2005 ASCD Summer Conference

Educators in New York and Philadelphia Share Breakfast, DI and UbD Resources

2005-07-14T14:26:00.000-04:00

Over breakfast in both New York and Philadelphia, educators joined in a discussion on Differentiated Instruction (DI) and Understanding by Design (UbD) at the Making Regional Connections Networking Breakfast.

Many of the resources that they shared, including a video example of classroom implementation that reflects instructional strategies taught using UbD and DI through technology, are available on the event Web site:

Differentiated Instruction Through Webquest Samples
Process: Toys in Space (K-12)
Content: Lake Charles Zoo (K-2)
Product: Simple Machines (3-5)

Differentiated Instruction with Technology Video Clip
This video is a an example of classroom implementation that reflects instructional strategies taught using UbD and DI through technology: Life Cycle of a Frog Differentiated with Technology

Training Initiatives
These technology-based initiatives presented at the district level demonstrate the connection between preservice teacher training and current classroom practices.
Classroom-based Technology Project (CBT)
Ensuring Educational Excellence (E3)

How will these resources help you in your classroom? Which ones will you use? What additional resources would you find useful? Post your response.

While the live event took place at the ASCD summer conference on DI and UbD in New York, participants from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) joined the session virtually, from Philadelphia.

The session was facilitated by Diane Mason, Technology Coordinator, from Lake Charles, Louisiana, who gave a special focus to the role of technology in capitalizing on opportunities and addressing challenges.

ASCD is collaborating with ISTE on a number of ventures over the next few years. This event, which took place on June 29, is one such activity.

Differentiating Secondary Math Instruction

2005-07-12T14:55:00.000-04:00

Educators Challenged by Tiered Math Games

Attendees in the Differentiating Instruction in the Secondary Math Classroom session had the opportunity to try out several of the strategies recommended by the presenter Nanci Smith. Participants commented on the higher level thinking (i.e., justify, defend, analyze) demanded in the tiered math games and Nanci shared tips for developing them.

In this session, Nanci noted that critical to successful differentiation in any classroom is ongoing assessment to know how ready students are for what they are learning, as well as what their preferred ways of learning and interests are.

Nanci, educational consultant and member of the ASCD DI Cadre, offered examples of how to assess student readiness and preferences and then provided examples of how several instructional strategies can be used in the math class, including cubing, think dots, RAFTs, tiered lessons, and tiered games-- some differentiated for student readiness and others differentiated for varied learning styles such as Sternberg's Intelligences and Gardner's Multiple Intelligences.

Related Resources

You Can't Improve Unless You Can Self-Assess and Self-Adjust

2005-07-12T12:24:00.000-04:00

Designing and Using Student Reflections and Self-Assessment

The primary aim of classroom assessment is to improve student performance, not merely audit it or give grades; and, it is the student who has to meet standards, not the teacher, according to Grant Wiggins. Therefore, he continued, it is critical that teachers assist students in the development of self-assessment skills.

One example that Grant offered in his session is a provincial level assessment in Canada in which the student is required to bring one of his previously written and assessed papers and the assessment task is to improve the paper.

Guidelines for helping students develop self-assessment skills include

Make the learning goals and criteria transparent--students must have a clear vision of what they are expected to learn and what high quality performance is.

Train students to self-assess just as we train Olympic judges--in reference to precise criteria, with nuances to quality (not just a good or bad performance but with a sense of the performance differences such as the difference between a score of an 8.5 or 9 in a gymnastics vault).

Plan time for students to have opportunities to self-assess and self-adjust with teacher feedback and guidance. Don'’t overplan and overteach so there is no time in the schedule for students to assess their own work, reflect, and adjust it. Design this time into the schedule.

