Differentiated Instruction Made Practical

What are the adjustments that teachers can make on an everyday basis to increase equity, access, rigor, and engagement for all students? What are the dispositions, skills, and actions needed to differentiate instruction?

Overview

Differentiated Instruction Made Practical builds educators abilities to differentiate instruction as a part of their daily classroom routines. By using a four-step teacher decision-making framework and implementing structured classroom routines rooted in research on cognition and motivation, you will increase equity, access, rigor, and engagement for all students. This program will prepare you with the agile thinking required to analyze problems of student learning and then make decisions to adjust and differentiate instruction within given time and curriculum constraints.

Course Details

Students come to the classroom with diverse experiences, understandings, interests, strengths, and needs. This program will teach you why and how to build differentiated instruction into your daily habits as a teacher and the daily routines within your classroom.

Differentiated Instruction Made Practical will provide theory and practice for both engagement and rigor, with an emphasis on sustainability for instructors and deep, durable, and flexible learning for all students. Through videos, readings, personal reflection, and online forums, you will experience differentiated instruction for yourself as well as learn methods for implementing these techniques in your own classroom. You will learn and practice agile teacher decision-making, such as when and what kind of help to provide, when and how to use group work, and how to offer student choice. You will learn how to adjust instruction through practical classroom routines designed to ensure all students, including those on the edges of academic achievement, are engaged in meaningful learning.

View the course outline for additional information on course sessions.

Online Course Schedule

Please review the course schedule to ensure that you and your team will be able to participate fully in the course, taking into account your local holidays and vacations. The average time commitment is about three to four hours per week.

Orientation Session, September 17 - September 23
Session 1, September 24 - October 7
Session 2, October 8 - October 21
Session 3, October 22 - November 4
Session 4, November 5 - November 18
Session 5, November 19 - December 2
Session 6, December 3 - December 16

Objectives

• Learn the theory and methods of differentiated instruction and how it can serve all learners including English language learners, students with disabilities, and students needing further challenge
• Develop the dispositions, skills, and actions for agile teacher decision-making
• Try out individual and group learning routines that meet the diverse needs of learners while the teacher’s role is observer and listener
• Evaluate student needs, current curriculum, and daily routines to assess where differentiation needs to occur and how it can be implemented
• Practice adjusting instruction, planning classroom routines, and choosing help resources through the use of a practical four-step method designed to help you better meet the needs of diverse learners
• Acquire the skills necessary to measure the impact of differentiated instruction on student learning and to ensure it is aligned with established standards in your system

Who Should Participate

Teams of 3-6 are encouraged and should be able to try out course ideas with students/learners in classrooms or other learning environments. Teams should also be able to meet synchronously, in person, at least once a session to engage in group-based activities.

Individuals are also invited to apply; they will be placed in a virtual team with other people who have enrolled as individuals and will be expected to meet synchronously (via phone call or video conference) once a session. We will strive to group individuals with others who are in the same or similar timezones; if this is not possible, exceptions to the team meeting requirement can be made.

Teams can be comprised of classroom teachers, instructional leaders, school leaders, administrators, and other educators in a variety of settings (e.g. museums, after-school programs, and other informal learning contexts, etc.). Team members can come from within or across schools or organizations.

Course Textbook

There is one required textbook for this program, Differentiated Instruction Made Practical: Engaging the Extremes through Classroom Routines, by Rhonda Bondie and Akane Zusho. Please order the required textbook early to ensure you have it by the program’s start. You can buy a paper copy or a digital edition from Amazon or Routledge. If you order from Routledge, you may use the following coupon code to receive a 20% discount: FLR40.

Fees and Policies

This online course is focused on professional development and not linked to a degree program at HGSE. Academic credit is not available for this online course. You will be eligible for a digital certificate representing 45 professional development hours upon successful completion of the course.

Payment or a purchase order must be received within thirty days of course acceptance and prior to the course start. While a purchase order confirms enrollment, an outstanding balance is maintained until payment is rendered. Click here for more information on payment and financial aid.

Please click here for more information on our on-campus and online refund and withdrawal policies.

The Harvard Graduate School of Education reserves the right to change faculty or cancel programs at its discretion. In the unlikely event of program changes, the school is not responsible for non-refundable travel arrangements or other planning expenses incurred.