Page 21 - Learning for All – A Guide to Effective Assessment and Instruction for All Students, Kindergarten to Grade 12, 2013

Instructional Approaches • 19
but may also have activities set at different levels of complexity (questioning levels, abstract thinking processes) resulting in varying products that employ students’ preferred learning modality (auditory, visual, or kinesthetic) (Theroux, 2004). It is important to note, however, that the approach does not exclude instruction and activities in which all students are work- ing on the same learning task at the same time, whether individually, in groups, or as a class.
To sustain the effectiveness of a differentiated instructional approach, it is critical to conduct ongoing, authentic assessment, and then to adjust strategies and resources according to the assessment results.
Figure 4, below, illustrates a wide range of principles and strategies that are associated with differentiated instruction.
Figure 4. A Concept Map for Differentiating Instruction
Source: Adapted from Carol Ann Tomlinson, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD): Summer Conference Material, 2008. Reprinted with permission from ASCD (www.ascd.org).
Multiple Intelligence Profile – for Teachers and Students
An online survey tool was developed by a school board to help educators
learn about their own multiple intelligences as well as about those of their students. Completing the survey gave the teachers first-hand experience of – and new insights into – the way different kinds of tasks and approaches suit different individuals’ particular types of intelligence. The experience supported the teachers’ instructional planning and their delivery of differentiated instruction.