Related Resources

"Student Self-Assessment: Making Standards Come Alive," Classroom Leadership

Student Portfolios: Getting Started in Your Classroom PD Online Course

The Portfolio Organizer: Succeeding with Portfolios in Your Classroom

Strategies and Tips for Students with Special Needs

2005-07-12T11:02:00.000-04:00

Marcia Imbeau and Barbara Gartin offered numerous tips and strategies that classroom teachers can use to scaffold learning for special needs students. Instructional strategies such as RAFTs, tiered assignments, centers, and cubing can all be adjusted to provide appropriate challenges for students with special needs.

The following are some of the elements of a classroom environment that ensures support for the learning needs of students with special needs:

Promote acceptance and valuing of diversity in people and thoughts.
Provide quiet places (e.g., study carrels, loner seats, reading corners, headphone area).
Have well-established daily routines.
Use multiple signals and cues to prepare students for changes in activity.
Provide student assignments in a variety of ways (e.g., orally, posted on the board, written in assignment workbooks).
Use physical proximity and touch to help a student refocus.
Prevent difficulties by teaching appropriate behaviors.
Unclutter classrooms to allow students easy movement around the room.

How many of these elements do you incorporate in your classroom? Do you incorporate other elements to support students with special needs? Join the conversation.

Related Resources

The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners

The Common Sense of Differentiation: Meeting Specific Learner Needs in the Regular Classroom (Video Series)

Instructional Strategies for the Differentiated Classroom (Video Tapes 5-7)

How to Scaffold Instruction for Student Success (Video)

You Can't Rush Differentiated Instruction

2005-07-07T16:07:00.000-04:00

Even though you're excited about differentiated instruction (DI) and in a hurry to get it implemented, when you're implementing DI in your district, state, or region, it doesn't pay to rush, according to Carol Ann Tomlinson.

Drawing on her experiences with several national research studies and consulting on a long-term basis with a number of districts, Tomlinson offered district- and state-level educators valuable guidelines for implementing DI:

Don't be in such a hurry to get the concrete part of the job done--equipping teachers with the instructional strategies--so that teachers don't understand the philosophy.
Administrators often have one definition of DI and teachers another. Everyone needs to have the same definition, vision, and understanding of what DI is. Teachers can't succeed in differentiating if they don't understand the philosophy and can't articulate it.

Understanding the philosophy opens the teachers' eyes to the possibilities and flexibility inherent in an effectively differentiated classroom. For example, this understanding allows teachers to see how truly knowing the students is critical to designing instruction and selecting strategies that are appropriate for students' current needs, rather than just picking instruction and strategies because they sound good.

Differentiation challenges many of the traditional structures of schooling.
You can change action by demanding it, but unless you change teachers' belief systems, there's no longevity or real implementation of the change.

For example, having all students work on the same task at the same time is a traditional structure of schooling. If you ask teachers to use contracts, where students work on different tasks and select the sequence and time to work on them, that request would be counter to the belief systems of many of those teachers.

Teachers' belief systems need to change before teachers will understand and really implement new practices such as contracts.

Implementing differentiated instruction is a complex change and requires many years for a teacher to achieve (anywhere from 7 to 15 years).
At the district or state level, there needs to be a continuous program to support implementation, due to the ever-changing population of teachers.

The principal of a school is the gatekeeper of change.
It is critical that you attend to developing and supporting the principal's needs and understanding of differentiation as much as the teachers' needs and understanding in order for change to happen.

Related Resources
Leadership for Differentiating Schools & Classrooms
by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Susan Demirsky Allan
Learn how to encourage and support teachers who are striving to match their instructional approaches to the needs and interests of every student.

Differentiated Instruction Professional Development Planner and Resource Package (Stage 1)
Here's a practical, comprehensive resource package plus a differentiated instruction planner.

Differentiated Instruction Professional Development Planner and Resource Package (Stage 2)
If your staff members are already familiar with differentiated instruction, this is the ideal resource for following through with your improvement plan.

