Differentiating Instruction in the Regluar Classroom

This book is a wealth of information and helps inform your instruction.  It first gets you prepared by asking the obvious questions: 

      -- What is Differentiation?

      -- Who Are Your Students? and

      -- What Do you Teach? 

Part 2 integrates everything into an Action Plan.

I love organization and this reference's Table of Contents includes a List of Reproducible Pages so I don't have to go searching for them in this 165 page book. 

I also am a big supporter of Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences and Bloom's Taxonomy. This book shows you how to create what they call an Integration Matrix using Gardner's and Bloom's theories while integrating your curriculum. 

This matrix is such a creative way to ensure that we, as teachers and instructors, include the basic questioning techniques as well as the higher order thinking skills.

By matrixing Bloom with Gardner, you create a variety of ways for students to express what they know and the extent to which they know it. 

Bloom's Taxonomy includes the following:  

• Knowledge - tell me that you know it
• Comprehension - show me that you understand it
• Application - use what you have learned
• Analysis - examine what you have learned critically
• Synthesis - put things together in a different way
• Evaluation - judge what you have learned

Gardner's Multliple Intelligences include the following:

• Verbal/Linguistic - use of language
• Logical/Mathematical - loves logic and mathematics
• Visual/Spatial - visual learner and loves to create things using pictures, models
• Bodily/Kinesthetic - learns by doing
• Musical - musically inclined, plays an instrument, remembers melodies
• Inter-personal - easily makes friends, empathizes
• Intra-personal - self reflection and understands self
• Naturalist - sensitive to nature, environmentalist

(The above notes are provided as a guide and not considered complete.  For a more detailed explanation, Gardner has published two books about Multiple Intelligences.  Follow this link to learn more.)

I loved the idea so much that I created my own 8 x 6 cell (Gardner's 8 Multiple Intelligences x Bloom's 6 Levels of Thinking) matrix.  Within each cell, I included 3 ideas that could be used to model those cell properties.  I know!  That's a lot of ideas.  :) 

Partial matrix:

For example:  One cell is titled:  Knowledge based question using the musical intelligence.  Questions included are: 

• Who are the main characters in the song, The Teddy Bears’ Picnic?
• What are the main characters doing in the song, The Teddy Bears’ Picnic?

• How many teddy bears are in the picture of Teddy Bears’ Picnic?

The theory:  The questions are asking for recall of information and facts and the student demonstrates 'knowing' by answering the questions. 

The complete matrix, for use with the Teddy Bears On The Go(R) Toolkit , is included in the Teddy Bears Toolkit - Classroom Edition (soon to be released).

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