George Lucas Educational Foundation
Differentiated Instruction

Resources and Downloads for Differentiated Instruction

Educators from Mesquite Elementary School, in Tucson, Arizona, have provided these resources for you to use in your own school.

August 29, 2011
Photo credit: Zachary Fink
Daily collaborative planning time at Mesquite Elementary enables teachers to plan differentiated instruction to address the progress of each student.

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Lesson Plans & Rubric - Reteach and Enrich

Sample materials used to teach, assess, reteach, and enrich one week's fifth grade math objective: differentiating prime and composite numbers. Watch our video or read the article to learn more about Mesquite's Reteach & Enrich program.

Reteach Examples

Enrich Examples

Example of a game played in enrichment class

Websites

Activities used by Mesquite teachers for teaching prime and composite numbers

Tools for Data Assessment

Teachers at Mesquite meet weekly with the student achievement teacher to review the most recent assessment data and plan instruction for each student accordingly.

Sample spreadsheet used to track student performance on each objective.

Students whose performance falls in the bottom 25 percent of the class are tracked more closely using spreadsheets like this one.

Benchmark = 1 quarter

AIMS is the state standardized test

PL = Performance Level on AIMS

M = Meets

A = Approaches

FFB = Falls Far Below

Grid displaying per student performance for each objective on a benchmark test.

MS = Meets Standard

AS = Approaches Standard

FS = Falls Below Standard

Profile report of overall performance for one fifth grade class on a benchmark test.

Profile report of overall performance for entire fifth grade on a benchmark test. Codes such as S1C1, S1C2, are weekly performance objectives; M05 is Mesquite, 5th grade.

Culture

Websites & Readings

School Snapshot

Mesquite Elementary School

Grades 3-5 | Tucson, AZ
Enrollment
601 | Public, Suburban
Per Pupil Expenditures
$6252 School$6815 District$7609 State
Free / Reduced Lunch
22%
DEMOGRAPHICS:
31% Hispanic
7% Black
5% Asian
1% Other

12% special needs
3% English-language learners

Data is from the 2010-11 academic year.

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