Differentiating Standards-Based Grading and Reporting

2005-07-06T12:34:00.000-04:00

Grading is something for which most teachers are not adequately trained and a topic that is not often discussed. -Ken O'Connor

Ken O'Connor and Carol Ann Tomlinson addressed how grades can be determined so they are consistent, accurate, meaningful, and supportive of learning for all students. One principle they shared is that it is unwise to overgrade student work.

To avoid overgrading, they suggested the following guidelines:

Never grade pre-assessments--students have had no opportunity to learn as yet.
Grade ongoing assessments sparingly--students need the opportunity to practice, analyze work, and learn from errors in a safe context.
Use summative assessments as primary data for grading--make sure the assessments are squarely focused on the criteria specified to the students.

How do you think this approach to grading might change school for struggling learners? Post your response.

Related Resources

Differentiated Instruction in Elementary Reading

2005-07-05T16:50:00.000-04:00

Carole Erlandson, Debbie Montgomery, and Bridget Smith from the Wayne Township Schools in Indianapolis are leading the implementation of differentiation in their district.

In a session designed around the theme, “Portrait of a Reader,” they shared a variety of checklists, surveys, and rubrics they use to assess students’ reading readiness; offered insights on students’ attitudes and interests in reading; and examined how to design differentiated tasks for flexible groups, use literature circles, and provide appropriate scaffolding during guided reading.

One of their tips is to involve students in goal setting and self-analysis--this helps the students be invested in and motivated by their learning. It supports their development as self-empowered learners.

Related Resources
Reading Strategies for the Content Areas, Volume 1: An ASCD Action Tool and Reading Strategies for the Content Areas, Volume 2: An ASCD Action Tool
These ASCD Action Tools quickly get teachers up to speed on effective reading strategies and provide all the materials needed to teach strategic reading practices. Whenever teachers observe students having trouble with connecting prior knowledge to new reading assignments, making predictions about their reading, or deciphering text they do not understand, they can quickly select a Reading Tool that will address the problem effectively in a time-efficient way.

Understanding by Design in the Secondary Science Classroom

2005-07-05T16:00:00.000-04:00

This session was packed with science teachers who taught all different high school subjects. There were

biology teachers
earth science teachers
physics teachers
geology teachers
and many others

With all of these folks from different subject areas in science, how could this session possibly excite and benefit everyone?

Well, the presenter, Elvia Solis, a high school biology teacher from Indianapolis, pulled it off! She facilitated table groups as the educators developed enduring understandings and essential questions.

And how did they do? If you know UbD, you be the judge. The following are examples of what they came up with:

All organisms change over time
Patterns exist in the world around us
Measures are essential to the continuation of scientific advancement
Mass and energy is not created or destroyed

Tell Us What You Think--Join the DI and UbD Community
If you've developed some enduring understandings and essential questions that pertain to the secondary science classroom, share them with other educators by posting a comment.

Rockets, Ice Cream, and Student Understandings

2005-07-01T07:36:00.000-04:00

This tidbit came from the session on Supervising Teachers Using DI and UbD with Everett Kline and Deb Burns . . .

A kindergarten teacher was very excited about a unit she created and delivered to her students on the universe. She told her supervisor about how she started the unit by bringing her students out to the playground to watch the janitor shoot off a rocket. "The kids loved it!" she beamed.

Her principal asked her, "Why did you begin the unit with that activity?"

"Because the kids loved it!"

The principal replied, "Yes, you told me that. But why did you do that activity?"

She said, again, "Because the kids loved it!"

The principal replied, "Well, I suggest you use ice cream then, because all your kids love it, even the ones who don't like rockets!"

The kindergarten teacher was angry, of course, but she did come back to her principal to learn about how to design units with all activities aligned to the desired results.

The activity with the rocket was engaging, but it wasn't effective if it didn't support the student understandings the teacher intended for her unit.

Related Resources
Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition
How do you know when students understand something? Can you design learning experiences that make it much more likely that students understand content and apply it in meaningful ways? This book will help you answer these questions and create more rigorous and engaging curriculums.

