Differentiated Instruction
Why
differentiate?
Every student in your class comes to school with different
background knowledge, experiences, strengths, needs and challenges. Your job as the teacher is to build on their
positives while helping them to overcome challenges and turn their needs into strengths.
Sounds easy
enough right?
A one size fits all approach will not allow each and every
student to flourish. Remember,
that no
two students in the class are alike and they cannot be taught as though they
are.
So how do I
do it? How do I make this happen in my class?
Whenever a teacher gives a student individual assistance,
they are differentiating.
Differentiating can be done through Content, Process and Product.
Find out what interests your students. It doesn’t make much sense to give Johnny a
story about ballet dancers when he lives eats and breathes dinosaurs, right? It
would also seem silly to give Sally a simple repetitive book to read at school
when she voraciously reads a Junie B. Jones book every day. Varying
the material given to the students, allowing students to read about what
interest them and read books that are at their level is differentiating by
content.
Although Sally and Johnny may have very different interests
when it comes to reading, they may both be kinesthetic learners and need to move
to connect to ideas. Or perhaps they can
really understand a concept when they can talk about it. Focusing on accommodating for how students learn called Differentiating
by process. This could mean having
guided reading groups focusing on a particular concept, tailoring the amount of
support and time you give to each student, developing learning goals with students
so that they are aware of their own strengths and needs as well as teaching to
students’ multiple intelligences.
So now it’s time to assess Johnny and Sally. Let them show us what they know, their
application of reading strategies and level of comprehension. Johnny is super creative, but has trouble getting
his ideas out on paper. He usually ends
up feeling pretty frustrated and unhappy with himself. Sally on the other hand loves to write. Her work is well thought out and ideas and
information just pour out of her. Showing her creative side though feels like she
is baring her soul to for all to see and ridicule. She never fares well and hates the work she
produces. Would it be fair to assess
these two students the same way? Of course not!
It would not give you an accurate demonstration of their skills. Providing
students with tasks which match their skills, allowing students to work either
alone or in groups and giving students’ choice over how they demonstrate their
knowledge and understanding are some ways we can differentiate the product.
Differentiating one of the most important things we can do as
teachers as we help our students on their journey as learners.
Some resources I find helpful…
This website offers a wealth of information and many helpful
strategies relating to teaching reading.
The Guide to Effective Instruction in Reading is a document
produced by the ministry of education. It
provides practical strategies for teachers for differentiating reading
instruction.
An online teaching resource with instruction created for
Ontario teachers looking to expand their skills and knowledge as it relates to
teaching reading, writing and numeracy.
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