Dr. Debbie Silver — Questions and Answers
April 8, 2008 Taking Center Stage—Act II Statewide Webcast
These are the questions posed by viewers during the TCSII Webcast. Dr. Debbie Silver submitted her responses after the Webcast, which can be viewed from the Professional Learning Toolkit.
1. Should (& do) teachers receive appropriate cultural competence training in order to know the cultures, languages, and experiences of students in order to effectively differentiate instruction?
It is almost impossible to give undergraduate education majors all they need in order to be competent in the various cultures, languages, and experiences of students before they begin teaching. It would be helpful if we in the United States did what some of the Canadian Provinces do; they pay beginning teachers to be interns with master teachers for at least a year before they get their own classrooms. What a wonderful opportunity that would be for neophytes to learn more about the culture(s) of the communities in which they teach. I think school districts need to become more responsible for giving new teachers (as well as veteran teachers) ongoing professional development along these lines. Probably students would be best served by educators forming localized professional learning communities that meet on a regular basis to discuss and plan how best to address student diversities.
2. Considering the current demand for higher California Standard Test (CST) scores, do you have any ideas that teachers can implement to prepare students to take the CST?
I have always believed that if we incorporate effective teaching strategies, the test scores will take care of themselves in the long run. Unfortunately, most districts are looking for immediate improvement, and statistically that is usually impossible because it disregards the normal “implementation dip” of any newly activated program. I believe that D.I. can positively affect test scores in several ways. First, students who have a heightened sense of “self-efficacy” will not be paralyzed by test fears. If they believe they have a reasonable chance to do well on the assessments, they are more likely to commit to doing their best.
Second, D.I. helps students make greater gains in all academic areas by helping them understand what they already know and making connections among the disciplines. And, finally, effective D.I. requires teachers to vigilantly revisit essential ideas. If essential ideas are linked to the CST, students will have a greater familiarity with and mastery of those particular standards.
3. Wonderful presentation! It is clear that teachers need the time to know their students and differentiate instruction. How can teachers find the time?
Thank you for your positive comments. You have hit on a major “challenge” for effectively implementing D.I. How do teachers find the time? Unfortunately, much of what we need to do with D.I. requires a lot of thought, planning, and execution before we meet with students. As we begin to compact, tier assignments, use alternative assessments, and modify our levels of support even more time is required. My advice is for teachers to work in groups to help distribute the load. I advise teachers to duplicate their creations and share them with other teachers (who will likewise share their own work). If a teacher develops a D.I. unit on a particular concept and trades it with another teacher, they both have two more units next year than they did this year. As teachers continue to create, share, and accumulate D.I. materials, their reserve of ideas and materials will grow exponentially. I would love to see teachers given more planning time and less classroom responsibility (as is done in several other countries) so that the balance of time intensive implementation required for D.I. would be far more equitable.
4. How can technology as a tool be utilized to help differentiate teaching & learning?
Technology is essential for effective implementation of Differentiated Instruction. Part of the issue about time requirements can be at least partially solved with the use of technology innovations. It would be impossible to list in this small space the many tools, devices, and programs now available for teachers to help with diverse levels of support and challenging activities. For a phenomenal compilation or resources, visit Brenda Dycks’s Website: http://www.nmsa.org/services/online/rebooting.html (Outside Source)
5. With more schools emphasizing on English Language Arts (ELA) and Math time, what impact do you believe less science instruction will have on the overall achievement of the student?
It disturbs me that the emphasis on ELA and Math testing has led to an emphasis on skill sets rather than on the importance of helping students learn to use their knowledge in new and novel ways. I much prefer the model of an integrated approach to education that balances all of the core subject areas -- language arts, science, social studies, and math with the “encore” subject areas such as music, art, humanities, drama, physical education, and electives. It has always been my belief that by using science as an entry point teachers can effectively incorporate language arts and mathematics as tools to deepen understanding of basic scientific principles. The same can be said for social studies and other disciplines. I hope that the positive gains in education that have come about because of curriculum mapping, thematic instruction, and the cohesive curriculum will not be abandoned with the emphasis on D.I. Both concepts are important for student understanding and motivation.
6. How do you/we reconcile the benefits and need for differentiation with our accountability system which relies solely on multiple choice exams?
We can’t. If we truly want to represent D.I. across the educational spectrum, we are going to have to come up with multiple ways for students to demonstrate understanding. I have no problem with an objective multiple choice exam being one indicator of achievement, but it should by no means be the only acceptable evidence of learning. Presently we attempt to measure that which is easily measured despite its limits and lack of equity. Objective multiple choice tests are expedient, but they are often heavily weighted in favor of students who are verbal-linguistic learners.
7. What is the Website for applied assessment strategies?
I am not sure what you mean by the term “applied” assessment strategies. Generally we think of assessment as being diagnostic, formative, or summative. Formative assessment is probably the most important because it lets us know where our students are as we move along and informs us about how to adjust our instructional strategies to better help with student understanding. A comprehensive list can be found at: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Assessment+Strategies&btnG=Search (Outside Source)
8. Great examples using science content; could you provide a few differentiated instruction examples for English Learners?
Unfortunately in our limited time I was able to offer only a few instructional examples. My background is in science, so “in a pinch” I usually fall back on examples I used with my own students. I encourage you to use Google for Educators (Outside Source) to locate instructional examples for your particular field.