Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom: How to Reach and Teach All Learners (Updated Anniversary Edition)

by Diane Heacox

Overview

This updated edition presents a practical introduction to differentiation and explains how to differentiate instruction in a wide range of settings to provide variety and challenge. Chapters focus on evaluation in a differentiated classroom and how to manage both behavior and work tasks. The book includes connections to Common Core State Standards. Digital content includes a PowerPoint presentation for professional development, customizable forms from the book, and curriculum maps, workcards, and matrix plans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781575424163
Publisher:	Free Spirit Publishing
Publication date:	08/28/2012
Series:	Free Spirit Professional®
Edition description:	First Edition, Book with Digital Content
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Diane Heacox, Ed.D., is a consultant and professional development trainer focusing on strategies to increase learning success for all students. She is professor emerita at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is a national and international consultant and professional development trainer to both public and private schools on a variety of topics related to teaching and learning.

Dr. Heacox has taught at both elementary and secondary school levels and has served as a gifted education teacher and administrator, as well as an instructional specialist in public education. Dr. Heacox is also the author of four books. Her first book for Free Spirit Publishers was Up From Underachievement: How Teachers, Students, and Parents Can Work Together. Her second book, Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom: How to Reach and Teach All Learners was updated and re-released in 2012. Making Differentiation a Habit earned the 2010 Association of Education Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award and was updated in 2017.

Her book coauthored with Richard Cash, Differentiation for Gifted Learners: Going Beyond the Basics, received the 2014 Legacy Book Award for Educators by the Texas Association for Gifted and Talented. Dr. Heacox’s books have been translated into Dutch, Hungarian, Korean, Arabic, and Portuguese.

Her Differentiation Classroom Practices Inventory was used by the Ministry of Education in Portugal for conducting a national survey of classroom practices. Dr. Heacox serves on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (MN ASCD) and the Minnesota Department of Education Gifted Education Advisory Board.

She is the past chair for the Middle Level Network and the Education committee for National Association for Gifted Children and the current facilitator of the Higher Education Division for international ASCD.

Dr. Heacox was recognized by the Minnesota Educators of Gifted and Talented as a Friend of the Gifted for service to gifted education. She is also in the University of St. Thomas Educators Hall of Fame for contributions to the field of education.

Table of Contents

List of Reproducible Pages

List of Figures

Foreword to This Anniversary Edition

Introduction

Part 1 — Getting Ready

Chapter 1: What Is Differentiation?
Differentiated Instruction: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
You May Be Differentiating Already
Our Diverse Classrooms
What Do We Differentiate?
What Is the Teacher’s Role?
Questions and Answers About Differentiating Instruction
How Differentiated Is Your Classroom?

Chapter 2: Who Are Your Students?
Discovering Your Students
Finding Out What Students Know
The Importance of Knowing Your Students

Chapter 3: What Do You Teach?
Essential Questions
Unit Questions
Using Essential and Unit Questions to Differentiate Instruction 56
Choosing a Unit of Your Own
Mapping Your Curriculum

Part 2: Differentiation in Action

Chapter 4: How Do You Teach?
Planning for Challenge and Variety
Challenge: Bloom’s Levels of Thinking
Variety: Gardner’s Nine Ways of Thinking and Learning
How Differentiated Is Your Current Unit?
The Matrix Plan
A Sample Matrix Plan
Differentiating Your Unit Using a Matrix Plan
The Integration Matrix
Many Uses for Your Matrix

Chapter 5: What Do Students Need?
Flexible Instructional Grouping
Personalizing Learning with Flexible Grouping
Flexible Grouping at Exit Points
Flexible Grouping Compared with Other
Grouping Strategies
Questions and Answers About Flexible Grouping
Tips on Managing Flexible Groups
Student Independence and Flexible Groups

Chapter 6: What Do Students Need?
Tiered Assignments
Six Ways to Structure Tiered Assignments
Deciding When and How to Tier an Assignment
Guidelines for Designing Tiered Assignments
How to Organize Groups and Give Directions
Making Tiering Invisible

Chapter 7: What Do Students Need?
Choices
Pathways Plans
Project Menus
Challenge Centers
Spin-Offs

Chapter 8: What About Grading?
Establishing Quality Criteria for Differentiated
Activities
Grades Are Cumulative
Don’t Grade Everything
Grades = Rigor
Totally 10

Chapter 9: How Do You Manage Differentiation?
Preparing to Differentiate
Preparing Your Students and Classroom
Managing Student Work

Chapter 10: How Do You Differentiate for Special Populations? 
Differentiated Instruction and Special Needs Students
An Idea from Your Special Education
Colleagues
Other Differentiation Strategies for Special Needs
Students
Differentiated Instruction for Gifted and Talented
Students
Curriculum Compacting
Individual Planning
The Importance of Mentors

Final Thoughts: Teaching as a Creative Activity

Appendix A:Letter to Families

Appendix B:Differentiating Classroom Discussions
Using Classroom Questions to Differentiate Learning
Brainstorming
Learning Dialogues

Appendix C: Content Catalysts, Processes, and Products (CCPP) Toolkit

References and Resources

Index

About the Author