Professional Development Online
Understanding by Design: An Introduction
This seven-lesson course introduces teachers in all grades and subjects to the Understanding by Design program for curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Have More Questions About UbD?
Have an Understanding by Design expert come to you. The ASCD Faculty are a group of expert trainers and consultants from the field of education ready to design workshops, keynote speeches, consultations, or conferences for your district.

Leading by Design with Grant Wiggins

2005-06-30T12:50:00.000-04:00

Grant Wiggins, addressing school leaders in the session entitled "Leading by Design," focused on the need for school reform that is based on principles about how learning for understanding works, not just generic processes about change.

To successfully meet standards requires changing how teaching and learning are conceived, but many teachers don't understand their job--believing that it is coverage of the curriculum, rather than guiding students to understanding big ideas and the transfer of knowledge and skills. This misconception is supported by many school policies and practices.

School leaders can shift the focus from curriculum coverage to understanding by applying backward design to leadership and action planning:

putting the focus on learning about learning
researching what is and isn't working
framing desired results and performance goals around teaching
assessing for understanding

Tell Us What You Think--Join the DI and UbD Community
If you are a school leader, how do you apply UbD principles in your role?

If you are not a school leader, do your school leaders apply UbD principles? If so, how? Do school leaders allow you and show you how to apply UbD principles in your classroom?

Share your experience with other educators about what works and what to avoid--post a comment.

Understanding by Design in the Secondary Social Studies Classroom

2005-06-29T16:16:00.000-04:00

Reflecting Student Interests--Tupac to Caesar Chavez
Angie Peterson, an educator in the Indianapolis, Ind. system, sets up her classroom to reflect her students' backgrounds at the beginning of the school year. She posts works by African American, Hispanic, and Asian authors and poets on her bulletin boards.

For example, Tupac Shakur is familiar to her students, so she posts his lyrics as poetry along with a book excerpt on the life of Caesar Chavez. (Learn how studying Tupac led one student to orchestrate a peace forum.)

Know Your Students
It's important to know who your students are and what content is important and relevant to their lives. That key theme was echoed throughout this conference and especially in the "Understanding by Design in the Secondary Social Studies Classroom" session presented by Peterson.

Connecting to Students
Peterson stays closely connected to her students and their families and has been called on as a teacher of record to help bail more than one of her students out of juvenile detention hall when parents couldn't be reached.

One teacher in the session shared that she gives her students her cell phone number and tells them to call when they need help.

Unit Design Based on What Students Want to Learn
Peterson asks her students to tell her which of these National Council for the Social Studies thematic strands and themes are the most important for them to learn:

Culture
Time, Continuity, and Change
People, Places, and Environment
Individual Development and Identity
Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Power, Authority, and Governance
Production, Distribution, and Consumption
Science, Technology, and Society
Global Connections
Civic Ideals and Practices

She then had session attendees use these themes in small groups to begin designing social studies units that connect to their own students' lives.

Related Resources
Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook
Implementing an Understanding by Design program is much easier when you use this in-depth resource for workshops, curriculum teams, and teacher training. This collection of templates, design tools, examples, and exercises helps you give all staff members a firm grasp of key UbD principles.

UbD Exchange
This is a cooperative Web site devoted to the development and peer review of curriculum units, where you can find plenty of curriculum units designed according to UbD principles for use in your classroom.

Opening General Session Video

2005-06-28T13:00:00.000-04:00

During today's opening general session, attendees watched this video, in which students explain why they like learning in classrooms that use Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design:

View the video

Last Minute Notices for Attendees

2005-06-27T10:12:00.000-04:00

Please note the time change for the Making Connections reception.

Get quick answers to your last minute questions in our Conference Guide.

If this is your first time in New York City, these sites will help you find out what there is to do in NYC.

Reports from Conference Starting Tomorrow

2005-06-27T09:44:00.000-04:00

The 2005 ASCD Summer Conference begins tomorrow--the Pre-Conference Institutes are already underway--and when it does, we will begin our reports from New York.

