Differentiation at Work, K-5: Principles, Lessons, and Strategies

"Translates the need for differentiation into a format that breaks down the ′why′ into the ′how.′ By using conversations between real teachers and a coach as they undergo the endeavor of putting differentiation into practice, the authors have provided the means for practitioners to see firsthand how theory can become reality."
―Jason Thompson, Fifth-Grade Teacher
Cobleskill-Richmondville Central School District, NY

"This book has a great variety of lessons contributed by teachers―very well laid out and easy to follow. The book provides good examples of using differentiation across subject areas."
―Wendy Rader, Kindergarten Teacher
Union County Public Schools, Charlotte, NC

Watch what happens when educators put differentiation to work in real classrooms!

Every student has unique learning styles, interests, and preferences. By differentiating instruction, teachers can reach all the students in their classroom, from struggling students to the gifted. Based on research and the authors′ experiences at one remarkable elementary school, Differentiation at Work, K–5 describes what schoolwide differentiation looks like in real classrooms.

Lane Narvaez and Kay Brimijoin show school administrators how differentiated instruction can be successfully implemented schoolwide and provide teachers with authentic tools for the classroom. Readers will find:

• Nine sample lesson plans from a variety of disciplines and grade levels, with materials included
• Voices of teachers, students, and other members of the school community describing their experiences with differentiation
• A chapter on supporting schoolwide implementation through coaching
• Preassessments to determine students′ prior knowledge
• Strategies for designing and refining lessons
• Applications at the district level

This hands-on resource demonstrates how increased student achievement can become a reality when the entire school focuses on making differentiation work.

Lane Narvaez is a coauthor of the book The Differentiated School: Making Revolutionary Changes in Teaching and Learning. She has been the principal at Conway Elementary in the Ladue School District, St. Louis, Missouri, for the past 14 years. She has served as an administrator at the elementary, middle, high school, and district levels. Lane has worked in the public school systems of New York, Arizona, and Missouri and has 28 years of teaching/administrative experience. She has worked in at-risk as well as affluent school communities. Degrees include a bachelor of arts from Hunter College (New York), a masters in reading from Manhattan College (New York), and a doctorate in reading from Arizona State University. Narvaez’s research interests include mentoring the beginning teacher, curriculum, and instruction and schoolwide differentiation. She has presented at the following national conferences: ATE(Association of Teacher Educators), AERA (American Educational Research Association), and ASCD (Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development).

She has also presented at the Summer Institute of Academic Diversity at the University of Virginia and the Oxford Round Table in Oxford, England, on her work involving schoolwide differentiation. For the past four years she has worked with Henry County School district in Virginia to help implement differentiation throughout the schools in the district. She has served as a coach in differentiation for schools in Virginia and California, working with teachers and administrators as they implement differentiation in their schools.

Kay Brimijoin is currently associate professor and chair of the Education Department at Sweet Briar College in central Virginia, where she helped launch a master’s program in differentiated curriculum and instruction and teaches courses on curriculum and instruction, assessment, literacy development, and student teaching. After 20 years of K-12 classroom teaching experience and school administration, Brimijoin completed her PhD in educational psychology with concentrations in gifted education and curriculum and instruction at the University of Virginia. She has received awards on curriculum design, research and evaluation, and distinguished dissertation work from the National Association for Gifted Children. She co-authored The Differentiated School in 2008 (ASCD) and a unit in Differentiation in Practice: Grades 9-12 in 2005 (ASCD). Brimijoin has authored numerous articles and co-authored a 2003 review of the literature supporting differentiation. From 2000-2006 Brimijoin was a member of the ASCD Differentiation Faculty Cadre and continues to consult with schools across the country on differentiation, curriculum design, gifted education, and teacher education.