What is Differentiation?

I’m sure most teachers out there have an idea what differentiation is. But since it is such a broad concept covering many avenues, it’s best to start right at the beginning.

Differentiated instruction is more than just using a variety of instructional strategies to engage students. It is more than making instruction student-centered. It is more than providing choices to students. It’s about responsive teaching. It is more than just thinking outside the box for teaching students. It’s about creating a balance between effort and success. It’s about meeting the needs for ALL students in your classroom.

When I was growing up, school came very easy for me. I had to apply very little effort. It seemed that all I had to do was show up and somehow I magically just absorbed everything I needed for tests. In fact, because it was so easy, I grew quickly bored with school. My sister, on the other hand, was not so lucky. School was difficult for her. I remember countless nights when she would just sit there at the kitchen table stressing out because she just didn’t get it. She and my mom would work for hours (it seemed) trying to figure out some way to help her grasp the concepts. She worked hard for very little success. Now think about your classroom… Isn’t that often the case there?

 

Students who aren’t being challenged enough are often done first and bored right away. It’s too easy for them. Students who try and try, still have too little success. I had a colleague one time tell me it’s about “watering down” (her words were a bit worse) the content for those low learners. No, it’s not.

Every student should have an equal shot at learning the same content – it’s our approach as teachers that make the difference. Have you ever taught (or even had heard about) the lesson in Daily 5 about the “just right fit book?” In my district we bring in a series of shoes and work up a big dramatic demonstration to help students understand that a soccer shoe works best with a soccer student, a small shoe isn’t going to fit the large foot student and vice versa and so on. The overall point of the lesson is that we all have that perfect shoe – we just need to find it. The same applies to differentiated instruction.

So in a nutshell, differentiation is about how teachers proactively plan their approach to:

*What students need to learn

*How they will learn it

*How they will show they learned it