1.
Closing the Gap:
Raising Special Education Achievement
through Differentiation
Adam Zunic

2.
Something to think about…
We Learn...
10% of what we Read
20% of what we Hear
30% of what we See
50% of what we See and Hear
80% of what we Experience Personally
95% of what we Teach Others
-William Glasser
70% of what we Discuss With Others

3.
Our Goal
 10% increase in the number of students in
our IEP population scoring Proficient or
Advanced on PSSA Math
 How?
 Differentiated Instruction
 Understanding by Design - Backwards Design
 Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and Higher-Order
Thinking

4.
Our Vision
 Aide in the development of our students’ intellectual
abilities.
 Focus on all aspects of human development
necessary for mature adult living
 Educate and inspire a community of life long learners
 Students are academically proficiency and have the
ability to succeed in either higher education or
productive employment.

5.
Our Mission
 To insure that all of our graduates
achieve their full potential as persons
competent to participate and interact
intelligently in the complex and dynamic
society of the 21st century.

6.
It Fits
 Higher-Order Thinking
 Students become problem solvers, not problem
do-ers
 Backwards Design
 All students will gain the same core set of
knowledge and skills, meeting state standards
 Differentiation
 All students will be successful!

7.
Research
 Cognitive Development
 Higher-order thinking engages frontal lobe of the brain.
 This engagement helps learners make connections between
past and new learning, create new pathways, strengthens
existing pathways, and increases the likelihood that the new
learning will be consolidated and stored for future retrieval.
 Asking students for explanatory responses to higher-level
questions prior to instruction activates prior knowledge and
focuses attention, resulting in better learning.
Sousa, David. How the Brain Learns. Chapter 7: Thinking and Learning Skills. p. 245-274.
Pressley, M., (1984). Synthesis of research on teacher questioning. Educational Leadership, 42(3), 40–46.
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8.
Research
 TIMMS
 High achieving countries had similarities
 Rather than “covering” many discrete skills,
primary aim is to develop conceptual
understanding in their students.
 Emphasize depth vs. superficial coverage
 Emphasize problem-based learning, in which rules
and theorems are derived and explained by the
students, thus leading to deeper understanding
Martin, M., Mullis, I., Gregory, K., Hoyle, C., Shen, C. (2000). Effective schools in science and mathematics: IEA’s Third
International Mathematics and Science Study. Boston: International Study Center, Lynch School of Education, Boston
College.

9.
Student Performance Data
2007-2008 11th Grade Demographics
General Information
Enrollment 399
Special Education Population 15%
11th Grade Math PSSA Performance
Total
Number
Assessed
Percentage* of Students in each Performance Level
Below Basic Basic Proficient Advanced
All
Students
399 12 16 32 40
IEP 59 42 39 19 0
*percentages are rounded.

10.
Our Concerns
 Only 21% of our Special Education
population scoring proficient or above.
 32% drop in the number of IEP
students scoring proficient or above
between middle and high school.

11.
DI: What is It?
 A way of teaching in which:
 The teacher proactively modifies the curriculum,
instructional strategies, and student products
 Lessons are designed around student readiness, interest,
and learning styles
 The teacher and students collaborate in learning
 Teacher and students work together flexibly
 Maximum growth and individual success are the ultimate
goal

12.
Handout #1
DI: What is It?

13.
Three General Principals of DI
 Respectful Tasks: Know your Students
 Learning Profile: How a student learns
 Learning Styles – www.howtolearn.com
 Readiness: What does the student know already?
 Interest: Students’ affinity, curiosity, or passion
for a topic or skill

14.
Three General Principals of DI
 Flexible Grouping: Options

15.
Three General Principals of DI
 Flexible Grouping
 Heterogeneous grouping
 Individual, Small group, or Whole Group
instruction

16.
Three General Principals of DI
 Ongoing Assessment and Adjustment
 Instruction and assessment are inseparable
 Content, process, and product are adjusted
based on the needs of the student

17.
What does DI look like?
 Video: A Visit to a Differentiated Classroom
 Small Group Discussion:
 What evidence of DI did you see in the video?
 What questions do you have about DI after
watching this video?
 Whole Group Discussion:
 Share your observations and questions

18.
The DI Continuum
 Where are you on the continuum?
 Place an ‘x’ on the line where you feel your
classroom practices fall.
 Are your practices more traditional or more
differentiated?
Handout #2