We'll provide a view of the conference for those of you who weren't able to make it this year, starting with a look at the video that will be presented during the opening general session. (We're repeating this conference next year. If you missed the conference because you didn't register before it sold out, you may want to register today for the 2006 summer conference.)

During the conference, we will post reports from conference sessions each day. However, our many bloggers are also busy running the conference, which means that they won't be able to get all their entries posted during the conference. We'll continue to post their reports through the week following conference.

For those of you who were at the conference, you can send us your session reports and comment on those posted by our bloggers. We will also be posting your responses to our questionnaires as we receive them.

Need To Cancel?

2005-06-15T11:30:00.000-04:00

Although we hope to see you all in New York, we have been getting some questions about cancellations (which those on the waiting list will surely consider good news).

All cancellations should be received by e-mail 14 days before the conference for a refund; we will charge a $25.00 processing fee. If there are less than 14 days before the conference, you are ineligible for a credit, but you can send a nonregistered person in your place with registration confirmation or written authorization from you.

Get all the details on our registration page.

Making Connections Reception Time Change

2005-06-15T11:11:00.000-04:00

The Making Connections reception will now be held from 6:00-7:30 p.m., on Tuesday, June 28, on the 9th floor.

Meet with colleagues from around the world during this informal reception. Music will be provided by "The Hazbins," with Grant Wiggins at the helm. Light snacks and a cash bar will be available.

See more summer conference networking opportunities.

What To Do in New York City?

2005-06-13T18:30:00.000-04:00

While the summer conference will be full of activities to keep you busy, including a performance by "The Hazbins," with Grant Wiggins at the helm, you will be in the heart of New York City, the city that never sleeps, and that has something for everyone.

Never Been to NYC?
If you've never been to New York City before, you might be interested in some of these sites, which can help you get started on ideas of post-conference activities:

New Yorkers, Help Us Out
And, if you're a New Yorker, we're sure that you have an opinion for your colleagues about

what they shouldn't miss
what they should pass on
where the best shopping is
which are the must-see shows
where to get good food
and so on . . .

. . . So, help your colleagues out by posting your recommendations in a comment by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of this entry.

Important Notice for Conference Attendees

2005-06-08T08:56:00.000-04:00

If you have not received a confirmation letter for the conference or Pre-Conference Institute, please call the ASCD Service Center immediately to determine the status of your registration at 1-800-933-2723, then press 2.

Conference Guide

2005-06-07T16:36:00.000-04:00

Browse the Summer Conference Guide to quickly get all the information you need on:

What to do when you arrive onsite.

Check-In Schedules.

Session room locations and maps.

Networking Opportunities

ASCD Resource Center

Academic Credit

2005 Summer Conference Is Sold Out

2005-06-07T16:31:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone who has registered for this conference. The 2005 Summer Conference is now sold out. There will be no onsite registration.

The second Summer Conference on Differentiating Instruction and Understanding by Design: Powerful Keys to Student Learning will be held in Denver, Colorado, in June 2006.

Learn more about the 2006 conference and register today.

Hotel Accommodations

2005-06-07T16:22:00.000-04:00

The Marriott Marquis and the Millennium Hotel Broadway are now full. The conference will be held at the Marriott. We trust that you have already made your room reservation.

Please ensure that your room reservation is confirmed. If you have any questions about your reservation, please contact the hotel directly:

New York Marriott Marquis
1535 Broadway
New York, NY 10036

Millennium Hotel Broadway
145 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
1-212-768-4400

Final Details Before Conference

2005-05-31T09:59:00.000-04:00

The ASCD Conference on Differentiating Instruction and Understanding by Design: Powerful Keys to Student Learning is quickly approaching, and we wanted to share some final details with you.

Over the next three weeks before the conference begins, we will post important notices and updates here. You can either check back here regularly, or get our blog delivered to you by subscribing to our blog feed.

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