This document discusses the three key elements - know, understand, and be able to do - that should be the focus when differentiating curriculum. It defines each element and provides examples. Know refers to basic facts and vocabulary that students should memorize. Understand focuses on major concepts and making meaningful connections. Be able to do outlines skills students should develop, including thinking skills, social skills, and skills related to independent learning. The document emphasizes that differentiation requires continually asking questions about what students should know, understand, and be able to do, as well as how they will learn and demonstrate their knowledge.

1. The First Step in Designing Differentiated Curriculum is...FOCUS! Learning Goals: Know Understand Be Able to Do

2. When Differentiating Instruction, the Three Most Important Questions to Continually Ask… What do I want my students to know, understand and be able to do? What will I do instructionally to get my students to learn this? How will my students show what they know?

3. Know These are the facts, vocabulary, dates, places, names, and examples you want students to give you. The know is massively forgettable. Facts: Columbus came to the “New World” Vocabulary-voyage, scurvy “Teaching facts in isolation is like trying to pump water uphill.” -Carol Tomlinson

5. George Washington was the first president

6. 1812

7. The words to the Star Spangled Banner

9. Understanding:Essential truths that give meaning to the topic Begin with what I want students to understand Examples: Multiplication is another way to do addition People migrate to meet basic needs All culture contains the same elements Individual parts work together as a whole to create a system Voice reflects the author’s personality

10. A student who understands something can… Explain it clearly, giving examples Use it Compare and contrast it with other concepts Relate it to other instances in subject studies, other subjects, and personal life experiences Transfer to unfamiliar settings Discover the concept embedded within a novel project Combine it appropriately with other understandings Pose new problems that exemplify or embody the concept Create analogies, models, metaphors, symbols, or pictures of the concept Pose and answer “what if” questions that alter variables in a problematic situation Generate questions and hypotheses that lead to new knowledge and further inquiries Generalize from specifics to form a concept Use the knowledge to appropriately assess his or her performance, or that of someone else.

11. Able to Do Skills Basic skills of any discipline Thinking skills Social Skills Skills of planning, independent learning, etc. Verbs The skill portion encourages the students to “think” like the professionals who use the knowledge and skill daily as a matter of how they do business. This is what it mean to “be like” a doctor, a scientist, a writer, or an artist.

12. Do Write a unified paragraph Compare and contrast Draw conclusions Examine varied perspectives Work collaboratively Develop a timeline Use maps as data