Differentiated Instruction
Interview:Susan Bergman,Middle School Mathematics Teacher
Interviewer: Candy Lindsey
Q: Can you talk about some of the ways that you differentiate the products or the expectations that you have of them at the culmination of a unit?
I think for differentiating products that it’s probably one of the hardest ways to differentiate (in my opinion), but it seems to be where a lot of people start differentiating. I don’t know that that’s necessarily always the best place to start because I found when I started differentiating I tried to differentiate products I started doing things like: I wanted some of them to be able to give a presentation and some of them to be able to do a poster and some of them be able to do . . . but is was really hard to make sure they were all being assessed over the curriculum; and I needed to make sure that they were all being fairly assessed over the same curriculum.
So, two things that I found that really work. I do assessments just with my tests. I kind of give them a choice and I have different parts of the test. I have 1 point questions, 2 point questions, 3 point questions, and 4 point questions. There’s a minimum requirement for each part of the test for them to do (and I don’t have this in all tests). Like I said, it’s taken me a while to develop every little piece, so on a couple of my tests I have this. They then know the minimum amount of points they have to get and the minimum amount they have to do from each section. So, I require at least two 1 point questions, at least two 2 point questions, at least two 3 point questions, and at least one 4 point question. Then, I put on there in order to get an A you have to get this many points, in order to get a B you have to get this many points, in order to get a C you have to get this many points. So then, they can go through and decide; well, I can do my minimum requirement in the 1 point, 2 point, and 3 point questions and then do three of the 4 point questions and that will make my total number of points; and that will kind of give them that opportunity to do some of the higher level thinking. Or maybe, I want to get all my points in the 1 point question, which means I’m going to have to do more of the 1 point questions and then just do the minimum requirement from the 2, 3, and 4 point questions.
It sounds very complicated, but it really makes my tests a lot more valid, I think, and the kids know what they have to do from the very beginning-what I have to do to get an A, what do I have to do to get a B. I did the same thing on a shopping trip project where they all . . . it’s differentiated on lots of different levels. It’s a tiered assignment that has a learning contract, so they contract for a grade. Then, at the end they have a couple different ways to show what they learned. So, the shopping trip project they have to do four activities that have to do with going-they go grocery shopping and they come up with a list of ten items and then they have to find the sales tax on the item, what if each of the items was 20% off, and what if it was buy 2 get 1 free and I work on percentage, decimals on the shopping trip project, but at the end again they can choose how they want to present that information. If they want to present it to me in a one on one conference, if they want to present it to the class, if they want to write a report about it-that type of thing. So, those are the two main examples I have of differentiating products.
DI-Two1