Strategies for Differentiating Instruction Best Practices for the Classroom

1. One-Size-Fits-All? You’ve Got to Be Kidding!  2. Multiple Ways to Define Academic Success: What Resonates With You?  3. Climate: Creating a Comfort Zone  4. Content: Complex, Engaging, and Relevant  5. Preassessment: An Absolute Necessity  6. Tiering to Facilitate Continuous Progress  7. Tiering Learning Experiences With Bloom’s Taxonomy  8. Tiering With Venn Diagrams  9. Think-Tac-Toe: An Effective Tool for Tiering  10. Managing the Differentiated Classroom  11. Taming the Assessment Beast  12. Reflection: An Essential Practice for Lifelong Learning  13. A Differentiation Fable  Appendix A: What a Child Doesn’t Learn . . . By Tracy Inman  Appendix B: Directions for Activity: How Do You Learn It?  Appendix C: My Way…An Expression Style Inventory  Appendix D: Interest Inventory  Appendix E: Bloom Chart Template  Appendix F: Venn Diagrams  Appendix G: Letters and Boxes  Appendix H: Think-Tac-Toe Template  Appendix I: Developing and Assessing Product (DAP) Tools  Appendix J: Building Support for Differentiation: Hard But Not Impossible to Do Alone

Biography

Julia Link Roberts is the Mahurin Professor of Gifted Studies at Western Kentucky University, the Executive Director of The Center for Gifted Studies, and the Executive Director of The Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science. She is a teacher, author, presenter, and director of programming for children, young people, and educators.

Tracy Ford Inman, a consultant in gifted education, has presented on state, national, and international levels; trained thousands of teachers; published chapters and books including five TAGT Legacy Award winners; and worked with thousands of parents. Tracy is a current board member of the leading two national gifted associations as well as her state.

"The fourth edition of Strategies for Differentiating Instruction: Best Practices for the Classroom contains a treasure trove of practical suggestions that will make differentiating easier for all teachers to meet a variety of learning differences in young people. It is the most comprehensive book on this topic, and it should be on every teacher’s 'must read' list."

Joseph S. Renzulli, University of Connecticut, USA

"As a first-year teacher, this textbook completely changed my classroom approach! The differentiation strategies are easy to use, quick to prepare, and truly work to meet the needs of the individual students in my classroom. The strategies in this book are top of the line, and helped create student excitement for learning because I learned how to meet each child’s needs on their level. I would recommend this textbook to all teachers, first through the thirtieth year!"

Phoebe Pohlman, Perryville, MO, USA

"Julia Roberts and Tracy Inman have done it again! Strategies for Differentiating Instruction: Best Practices for the Classroom is the 'must have' instructional resource for every teacher. With clear, straightforward conversations, Roberts and Inman share essential insights about equality in learning, pretesting, and classroom management. Illustrative examples explain how and why instructional differentiation is critical to every student’s learning success. Each strategy discussed by the authors is designed to support teachers from start to finish – beginning with student interest inventories and pre-assessments, through brainstorming and tiered instruction, and concluding with assessment resources such as the Developing and Assessing Products (DAP) tools. Do you have a poster project to assess? There is a DAP tool for that! The DAP assessment rubrics are essential evaluative tools that raise the bar for advanced learners while providing essential feedback to students. This is the one book that I cannot live without because it supports every moment of instructional planning, teaching, and assessing student learning."

Christine Deitz, University of Arkansas Little Rock, USA