Rti Update: 12 Essential Guidelines for Positive Differentation

Dr.  Mary Howard was the keynote at the Wisconsin Title One Conference

Laser Focus Turned Inward 

Instructionally ask yourself, "Why are we doing this?  Why?  What are we not doing?  Why?"

Initiating a Rich Literacy Design for Struggling Readers

"serious, thoughtful, informed, responsible, state-of-the-art teaching" - Zemelman, Daniels, etc.

Sharpen our Instructional Student Lens - from Steven Covey

• Concern - beyond our control  Ex. the weather, dad is in jail, mom won't read to child, another teacher didn't do their job
• Influence - within our control; circle of influence  Ex. bring in volunteers to read to students who have this need

BUT factor - sad day when we use words like can't, won't, always and never instead of focusing on the solutions.

Positive differentiation factors - 12 essential guidelines

1. inspiration - many students who struggle are not inspired by books, Are you inspired in areas in which you struggle?, access to lots and lots of books organized in ways to get them in the student's hands quickly - by topic, author, genre  (Dr. Howard suggests adding poetry to your routine every day.) To find out what needs to be in your independent library you can ask students to make a passion list - topics they are interested in.  Penny Kittle
2. accommodation - accommodate for the needs of students of the vast learners you have in a classroom, lots and lots of experiences with partners and small groups; use the time that students wait effectively with books, vocabulary card games or drills; school-wide book rooms with leveled readers and text sets around a topic (students create a bin, advertise the bin using oral and written presentations), advertising books weekly through book talks, when you marry reading and writing you have a better reading instructional approach
3. integration - motivation rises quickly when students are given choice, it takes more       comprehension to ask a good question than to answer a good question, 4 corner activity: with different questions and/or activities in each corner, 3 X 3 activity - 3 minutes to tell 3 people one thing that makes you smarter using your notes
4. demonstration - don't tell students - show them using models and actions, gradual release of responsibility, fishbowl strategy - modeling a strategy by the students, teach students explicitly the why and the how of a strategy,
5. application - independent application, when they know it independently then they have learned it
6. individualization - every teacher needs to do this, necklace to flash the words each child needs to know which can be used during any transition, spelling words should rise out of the student's own writing
7. acceleration - intentional  word line fluency or vowel review, must do the strategy every day
8. vocabulary - vocabulary and comprehension are so important to elevate thinking, context-based word building, our daily word break - 1 minute breaks throughout the day, frequent repetition over time, simple tasks can truly maximize the learning  
9. repetition - word wall - one side of word wall would have the words and the other side would have the definition and picture, repeated bench where you practice it 3x and magically you are smarter, poetry break where they would bring a poem on a big paper into the room, text innovations of poems Ex. humpty dumpty and 
10. exploration - life strategy (LIFE), the wondering wall where you are generating your questioning
11. collaboration - lots of opportunities for students to dialogue with others, Stephanie Harveys said,  "Successful classrooms spent 60-70% of the time dialoguing on what they are learning."  "Let me Catch You" - teacher takes notes and share with class in the end
12. coordination  - time to talk about the students we work with, mini-assessment wall
13. celebration - notice when children are growing,  self-evaluation increases achievement according to Hattie

   Marie Clay, " We need common goals for all students but different pathways for different students."  Our Curriculum such as our standards provides our common goals.

Writing reinforces memory.  A picture with labels further strengthens the memory. 

Teachers are special because they teach students "how to learn".