Gifted Endorsement Course 2

Implement the Strategies

Module 2
From your Consider the Strategies assignment, or from the suggested list of strategies, choose
one strategy from Advancing Differentiation and one strategy from Cobb County Advanced
Learning Strategies. Develop the strategies and use them in the course of your instruction.
1. On this document, write the name of the strategy.
2. Check the appropriate box(es) indicating what you differentiated for gifted and advanced
students with this strategy.
3. Check the appropriate box(es) indicating what drove differentiation.
4. In the My Classroom space, describe how you used the strategy as part of one of your
own lessons. The following should be included in your description:
a. In what grade level and content was the strategy used?
b. How were students grouped? Why did you group them this way? How did this
grouping arrangement benefit gifted/advanced learners? (Consider students
learning styles, interests, and/or readiness.)
c. How did you implement the strategy? Describe what you did in your classroom,
step by step.
d. How did you specifically differentiate for your gifted and high achievers?
e. How was the effectiveness of the strategy assessed? (A rubric, checklist, or rating
scale should be used for assessment.)
5. In the What I Think Now space, discuss what you think of the strategy based on your
experience. Was it successful? Did it go as planned? Did you have difficulties or
challenges? Will you try this strategy again? What would you do differently if you used
this strategy again?
6. Provide data that substantiates the effectiveness of this strategy. How did students
perform based on the rubric? Does the data indicate success?
7. For Materials Attached, Upload the following documents:
Strategy organizer/directions (given to students)
Additional resources to clarify assignment (optional)
Rubric, checklist, or rating scale used to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy
Student Samples
Strategy Data

Strategy from Advancing Differentiation:

1. Name of Strategy: Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer
Page: 130
Citation: Cash, R.M. (2011). Advancing Differentiation: Thinking and Learning for
the 21st Century.
Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Pub.
x
2. Differentiation of (check one): Content Process Product
Environment
x
3. Differentiation based on (check one): Interest Readiness Learning
Style
4. In My Classroom:
a. I used this in my Accelerated Precalculus class following a week of
lessons on Graphing Trigonometric Functions. The students are in 10 th
and 11th grades.
b. Students worked individually on the assignment. My reasoning for
 doing this as an individual assignment was so I could see each students
individual strengths and weaknesses. In a follow up lesson, I will have
the students come together and have a discussion comparing what they
wrote.
c. I gave the students a list of four functions to graph. Students spent at
least 20 minutes of class time graphing the functions. After graphing
the functions students were told to pick 2 of the functions they graphed
to compare and contrast. Some students did not have all four graphs
completed and thus were given the two functions by me to compare and
contrast.
d. I let advanced students pick their own functions or write their own
equations. For those that needed guidance, I either picked two
functions for them and/or gave more specific step by step instructions
or examples.
e. For this assignment I used a checklist. The checklist simply consisted
of the students answering all 5 parts of the compare and contrast chart
as well as rating the thoroughness of the answers given.
5. What I Think Now: In the future I would likely allow two days for this
assignment. I would have the students complete the graph one day and the on a
following day compare and contrast their work. Many students moved relatively
slower which limited their option of choice in functions to compare/contrast. I also
did not give through instructions as the organizer led the students through the
assignment. In the future I will like add directions such as requesting students to
answer in complete sentence form.
6. Data: Due to time constraints, only 8 of 20 students were able to complete the
assignment in the time given. Of those eight, half of them were through and met
my expectations of an excellent product. As afore mentioned, I believe giving the
students a second day to complete the assignment will ensure a greater rate of
success. Also providing the detail asking student to answer in sentence form may
ensure more completed depiction of what the assignment is asking.
7. Attached materials: Graphic organizer used/student work is on the organizer.
Attached student work #4-5. Directions are written on the graphic organizer.
Further directions given were verbally.
Strategy from Cobb County Advanced Learning Strategies:
1. Name of Strategy: Ready to Order
Page: 26-27
Citation: Cobb County Advanced Learning Strategies. (2015, June 21).
x
2. Differentiation of (check one): Content Process Product
Environment
x
3. Differentiation based on (check one): Interest Readiness Learning
Style
4. In My Classroom:
a. I used this in my Accelerated Precalculus class. Each student had to
write the transformations that would apply to the graph from the
equation they were given or chose.
b. Students worked independently at first. After completing the entire
assignment on their own, students were then instructed to team up to
compare their order to see if they were similar or different. Students
 groups were either told which person to work with based on the
function they graphed, or were not assigned groups but were allowed to
pick someone with whom to discuss their findings.
c. After spending several days in class practicing transformations of
trigonometric functions, on the following day I gave the students a
choice of four functions from which they were allowed to choose one to
graph. Students were told to graph a function after listing out the steps
in the correct order. Students were told to rank the items they were
using to create the graph, state specifically what they were doing in
each step, then justify why they chose to do what they did in the order
stated.
d. Students were told to complete this on their own without help. Some
students who needed more guidance we allowed to use the notes that
were taken in class over the week to guide them in their decision
making. A couple students needed even more guidance and were given
hints or asked a series of guided questions to help them along the way.
e. A five point rating scale was used to determine the effectiveness of this
strategy. The rating scale is attached.
5. What I Think Now: The assignment was an excellent tool in assisting me with
identifying student who definitely mastered the skill versus those who needed more
guidance or clarity on the standard. I felt as though I was not very thorough in my
explanation, however, all students completed the assignment very similarly and met
my expectations of a good product. I would definitely use this again and find other
standards to evaluate using this tool.
6. Data: All students competed within the time constraints. Some took much
longer than others to complete the assignment. All students gave very thorough
justifications. Most all students had the correct graph that match their items listed.
I consider this a huge success as the organizer seemingly help students to create a
better product than what was completed in class prior the use of the organizer.
7. Attached materials: Student work sample #1-3 attached, grading (rating) scale
attached. Directions are written on the graphic organizer. Further directions given
were verbal.