Making Differentiation a Habit: How to Ensure Success in Academically Diverse Classrooms

by Diane Heacox

Overview

Updated edition of a popular resource helps teachers seamlessly integrate differentiation practices into their daily routine.

In this updated edition of her guide to daily differentiated instruction, Diane Heacox outlines the critical elements for success in today’s class­rooms. She gives educators evidence-based differentiation strategies and user-friendly tools to optimize teaching, learning, and assessment for all students. New features include an expanded section on grading, informa­tion on connections between personalized learning and differentiation, integration of strategies with tier one instructional interventions, scaf­folding strategies, revised planning templates, and updated resources, which include digital tools and apps for assessment. Digital content includes customizable forms from the book. A free downloadable PLC/Book Study Guide is available at freespirit.com/PLC.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631982071
Publisher:	Free Spirit Publishing
Publication date:	08/04/2017
Series:	Free Spirit Professional®
Edition description:	Second Edition, second edition, book with digital content
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	680,281
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	5 - 17 Years

About the Author

Diane Heacox, Ed.D., is a consultant and professional development trainer focusing on strategies to increase learning success for all students. She is professor emerita at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is a national and international consultant and professional development trainer to both public and private schools on a variety of topics related to teaching and learning.

Dr. Heacox has taught at both elementary and secondary school levels and has served as a gifted education teacher and administrator, as well as an instructional specialist in public education. Dr. Heacox is also the author of four books. Her first book for Free Spirit Publishers was Up From Underachievement: How Teachers, Students, and Parents Can Work Together. Her second book, Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom: How to Reach and Teach All Learners was updated and re-released in 2012. Making Differentiation a Habit earned the 2010 Association of Education Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award and was updated in 2017.

Her book coauthored with Richard Cash, Differentiation for Gifted Learners: Going Beyond the Basics, received the 2014 Legacy Book Award for Educators by the Texas Association for Gifted and Talented. Dr. Heacox’s books have been translated into Dutch, Hungarian, Korean, Arabic, and Portuguese.

Her Differentiation Classroom Practices Inventory was used by the Ministry of Education in Portugal for conducting a national survey of classroom practices. Dr. Heacox serves on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (MN ASCD) and the Minnesota Department of Education Gifted Education Advisory Board.

She is the past chair for the Middle Level Network and the Education committee for National Association for Gifted Children and the current facilitator of the Higher Education Division for international ASCD.

Dr. Heacox was recognized by the Minnesota Educators of Gifted and Talented as a Friend of the Gifted for service to gifted education. She is also in the University of St. Thomas Educators Hall of Fame for contributions to the field of education.

Table of Contents

LIST OF REPRODUCIBLE PAGES

LIST OF FIGURES

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION
Critical Elements for Success in a Differentiated Classroom
About This Book
How to Use This Book

Chapter 1: Identifying Your Learning Goals
Differentiation and Content Standards
Know Your KUDo’s
Thinking Through the When and How of Differentiation

Chapter 2: Examining Your Professional Practices
Know Yourself as a Teacher
Know Your Students

Chapter 3: Applying Practical and Doable Assessment Strategies
The Role of Preassessment in Differentiation
Formative Assessment
Summative Assessment
Should I Differentiate Assessments?
Assessment Modifications for Special Needs Students
Differentiated Grading on Differentiated Assessments

Chapter 4: Using a Differentiated Learning Plan
The Nine Phases of Using the Differentiated Learning Plan
When and How to Differentiate Using a DLP

Chapter 5: Motivating Learning Through Choice Opportunities 
Offering Choices in Content, Process, and Products
Formats for Choice Opportunities
Using Choice Opportunities with Primary Students
Shopping for Ideas for Choice Opportunities

Chapter 6: Prescribing Tiered Assignments and Using Flexible Grouping
Tiered Assignments
Grouping in a Variety of Ways for a Variety of Purposes

Chapter 7: Maintaining Flexibility in Planning and Teaching
Flexibility in Lesson Routines
Flexibility in Delivering Differentiated Activities

Chapter 8: Developing Student Responsibility and Independence
Your Management Profile
Routines to Make Everyday Events Go Smoothly

Chapter 9: Using Ethical Grading Practices
What Is Fair?
The Purposes and Problems of Grading
Grading in the Differentiated Classroom
Grading Is Personal

Chapter 10: Differentiating for Gifted and Talented Learners
How Is Differentiation Different for the Gifted?
Strategies for Differentiating for Gifted and Talented Learners
Differentiation for Gifted Learners Is Different

Chapter 11: Using Differentiation Strategies in Response to Intervention
The Fundamental Beliefs of RTI
A Three-Tier Model
A Problem-Solving Process
Universal Design for Learning
The RTI–DI Link
How to Use This Book for RTI

Chapter 12: Providing Leadership for Differentiated Classrooms
Teacher Leaders
Developing a School-Based Action Plan for Differentiation
Reflecting on Teaching Practices
Strategies for Keeping
Differentiation at the Forefront

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES AND RESOURCES

INDEX

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Editorial Reviews

I loved the first edition of this book, yet find this updated edition to be even better! Diane does a masterful job of citing essential educational research and joining it with practical differentiation strategies for classroom teachers and school administrators. I particularly appreciate her focus on gifted students and students with learning difficulties, since these are the most likely groups to need differentiated instruction. Additionally, Diane connects Response to Intervention (RTI) and ways to implement personalized learning as parts of the differentiation habit. The most significant part of the book for me, however, is the chapter entitled ‘Using Ethical Grading Practices.’ Grading in a differentiated classroom seems to be the greatest challenge for many teachers when they begin to differentiate their instruction. Diane offers several excellent strategies for dealing with this issue. I recommend that this chapter be carefully read and discussed in every school.

Carolyn Coil

"Differentiation is not something to be done occasionally or when the mood strikes. Instead, it should be a habit embedded into all good teaching practices. This is an important book that makes differentiation doable for all teachers in academically diverse classrooms." —Carolyn Coil, Ed.D., educational consultant and author, Pieces of Learning

"Diane Heacox has gone well beyond the marvelous path she set for us with her first book on differentiation. Making Differentiation a Habit is a wonderful synthesis of several well-respected and current resources on differentiation and assessment, all brought down to a teacher-friendly level and immediately usable in classrooms. Ms. Heacox makes differentiated instruction almost fun for teachers!" —Karen B. Rogers, Ph.D., Professor of Education, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN

From the Publisher