This article makes a case for differentiating instruction and suggests how to do so. The characteristics of a differentiated classroom that I found especially useful for me are: a strong link between assessment and instruction, clarity of learning goals, student involvement in making the classroom work for everyone, and being proactive in differentiating.
Suggestions for planning differentiated instruction include evaluating students’ readiness, interests, and learning profile.
What can be diffentiated are content (although this should be the last resort), process (learning activities the student is asked to perform), and product (the evidence that a student provides for demonstrating what he or she has learned).
The article addresses the fact that teachers in training are not taught to differentiate their training, and that many key voices in teacher preparation programs actively advocate NOT differentiating. To put it simply, we’re told to try not to bite off too much and to just learn how to teach to one group by trying to keep everyone together.
In my school, most of the teachers teach in a non-differentiated way. Only students with IEP’s have anything different from the group. I believe the primary reasons for this are: 1. it is easier for teachers to feel fair by saying that everyone is being treated the same; 2. preparing multiple lesson plans can be a daunting task if different students are in different stages. 3. There are few examples to follow.
I have one example in my school of a math teacher who says he differentiates his students. Each student and parent has been told that their student will not learn the same things as the next student. So far, (I’ve been visiting his classes for the past 2 weeks), I’ve seen him give each group a different part of the chapter to focus on. I will need to visit for a longer period to see more examples, but I do believe that he has a greater percentage of engaged students than other (more traditional) math classes.
Last week, my mentor teacher and I differentiated our instruction by having students self-select into a group that needed a refresher on a certain idea, and a group that did not need the refresher. Some students were redirected if we thought they needed the refresher. It was helpful for some of the students to have the material presented a different way by a different instructor.
I’ve been wondering how I’ll be differentiating my instruction. Of course, I want to help each student where they need it. Of course, I don’t want students bored in my class… I think of it as precious hours of their life that they could be getting much more out of. Of course I don’t want students discouraged or giving up because the material seems out of their reach.
So far, I’ve come across a couple of students that I think we will reduce the number of problems they have to do. They are trying but they are slow, and incomplete work is losing them points and discouraging to them.
I think of differentiated instruction as the holy grail of teaching. It will require me to be crystal clear in my answer to “what is it that these students need to understand and be able to do by the end of this unit?” I know the EALR’s are a guide—and they really are helpful, but it does feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to really do this well when I’m teaching 150 students.
Posted by maryeun 