19.
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
 Six levels of thinking provide a framework for
planning units that incorporate low to high-level
thinking activities
 When used as a planning framework we can plan
for student thinking at all levels.
 Teach Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)

20.
BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY
Creating
Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things
Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing.
Evaluating
Justifying a decision or course of action
Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging
Analyzing
Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships
Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding
Applying
Using information in another familiar situation
Implementing, carrying out, using, executing
Understanding
Explaining ideas or concepts
Interpreting, summarizing, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining
Remembering
Recalling information
Recognizing, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding
Handout #3

21.
How to use it
 Higher order thinking occurs at the top
three levels of the taxonomy: creating,
evaluating, and analyzing
 We must teach students how to think,
providing opportunities for:
 Problem-solving
 Open-ended responses

22.
Teaching HOTS
 Help students understand the thinking
process
 Incite discovery, invention, and creativity
 Make learning meaningful to the student
 Engage students in real life problem solving
 Encourage questions and discussion
 Make cross-curricular connections
 Provide models, graphic organizers

23.
The Top Three Levels
 Analyzing:
 Breaking information
into parts to explore
understanding and
relationships
 Analyzing Verbs:
 Comparing
 Organizing
 Deconstructing
 Attributing
 Outlining
 Finding
 Structuring
 Integrating

24.
The Top Three Levels
 Evaluating:
 Justifying a decision
or course of action
 Evaluating Verbs
 Checking
 Hypothesizing
 Critiquing
 Experimenting
 Judging
 Testing
 Detecting
 Monitoring

25.
The Top Three Levels
 Creating:
 Generating new
products, ideas,
ways of thinking, or
ways of viewing
things
 Creating Verbs:
 Designing
 Constructing
 Planning
 Producing
 Inventing
 Devising
 Making

26.
Put your HOTS to the test
 Take a Concept Up the Taxonomy
 Split your small group into pairs
 Choose a concept that you teach in class
 Using the handout, create a question or activity
related to your concept for each level of the
taxonomy.
Handout #4

27.
Understanding By Design -
Backwards Design
BEGIN
with the END
in mind

28.
What is Backwards Design?
 An approach to designing curriculum or unit that
begins with the end in mind and designs toward that
end.
 Viewed as backward because many teachers begin
their unit with the means - textbooks, favored
lessons, and time-honored activities - rather than
deriving those from the end - the targeted results, as
content standards or understandings.
(Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design, 2005, page 338)

29.
How to use it
 Identify desired results
 Goals, knowledge and skills, essential questions,
enduring understanding
 Determine acceptable evidence
 Tests or quizzes, academic prompts, formative
assessment, performance tasks, observations or
dialogue
 Plan learning experiences and instruction
 Based on desired results and acceptable evidence

30.
Handout #5
Backwards Framework
 This framework can be used to plan your
lessons utilizing backwards design
 Stage 1 – Utilize the Standards
 Stage 2 – Products and Assessments
 Stage 3 – Implement DI
 Video: Connecting Differentiated Instruction,
Understanding by Design and What Works in
Schools: An Exploration of Research-Based
Strategies

31.
Culminating Activity
 Lets put it all together
 You will need:
 Handout #2 – DI Continuum
 Handout #4 – Take a Concept up the Taxonomy
 Handout #5 – Backwards Design Framework

32.
Culminating Activity
 Your Task:
 Choose a concept you teach in class
 Create a lesson using the Backwards Design
Framework
 Include differentiated instruction strategies
 Include questions/activities related to Bloom’s
Revised Taxonomy

33.
Questions for Discussion
 How can you implement DI in your
classroom?
 Using HOTS
 Using Backwards Design
 How can we support you in this
process?
 What resources/support systems will
you need to be successful?

34.
Closure
 Set a goal.
 Choose an area from the DI continuum that you
rated yourself more traditional
 Brainstorm ways to make this are more
differentiated
 Create a Plan of Action describing how you will
implement this change in your classroom
 Share this with your principal for informal
observations and feedback
 See Handout #6 “Look-Fors”

35.
Remember:
 Our goal is to increase the success of
our students on the Math PSSA’s.
 Take what you learned today and use it
to help our students reach their
maximum potential!