Supporting Differentiated Instruction: A Professional Learning Communities Approach
For over a decade I have seen the power of Professional Learning Communities as it improves the professional practice of collaboration and raising student achievement and for over a decade I have witnessed the practice of differentiated instruction to engage the student in his or her learning through multiple modalities. This book provides clarity with common sense approaches and offers practical activities to marry the practice of differentiated instruction into the Professional Learning Community model. --Paul Farmer, Professional Learning Communities at Work™ Associate, Fairfax, VirginiaFogarty and Pete s work dovetails seamlessly with Professional Learning Communities. They clearly understand and acknowledge the power and impact of the collaborative culture, which is what Professional Learning Communities address. Through this lens of effective collaboration, they provide us with a good balance of research-based best practice, and easily accessed practical strategies for embedding differentiation as a part of daily instruction. Their approach demystifies differentiated instruction, setting teachers up to improve upon their instructional practice, which leads to our ultimate mission, high levels of learning for all students. --Kenneth Williams, author and speaker, Unfold the Soul, Tyrone, GeorgiaThis excellent, must-read resource fills in a necessary piece for supporting differentiated instruction using professional learning communities. The important task of planning effective instruction to meet the individual needs of today's learners is often met successfully by educators working in collaborative sessions. This "how to" resource gives manageable implementation tools for educator teams to plan instruction through productive community conversations. --Carolyn Chapman, educational consultant, Thomson, Georgia