-Differentiation+of+Instruction

 **Differentiation of Instruction** instruction based on individual needs including remediation, extension, gender, and interest || **Group Members: Donna Sands, Cheryl Terrell, Becky Lawson, Jenny Kraemer** || · Articulate the mission and essential questions related to your topic and post on your wiki page. · Determine the scope of research and responsibility of each member of the group. · Create an estimated timeline for your project. · Report your progress after each meeting on the wiki page.
 * ** Focus Group Guidelines **

Suggested Model for proceeding:  1. State the Mission of your Focus Group  2. Develop Essential Questions to guide your research  3. Collect, organize and validate data about your topic. This may take many forms such as notes from other schools, student responses, testing, implementation and application of ideas.  4. Analyze information collected.  5. Reflect on findings and the relationship to the mission of your focus group.  6. Present findings to the full faculty. This may take the form of a proposal or a sharing. //Support and resources are available as requested.// || **Essential Questions:** How do we meet all of the needs of all of our students?
 * Who needs remediation?
 * What are the red flags for students who need remediation?
 * What can you put into place while you are developing a plan for remediation?
 * How do you know how much extension to give without stressing out or overloading the student?
 * What is truly extension and what is just extra paperwork?
 * How do you know which diagnostician to refer students to?
 * What are some alternative approaches to medication that teachers can offer to parents?

How should teachers organize a classroom environment to meet the needs of boys and girls at different age levels?

How do we best meet the needs of the individual teachers as they strive to support each student as an individual? || Discussed needs for remediation, extension, and gender-specific instruction. Discussed desire for observing at other schools (Shelton--learning disabilities; Hillier--dyslexia; Greenhill-extending students; St. Michael's/ESD--does language therapy during language arts for students who need this remediation) Discussed need to be good listeners--developing the ability to respond to teachable moments that occur spontaneously in the classroom Donna Sands shared the book __Boys and Girls Learn Differently__ which includes a graph breaking down gender differences by age. She also recommended the book __Smart Kids with School Problems__. Becky Lawson brought up co-teaching as an option she had studied. Teachers do not pull out students for special tutoring but work with students within the classroom. Discussed possibility of having a curriculum specialist/supervisor who could be a resource to teachers in developing plans for remediation or extension of students. ||
 * **Oct. 7th Notes:**
 * **Dec 2nd. Notes:**

Cheryl Terrell shared information about differentiating learning for gifted students and implementing student-directed learning in the classroom.

Becky Lawson shared several handouts geared towards parent communication about differentiation, differentiation of language arts curriculum, and lesson planning tools.

Donna Sands shared several helpful book titles for students with learning differences: __All Kinds of Minds__ by Mel Levine (this is a appropriate to read to children), __Smart Kids with School Problems__ by Priscilla Vail, and __Kids in the Syndrome Mix__ by Kutscher.

The group discussed strategies for grouping students and differentiation methods seen with the readers workshop notebook (letters written back and forth between teacher and student). We also discussed when it is appropriate to extend a student (i.e. when that student has completed their required classwork in a thorough and accurate manner).

Donna Sands is arranging for a speaker from Shelton to conduct an in-service about learning differences. ||
 * include component="comments" page="-Differentiation of Instruction" limit="10" ||
 * **January 6 Notes:**

The Differentiation of Learning group met and decided on sub-topics for group members to research. Donna Sands will investigate the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson. Cheryl Terrell will be looking into best practices in differentiation. Becky Lawson will research differentiation for gifted and talented students, and Jenny Kraemer will look into classroom management and lesson design for differentiated learning styles. ||  ||