Data Driven Differentiation in the Standards-Based Classroom

Step-by-step guidance and a generous collection of templates, rubrics, and planners make this an essential resource for every instructional leader who wants to design differentiated instruction with student success in mind.

"Reconciles meeting children's affective needs with the new accountability requirements from the federal and state government. The title sounds daunting but the chapters are really quite accessible."
Maria Elena Reyes, Associate Professor, School of Education
University of Alaska, Fairbanks

Data driven instruction, standards-based teaching, diagnostic teaching, high-stakes assessments . . . they're not just buzz words. The research shows that these realities for today's schools in fact offer teachers powerful tools for planning differentiated instruction. This timely and comprehensive guide to collecting, analyzing, and using data to design curriculum, instruction, and assessment offers educators the step-by-step strategies and planning tools they need to help all students learn what they must know and be able to do.

Chapter by chapter, Data Driven Differentiation in the Standards-Based Classroom covers everything you need to know, including:

• Using data to create a positive classroom climate
• Using data to differentiate instruction for student learning styles and multiple intelligences
• Using data for pre-assessment, formative assessment, and final assessment
• Curriculum approaches for data driven instruction
• Adjustable assignments for differentiated learning
• Instructional strategies that increase student learning
• Data driven lesson planning for differentiated learning

Four sample units cover K-12 lesson planning in the basic content areas and are used to demonstrate eachand every aspect of the process. The authors also provide a generous collection of templates, grids, rubrics, organizers, and planners to make this book an essential resource for every teacher, curriculum designer, and instructional leader who wants to design differentiated instruction with student success in mind.

Gayle H. Gregory has been a teacher in elementary, middle, and secondary schools. For many years, she taught in schools with extended periods of instructional time (block schedules). She has had extensive districtwide experience as a curriculum consultant and staff development coordinator. Most recently, she was course director at York University for the Faculty of Education, teaching in the teacher education program. She now consults internationally (Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australia) with teachers, administrators, and staff developers in the areas of managing change, differentiated instruction, brain-compatible learning, block scheduling, emotional intelligence, instructional and assess-ment practices, cooperative group learning, presentation skills, renewal of secondary schools, enhancing teacher quality, coaching and mentoring, and facilitating large scale change. Gayle is affiliated with many organizations, including the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the National Staff Development Council. She is the author of Differentiated Instructional Strategies in Practice: Training, Implementation, and Supervision and the coau-thor of Designing Brain-Compatible Learning; Thinking Inside the Block Schedule: Strategies for Teaching in Extended Periods of Time; and Differentiated Instructional Stategies: One Size Doesn't Fit All. She has been featured in Video Journal of Education's best-selling elementary and secondary videos, Differentiating Instruction to Meet the Needs of All Learners. Gayle is committed to lifelong learning and professional growth for herself and others. She may be contacted by e-mail at [email protected]. HerWeb site is www3.sympatico.ca/gayle.gregory.

Lin Kuzmich is the assistant superintendent for Thompson School District in Loveland, Colorado, where she has also served as executive director of instruction, as director of professional development, and for nine years as a principal. Before joining the Loveland District, Lin was a classroom teacher. She taught special education and reading PreK-12, high school reading, and middle school language arts, and she was also an elementary school classroom teacher, earning the Teacher of the Year Award for Denver Public Schools in 1979. For the past 10 years Lin has been involved in professional develop-ment, teaching classes at several universities, providing training for agencies and school districts throughout the United States, and authoring journal articles and government and regional publications. Her recent work has focused on data driven instruction, standards-based education, supervision and evaluation of teachers, and data driven school improvement planning. Lin works extensively with administrators and teacher leaders who want to create an environment for student achievement and growth. Lin may be contacted through Thompson School District in Loveland, Colorado.