Getting Started on Differentiated Instruction

Differentiation Quotes

Throughout the semester, I've seen so many quotes that Inspire me and make me want to be the best teacher I can be. A lot of these quotes have to do with differentiation, as well. 

Differentiated Instruction: A Primer

I recently read an Article by Sarah D. Sparks about Differentiated Instruction and I really like what it had to say. The first paragraph of the article says, "How can a teacher keep a reading class of 25 on the same page when four students have dyslexia, three students are learning English as a second language, two others read three grade levels ahead, and the rest have widely disparate interests and degrees of enthusiasm about reading?"

We need to differentiate for these students!

"Differentiated Instruction is the process of identifying students' individual strengths, needs, and interests and adapting lessons to match them." 

"Differentiation has much more in common with many other instructional models: It has been compared to response-to-intervention models, as teachers vary their approach to the same material with different students in the classroom; data-driven instruction, as individual students are frequently assessed or otherwise monitored, with instruction tweaked in response; and scaffolding, as assignments are intended to be structured to help students of different ability and interest levels meet the same goals."

Farther down in the article, it says "Carol Ann Tomlinson, a co-director of the institutes on Academic Diversity at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, and the author of The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, 2nd Edition (ASCD, 2014) and Assessment and Student Success in a Differentiated Classroom (ASCD, 2013) argues that differentiation is, at its base, not an approach but a basic tenant of good instruction, in which a teacher develops relationships with his or her students and presents materials and assignments in ways that respond to the student's interests and needs."

There are many different strategies to differentiate instruction in the classroom and if does not involve creating a whole bunch of separate lesson plans for individual students.

According to Tomlinson: "Differentiation requires more than creating options for assignments or presenting content both graphically and with hands on projects. Rather, to differentiate a unit on Rome, a teacher might consider both specific terms and overarching themes and concepts she wants students to learn, and offer a series of individual and group assignments of various levels of complexity to build those concepts and allow students to demonstrate their understanding in multiple ways, such as journal entries, oral presentations, creating costumes, and so on. In different parts of a unit students may be working with students who share their interests or have different ones, and with students who are at the same or different ability levels."

Although there are so many different strategies that can be used to differentiate instruction in the classroom and all differentiated classrooms may not look exactly the same, one of the most important things a teacher can do is begin by learning about their students and trying to tailor their teaching as much as they find feasible.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/28/differentiated-instruction-a-primer.html

Teaching is hard, but rewarding.

Chapter 7 starts by saying, (The teacher) is able to take each student on his or her own merits, to convey, not a generic hope, not a one-size-fits-all confidence, but the specific version which can only come from the student's own facts and from knowing each child well (Sizer & sizer, 1999, p. 114).

According to James Stronge, research says the following:

• Students consistently want teachers who respect them, listen to them, show empathy toward them, help them work out their problems, and become human by sharing their own lives and ideas with their students
• Caring teachers who create relationships with their students enhance student learning
• Effective teachers consistently emphasize that their love for their students is a key element in their success
• Teachers who create a warm and supportive classroom environment tend to be more effective with all students
• Caring teacher intentionally develop awareness of their students' cultures outside of school
• Effective teachers spend a great deal of time working and interacting directly with students
• High levels of teacher motivation relate to high levels of student achievement
• Teachers' enthusiasm for learning and for their subject matter is an important factor in student motivation that, in turn, is closely linked with student achievement
• Teachers whose students have hight achievement rates consistently talk about the importance of reflection on their teaching
• Effective teachers have a solid belief in their own efficacy and in holding high standards for students. This is common among reflective teachers
• Effective teachers carefully establish classroom routines that enable them and their students to work flexibly and efficiently.
• Effective classroom managers increase student engagement and maximize use of each instructional moment
• Effective teachers clearly identify learning goals and link them with activities designed to ensure student mastery of the goals
• Effective teachers use a variety of support systems to ensure student success
• Effective teachers emphasize hands-on learning, conceptual understanding, and links with the world beyond the classroom
• Effective teachers develop and call on a wide variety of instructional strategies proven successful with students of varying abilities, backgrounds, and interests
• Effective teachers set high expectations for themselves and their students with an orientation toward growth and improvement evident in the classroom
• Effective teachers are more concerned with student understanding of meaning than memorization of facts
• Students achieve at higher rates when instruction focuses on meaningful conceptualization and builds on their knowledge of the world
• Student engagement is higher when they take part in authentic activities linked to the content under study.
• Teachers in schools with high achievement rates pre-assess in order to do targeted teaching
• Effective teachers know and understand their students in terms of abilities, achievement, learning preferences, and needs
• Effective teachers reteach material to students who need additional help
• Effective teachers use a variety of flexible grouping strategies to support student learning
• Effective teachers demonstrate effectiveness with the full range of students in their classes
• Effective teachers match instruction to learners' achievement needs
• Effective teachers accept responsibility for student outcomes.

I've heard over and over that teaching is one of the hardest and demanding jobs but it is also one of the most rewarding jobs there is. A teacher has so many roles to take on while in the classroom. They are responsible for the learning of a class full of students. One of the greatest aspects of being a teacher is being able to be there to experience the moment when the students finally "understand" what has been taught.

Practice, practice, practice!

This chapter (chapter 6) starts out by saying that, "All children can learn" does not mean "all children are the same." Furthermore, diversity is not merely about external characteristics. If we're really going to take this seriously, that means we start looking at diversity on the inside as well as diversity on the outside. Making this principle both a moral and intellectual part of the curriculum will require... a diversity of approaches, diversity of techniques, and diversity of teaching strategies (Reeves, 2002).

Throughout this semester, I feel like some of the main things I've heard over and over are:
1. Not all children learn in the same way
2. Learning is not a one size fits all
3. We need to learn about our students interests, backgrounds, and cultures
Although I feel like a lot of this stuff can be repetitive at times, all of these things that i've heard over and over are KEY to differentiation in the classroom. We need to practice all of these strategies plus more and then practice again and again!

Because students matter, the teacher says to the student, and because learning matters to you, I will do my best to:

• Make sure I teach and you learn what is genuinely of value in a subject;
• Pique your curiosity about what we explore, capture your interest, and help you see daily that learning is inherently satisfying;
• Call on you consistently to help you become more than you thought you could become through dedicated work; and
• Be your partner, coach, mentor, and taskmaster all along your learning journey in this class.

This chapter was very helpful to me while reading because I found the information very useful. Throughout this chapter, there are concrete ways in which teachers can make sure curriculum and instruction are important, focused, engaging, demanding, and scaffolded. All of these things are very important not only in order to differentiate but also to help improve the learning of each and every student within the classroom.

I think one of the most important things a teacher can do is engage the students. When students are engaged and excited about learning, they are much more willing and likely to open up to the learning process and learn the things that are important. When what students are learning engages the students, many times, students don't even realize they are learning. Along with engaging students, we need to teach students using real life scenarios. By using real life scenarios, students realize why the information they are learning is useful because they are learning about things that happen in their every day worldly experience.

Students also need work that is demanding and somewhat challenging. We as teachers, don't want the work to be so challenging that our students can't do their work but we also don't want the work to be too easy for our students. When work is too easy, our students will become bored. We need to meet in the middle and give our students challenging work, which can still be completed and give our students a sense of success.