Differentiation Differentiating the PRODUCT
The third aspect of differentiation includes the activities or products high-ability students do to show us they know and understand the concepts we are teaching them. The product needs to be aligned with the content and process skills so that the best possible differentiated curriculum can be developed. Dr. Joyce VanTassel-Baska indicates that, “The term product development…is inextricably linked to using higher-level process skills including critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving, and research. Yet it also involves the use of metacognitive skills, those skills that allow students to plan and organize their work and reflect on progress made at key stages of the task (2011, p. 102). As we consider the product dimension for high-ability learners the following principles are important:
Products should be:
- The result of real problems, challenging, existing ideas, and creating new ones
- Developed using new and real techniques, materials, and ideas
- Evaluated appropriately and with specific criteria, including self-evaluation
- Self-selected
- Wide in variety
- Designed for an appropriate audience
- Transformations of ideas, shifting students from the role of consumers to producers of knowledge (Riley, T. 2005, pp. 580-81)
In addition, it is important to note that “worthwhile product development for the gifted requires a recognition that students cannot be left on their own to produce; rather, they require support in skill development and content knowledge within relevant domains” (VanTassel-Baska, 2011, p. 119)
As teachers differentiate the product dimension of a high-ability student’s learning experience they need to be cognizant of the fact that the content dimension, the process dimension and the product dimension go hand in hand. Products range from simple to more sophisticated and the level of the product, project or performance task must align with the other two dimensions.
Product Examples:
http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/core/corepdf/Scie3-6.pdf
http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/core/corepdf/Scie9-12.pdf
Differentiating Curriculum for High Ability Learners (20mb PDF)
References:
Anderson & Pavin. (1993). Nongradedness: Helping it to happen. In Plucker J.A. Callahan, Carolyn M. (2008). Critical issues and practices in gifted education: What the Research Says, (p. 169). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., Rathunde, K., & Whlen, S. (1993). Talented teenagers: The roots of success and failure. In Critical issues and practices in gifted education: What the research says. (p. 169). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
Curry, J. (1999). Retrieved from http://www.wilmette39.org/DI39/quotes.html.
Kaplan, S.N. Layering differentiated curricula for the gifted and talented. In Karnes, F.A., and Bean, S.M., (2005). Methods and Materials for Teaching the Gifted, 2nd Ed. (p.113). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
Passow, A.H. (1982). Differential curricula for the gifted/talented: Committee report to the National/State Leadership Training Institute on the Gifted and Talented. Ventura Co, CA: Office of the Superintendent of Schools.
Samara, J. Pedraza, C. & Curry, Eds. (1993). Developing instructional units: Grades K-2. Salt Lake City, UT: Utah Association for Gifted Children.
Riley, Tracy L., Teaching Gifted and Talented Students in Regular Classrooms. In
Karnes, F. A., and Bean S. M., Methods and Materials for Teaching the Gifted, 2nd Ed. (p. 580). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
Seney, R.W., Process skills and the gifted learner. In Karnes, F. A., and Bean S. M. (2005). Methods and Materials for Teaching the Gifted, 2nd Ed. (p. 134). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
Tomlinson, C.A. (2003). Fulfilling the promise of the differentiated classroom. (pp. 1,2,10). Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD.
Tomlinson, C.A. Differentiated instruction. In Critical issues and practices in gifted education: What the research says. (p. 170). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
VanTassel-Baska, J. and Little, C.A. (2011). Content Based Curriculum for high-ability learners. (pp. 3, 80,103,119, 394-395). Waco, Texas: Prufrock Press Inc.
Vgotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.