Differentiation in the Elementary Grades: Strategies to Engage and Equip All Learners

In this comprehensive resource for elementary school teachers, Kristina J. Doubet and Jessica A. Hockett explore how to use differentiated instruction to help students be more successful learners–regardless of background, native language, learning preference, or motivation. They explain how to

• Create a healthy classroom community in which students’ unique qualities and needs are as important as the ones they have in common.
• Translate curriculum into manageable and meaningful learning goals that are fit to be differentiated.
• Use pre-assessment and formative assessment to uncover students’ learning needs, tailor tasks accordingly, and ensure that students are “getting it.”
• Provide interactive learning experiences that encourage students to engage with both the content and one another.
• Present students with avenues to take in, process, and produce knowledge that appeal to their varied interests and learning preferences.
• Navigate potential roadblocks to differentiation.

Each chapter provides a plethora of practical tools, templates, and strategies for a variety of subject areas developed by and for real teachers. Whether you’re new to differentiated instruction or looking to expand your repertoire of DI strategies, Differentiation in the Elementary Grades will show you classroom-tested ways to better engage students and help them succeed every day. Includes URL and password for free downloadable forms.

Kristina J. Doubet is a professor in the College of Education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where she has received the Distinguished Teacher Award, the Madison Scholar Award, and the Sarah Miller Luck Endowed Professorship for Excellence in Education. As an independent consultant and ASCD Faculty member, Kristi has partnered with more than 100 schools, districts, and organizations around initiatives related to differentiated instruction, Understanding by Design, classroom assessment, digital learning, and classroom management and grouping. She is the coauthor (with Jessica Hockett) of Differentiation in Middle and High School: Strategies to Engage All Learners—the companion book to this volume—and of The Differentiated Flipped Classroom: A Practical Guide to Digital Learning (with Eric Carbaugh). She is also the coauthor (with Carol Ann Tomlinson) of Smart in the Middle Grades: Classrooms That Work for Bright Middle Schoolers. Kristi taught middle and high school language arts for 10 years and has also served as an instructional coach and a curriculum developer in elementary and middle school classrooms.

Jessica A. Hockett has been a full-time education consultant for 12 years, specializing in interactive and differentiated instruction, standards-aligned curriculum and performance task design, classroom grouping practices, and program evaluation. Her work with numerous schools, districts, departments, and organizations has supported a wide range of initiatives centered on improving teacher and student learning. She is the coauthor (with Kristina Doubet) of Differentiation in Middle and High School: Strategies to Engage All Learners and (with Chester E. Finn Jr.) of Exam Schools: Inside America’s Most Selective Public High Schools, a big-picture look at a high-performing but understudied niche of U.S. education.