Differentiated instruction what is it

By any account, differentiation is considered a complex approach to implement, requiring extensive and ongoing professional development for teachers and administrators.

As a result, for most teachers, learning to differentiate entailed more than simply learning new practices. It required teachers to confront and dismantle their existing, persistent beliefs about teaching and learning, beliefs that were in large part shared and reinforced by other teachers, principals, parents, the community, and even students.

Strickland notes that most schools do not provide sufficient training for new and experienced teachers in differentiating instruction. Tomlinson said that teachers can begin to differentiate instruction simply by learning more about their students and trying to tailor their teaching as much as they find feasible.

They wanted to do better. They kept working toward their goal. Fattig, a nationally recognized educator and a co-author of the book Co-Teaching in the Differentiated Classroom , told Teacher magazine that year.

In practice, differentiation is such a broad and multifaceted approach that it has proven difficult to implement properly or study empirically, critics say. Both in planning time and instructional time, differentiation takes longer than using a single lesson plan for a given topic, and many teachers attempting to differentiate have reported feeling overwhelmed and unable to reach each student equally.

Likewise, some advocates of gifted education, such as James R. Delisle, have argued that advanced students still are not challenged enough in a differentiated environment, which may vary in the presentation of material but not necessarily in the pace of instruction.

One size rarely fits all. Wormeli said in an interview with Education Week blogger Larry Ferlazzo. A version of this article appeared in the February 04, edition of Education Week.

All Topics. About Us. Group Subscriptions. Recruitment Advertising. Events and Webinars. It lets students show what they know in different ways. According to Tomlinson, there are four areas where teachers can differentiate instruction:.

Dive deeper How differentiated instruction works. But there are a few key features: Small work groups: The students in each group rotate in and out. Differentiated instruction and special education. How it compares to other approaches. What to watch out for. Related topics School supports School supports. Continue reading. Tell us what interests you. Teach with diverse materials.

Avoid using one text for the entire class. Instead, use multiple texts at diverse reading levels for your units of study. This will enable every student to gather information from books and magazines they can truly read Robb, ; Worthy et al. Organize for instruction so you meet all reading levels. Set aside 15 to 30 minutes of class time, at least three times a week, for students to read books at their comfort levels — and these levels carry from student to student.

Show students how to construct meaning while reading. Students can become better readers only if they understand how to construct meaning as they read. By modeling the ways you think about texts during your read alouds, while you work with small reading groups, and in your one-to-one instructional conferences with students, you are offering students mutliple opportunities for learning how to consruct meaning Encourage discussion. Discussion is especially important in a differentiated reading classroom because it provides a powerful way to build on every student's understandings and knowledge of facts.

It also provides them with opportunities to clarify meaning and to build comprehension. By asking students to move beyond memorizing the facts to applying those facts to issues and problems through discussion, students deepen their understanding and recall.

In-depth discussions among small groups, and with the entire class, can show students how their peers think and reason, can build background knowledge, and can make the facts relevant to their own lives. Write to explore, think, learn, and improve comprehension. These insights support planning interventions for individuals, pairs, small groups, and, at times, the entire class.

Use ongoing assessments to support each student. Study the assessments students complete for a unit to discover their successes and their areas of need. Then support each student in your class by getting to know him or her so you can provide targeted instruction. Ongoing assessments allow you to do this. Plan your units carefully. Thinking through each unit of study enables you to understand what you want students to learn about a genre, an issue, and reading strategies Tomlinson, It will also ensure that you have gathered reading materials that meet the needs of each student, as well as appropriate texts for your read alouds.

Suggested Reading Related to Differentiation Here are some seminal books on differentiation. The classroom environment also affects learning. Changing physical things in the classroom, like how desks are set up or arranged, or where students can sit on beanbags, for example , serves as classroom environment differentiation, which can also include changes to routines and habits.

Differentiated instruction is beneficial because it helps educators connect with different learning styles. Not all students will respond to a class lecture; a game or a video may work better with other students. Some students may learn better by reading than they do using a computer.

Giving students choices about how they learn enables them to meet learning objectives in the best way for them. In some classrooms, differentiation will be required for students with disabilities and for English language learners. Differentiating instruction gives all students the opportunity to keep pace with learning objectives.

Differentiated instruction motivates them to learn the material in a way conducive to their own interests and unique learning styles. They are energetic and outgoing. They are quiet and curious. They are confident and self-doubting.

They are interested in a thousand things and deeply immersed in a particular topic. Many of them speak a different language at home. They learn at different rates and in different ways. And they all come together in our academically diverse classrooms.

Oftentimes, it is making decisions in the moment based on this mindset. That is all differentiation is. We complicate differentiation by not allowing ourselves to be provisional with how we apply the foundational pieces of differentiated instruction. Instead, if we address these four questions in our instructional planning, differentiation will always be the result: What do my students need?

How do I know? What will I do to meet their needs? In a differentiated learning space, teachers and students learn together. Students focus on learning the course content, while teachers tailor their instructional strategies to student learning styles.