Ch. 7: Differentiated Instruction--Fitting the Lesson to the Learner

In differentiating instruction and lessons for all, we must remember to teach the content. All students are different and learn in different ways. The most important thing we need to keep in mind is what is essential to know. Wormeli said, we all have “fluff” in our lessons and must be flexible enough to change the “fluff” for the student’s interests and abilities. Some students need this extra information to push them to succeed while others imagine without the push and have the consistency to always ask why to get the information they need. I may be alone here, (and I’m ok with it), but I’ve never thought it was fair to give more work to the stronger students because of the myth that they can handle it and less work to the lower achievers. Why separate the workload in a week or month by giving the stronger readers two or three book reports and the struggling reader’s only one? I believe in differentiation, no doubt, but young adolescents are judgmental creatures and will quickly be able to pinpoint the stronger learners and the weaker ones and know where they fall. This will affect self-esteem, I feel. I was a strong reader in middle school but instead of having to do more, my teachers would have me compare the books I read in one report so essentially I was never doing more so it would not show, yet the teacher would know that I read four books versus Joe’s one, but it was something only the teacher and I would know. The opposite goes with math and myself, I would be at the lower spectrum. If my peers knew this, I feel I would be more self-conscience, therefore, we need to keep our students comfort levels in mind as well. In order to differentiate, we must remember that we have to be empathetic to our student’s interest, organized with grading, graphic organizers and be well-informed about the different areas within the content as well as be comfortable, flexible, tenacious, and resourceful within the classroom and have the ability to collaborate and include humor to the lessons. With all these things in mind, Wormeli helped me believe that differentiation is the key to a successful learning situation. My only fear is picking on the weak/strong achievers in the classroom therefore I won’t assign more, yet I would opt to assign choices and have information in different venues available, for instance, what I would expect if they were to draw the book report synopsis, or make an iMovie, Podcast or blog and how I would grade a written report versus an oral report. Having differentiation helps learners grow and succeed, but in every class we should have limitations and expectations for all to achieve. On another note, we, as teachers need to keep in mind the multiple intelligences to spark our student’s interests and boast differentiation.