in March 2006, is one of these. Elizabeth Coelho, Dr. Lyn Sharratt, Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm and Camille Williams-Taylor share their insights about differentiated instruction as well as specific strategies proven to improve the learning of students in our diverse classrooms. A viewing and discussion guide is available online. For a direct link, visit
www.curriculum.org/secretariat/march29.html

Other upcoming titles include: Effective Instruction in Reading Comprehension, Oct. 25/06;  Language Curriculum Gr. 1-8: Media and Critical Literacy on Dec. 13/06;  Demographics and Diversity: Our Classrooms... Our World, Feb. 22/07 and Making Mathematics Accessible to All Students on March 28/07 to mention just a few.

www.curriculum.org offers a list of all the archived webcasts in English and in French

Kathy Lazarovits
Instructional Leader, ESL/ELD, TDSB

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Book Review
Differentiated Literacy Strategies: for Student Growth and Achievement in Grades K-6
By Gayle H. Gregory and Lin Kuzmich
Corwin Press, 2005
ISBN 0-7619-8881-5

Differentiated Literacy Strategies is an excellent resource which provides rich strategies for managing instruction in our increasingly complex classrooms as well as best means by which to serve the diverse needs of our students.The authors identify well-researched strategies which support the development of each student as a lifelong, literate learner prepared to deal with the demands of literacy in the twenty-first century. Closing the achievement gap means that teaching to the middle is no longer enough.

Differentiated Literacy Strategies provides teachers with ways in which they can collect and use assessment information to truly maximize the power of their teaching to meet the needs of all their students.The authors clearly identify powerful instructional strategies which will lead to increased student achievement and they describe the students for whom these strategies will be most effective. Interwoven throughout the book is an emphasis on the connections between student engagement and self-directed learning.The book's strong focus on research-based strategies and success for all makes it a compelling read.

Alix Harte
Project Leader, English Literacy
Department, TDSB

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10 Quick & Easy Differentiation Strategies
10Adjust the pacing of instruction. Provide extra time to complete tasks.
9Build in extra practice
8Provide auditory cues (e.g., routine instructions transition music).
7 Provide visual cues (e.g., anchor charts, use of colour and font to highligh information).
6Use graphic organizers to help students organize their thinking.
5Build in movement (e.g., transitions, koosh balls, drama responses).
4Group and regroup for different purposes.
3 Vary materials... match texts to readers
2Provide CHOICE!
1 Start working as team to identify the resources necessary to support all student needs

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Useful Websites on Differentiated Instruction
http://members.shaw.ca/priscillatheroux/differentiating.html
http://members.shaw.ca/priscillatheroux/differentiatingstrategies.html
http://www.sde.com/conferences/Differentiated-Instruction/DIResources.htm
http://www.frsd.k12.nj.us/rfmslibrarylab/di/differentiated_instruction.htm
http://wwwcast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_diffinstruction.htm
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/di.htm
http://tst1160-35.k12.fsu.edu/mainpage.html
http://www.ualberta.ca/~jpdasddc/incl/difinst.htm
http://www.k12albemarle.org/Technology/DI?
http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/teaching/differentiate/planning/

Susan Remedios
Special Education Teacher, St. Lawrence School, TCDSB

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Outreach

On behalf of the East York Scarborough Reading Association's Outreach Committee, I would like to thank the many delegates who visited the Outreach table at our annual conference, not only to purchase our beautiful bags and pins, but to find out more about the projects undertaken on your behalf.

Over the past year, we have proudly sponsored and will continue to sponsor projects at three levels - local, national and international. We were able to sponsor three projects at the international level. One project, in Dodoma, Tanzania, provided support to a local group of educators dedicated to building a school (St. Gaspar's Elementary School) and the furnishing of the new school library. Toronto students and educators traveled to Tanzania to give hands-on assistance. Andrew, a 16 year old student from Toronto's Marshall McLuhan Secondary School participated. He spent a month in Tanzania this past July. (see photos) Andrew recalls that "a primary school that I visited was in a metal crate. The children had paper, pencils and a few toys to help them learn the alphabet and words. Another school, for children in grades 1, 2 and 3, had basic materials like the crate school. This school had a large building to teach the kids in. All of these schools really teach the kids how to share because with the limited amount of toys, kids would have to take turns or learn to play together. Overall the children seemed happy." Our support, through your generosity, allowed St. Gaspar's School in Tanzania to purchase books for the new library.

Your support also provided assistance to the Community Service Alliance who have been building a school in Hato Mayor in the Dominican Republic.

The Outreach committee was also able to support the "Free the Children Leadership Project" in Kenya, dedicated to building a school and classrooms in a local community near Masai Mara, Kenya. Canadian students and educators worked with "Free the Children" building, assisting in classrooms and helping in concrete ways in the community. This project helped to provide the gift of education and literacy to many children. Students and teachers who participated in this initiative acknowledge the experience as life-changing. Participants were overwhelmed by the beauty of the Masai Mara region: an area rich in human history and home to the Maasai people known for their unique culture, traditions and way of life.

Thank you for your continued support and generosity. We hope to see you once again at the Outreach table.

Teresa Paoli, Chair, Outreach Committee

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Nominate Reading Award Winners

Each year, our Association honours exceptional contributions by teachers in the field of literacy. Presentations are made at the annual Awards Banquet in February. Strong consideration is given to nominees who have attended conferences and workshops sponsored by our Association. To qualify for this prestigious award, the candidate should:

  • have a history of sharing professional literacy expertise through workshops, seminars, mentoring, etc.
  • have demonstrated a lasting influence on students through innovative teaching
  • teach in either the T.D.S.B. or the T.C.D.S.B
  • be nominated by two different sources, each of which needs to include both a supporting letter and at least one letter which originates from within a school
Please consider nominating a deserving colleague. Nominations in writing (paper or electronic) will be accepted until 4 p.m., December 5, 2006.

Send to: The Awards Committee
c/o Mary Wilson.
1315 Lawrence Avenue East
Suite 309
Toronto,Ontario M3A 3R3

Fax: 416-444-9282

E-mail: eys@readingfortheloveofit.com

Deborah Chisholm, Chair,Awards Committee

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Gone, but Not Forgotten!

We wish to express our appreciation to Carol Hara for all of her help over the years. Thanks Carol.

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