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2: What is Differentiated Instruction? Differentiated Instruction is an instructional concept that maximizes learning for ALL students—regardless of skill level or background. It's based on the fact that in a typical classroom, students vary in their academic abilities, learning styles, personalities, interests, background knowledge and experiences, and levels of motivation for learning. When a teacher differentiates instruction, he or she uses the best teaching practices and strategies to create different pathways that respond to the needs of diverse learners.
The key to a differentiated classroom is that all students are
regularly
offered CHOICES and students are matched with tasks compatible with
their
individual learner profiles. Curriculum should be differentiated in three areas: 1. Content: Multiple
options for taking in information 2. Process: Multiple
options for making sense of the ideas Differentiation of content refers to a change in the material being learned by a student. For example, if the classroom objective is for all students to subtract using renaming, some of the students may learn to subtract two-digit numbers, while others may learn to subtract larger numbers in the context of word problems (Tomlinson, 1999). Differentiation of process refers to the way in which a student accesses material. One student may explore a learning center, while another student collects information from the web. Differentiation of product refers to the way in which a student shows what he or she has learned. For example, to demonstrate understanding of a geometric concept, one student may solve a problem set, while another builds a model (Tomlinson, 1999). When teachers differentiate, they do so in
response to a student’s readiness, interest, and/or learning profile. Readiness refers to the skill level
and background knowledge of the child. Interest
refers to topics that the student may want to explore or that will
motivate the student. This can include interests relevant to the
content area as well as outside interests of the student. Finally, a
student’s learning profile
includes learning style (i.e., a visual, auditory, tactile, or
kinesthetic learner), grouping preferences (i.e., individual, small
group, or large group), and environmental preferences (i.e., lots of
space or a quiet area to work). A teacher may differentiate based on
any one of these factors or any combination of factors (Tomlinson,
1999). Learning styles research
is predominantly used to understand learning preferences that students
use to receive and/or process information. Obviously, the ideal is to
create instruction that will address all three learning styles: Visual,
Auditory, and Kinesthetic.
Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences has received
an overwhelming response from educators in the past several years.
Gardner offers seven different ways to demonstrate intellectual ability
and has recently added an eight intelligence. Understanding how
students demonstrate their intellectual capacity is an important factor
in designing instruction that will meet the specific learning needs of
students who may be dominant in one or several intelligence as opposed
to other forms of intelligence.
Elementary Level Lesson Plans Middle and High School Level Lesson Plans Grades 1 - 8 Differented Lesson Plans |
