2. Lessons The assignment was to draw the moon. Filled with kindergarten wonder she climbed as high as the rusting swing could offer, balanced in the phosphorescent rays of the evening’s business and saw beyond to the airy regions where bands of chalky cirrus crossed trails of jets forming tic-tac-toe battle plains played by earth and sky. Too, she noted how in all the stars that flecked the ether not a one was yellow or five-pointed but were sparkles of pixie-dust ripe for scooping and sprinkling at show-and-tell. That night she looked with the wonder of Copernicus, was kissed by flames that swallowed van Gogh and wanted to share it all with all who cared to know what she now knew to be a night sky. Using every shade of color of her blunted crayons, she drew: from eyes to mind to heart to hands she drew. Who knew her greatest lesson would be in discovering the dispirited frown of an exacting teacher who across curled lips breathed, The assignment was to draw the moon. by S. D. Collins

7. Rick Wormeli’s Definition of DI Differentiating instruction is doing what’s fair for students. It’s a collection of best practices strategically employed to maximize students’ learning at every turn, including giving them the tools to handle anything that is undifferentiated. It requires us to do differentiated things for different students some, or a lot, of the time. It’s whatever works to advance the student if the regular classroom approach doesn’t meet students’ needs. It’s highly effective teaching.

9. Teachers can differentiate Content Process Product According to student’s Readiness Interests Learning profiles Through a range of instructional and management strategies Carol Ann Tomlinson, The Differentiated Classroom, 1999 multiple intelligences jigsaw taped materials anchor activities varying organizers varied supplementary materials literature circles tiered lessons tiered centers tiered products learning contracts small-group instruction group investigation independent study varied questioning strategies interest centers interest groups varied homework compacting varied journal prompts complex instruction

19. No more random acts of differentiation!