In short, while the goal of DI is to create an inclusive classroom, it can exacerbate the differences between students if the differentiation allows for differences in student skill levels or rates of achieving mastery. If the DI structure presents different students with work of varying levels of challenge (simplistically: a lower hurdle for the struggling student and a higher hurdle for the accelerated student), then over time this tends to exacerbate the... If DI is supposed to be highly situational – each teacher designs each lesson around the needs of this year’s students, focused on this day’s lesson, on each day, in response to assessment data and changing student needs, then a steady diet of DI... Readers should know that I’m making a distinction between “formal DI,” (my phraseology) where most every lesson is structured around different pathways for different groups of children, and “informal DI,” a looser form where a series of lessons on...  My first two blogs about differentiated instruction (DI) outlined the rationale and merits of this instructional approach.  Sometimes DI is misunderstood as a way to “track” students in the same classroom, providing different levels of academic challenge for different groups of students. There must be empirical truth to this: as I have talked with many administrative colleagues, who have collectively observed hundreds of teachers in diverse public, parochial, and independent educational settings, it is a challenge to find any...  The first and most common concern about formal DI shared by educators is the burden on the teacher – each lesson becomes many lessons, with a proportionate increase in demand on time for lesson preparation.

1) Differentiate Through Teams We all know that heterogeneous grouping works, but sometimes homogenous grouping can be an effective way to differentiate in a project. You need to differentiate the learning environment because some students learn better on their own, and others learn better in a team. In addition to being a great management strategy to prevent “time sucks” in class, mini-lessons are a great way to differentiate instruction. By design, it is student-centered, student-driven and gives space for teachers to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways. 5) Differentiate Through Formative Assessments Formative assessments can look the same for all students. 4) Voice and Choice in Products Another essential component of PBL is student voice and choice, both in terms of what students produce and how they use their time. PBL can allow for effective differentiation in assessment as well as daily management and instruction. Project-Based Learning (PBL) naturally lends itself to differentiated instruction. After reflection and goal setting, this is a great way to have them connect their goals to specific mini-lessons. Pick appropriate times to break your class into teams to create a structure for differentiated instruction. From written components to artistic or theatrical, you can differentiate the way students are summatively assessed.

For me, as an Assistant Professor in the CPS Master of Education Teacher Licensure Program , I have observed that many of our teacher candidates struggle with both the significance of differentiating instruction, as well as, the actual practice of... The following are some of the most effective strategies that I have discovered thus far: (a) the use of hands-on activities with a choice of manipulatives, (b) teaching varying problem-solving strategies, (c) scaffolding as much as needed, (d)... Teachers use various instructional strategies to target instruction to student needs. The way Nicole dialogues between her own practical theories and the dominant literature in the field is a crucial process in new teacher’s ability to understand and engage best practice in their work and it is my goal to facilitate this in my... Students are assessed in multiple ways, and each student’s progress is measured at least in part form where that student began (p. 106). Nicole poignantly discusses how she underestimated both the importance and complexity of differentiating instruction. She also offers both research-based best practices, as well as, her own practical theories regarding differentiation. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development ( ASCD ) (as cited in Shalaway, 2005) has identified the following as best practices in an effectively differentiated learning environment for all students:. After a semester of student teaching, I see more than ever how important it is to differentiate in the classroom.

While no empirical validation of differentiated instruction as a package was found for this review, there are a generous number of testimonials and classroom examples authors of several publications and Web sites provide while describing... Designers of differentiated instruction determine as essential the alignment of tasks with instructional goals and objectives. As classrooms have become more diverse with the introduction of inclusion of students with disabilities, and the reality of diversity in public schools, differentiated instruction has been applied at all levels for students of all abilities. The intent of differentiating instruction is to maximize each student’s growth and individual success by meeting each student where he or she is, and assisting in the learning process. To differentiate instruction is to recognize students varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning, interests, and to react responsively. Differentiated instruction is a process to approach teaching and learning for students of differing abilities in the same class. The design and development of differentiated instruction as a model began in the general education classroom. Many authors of publications about differentiated instruction strongly recommend that teachers adapt the practices slowly, perhaps one content area at a time. Based on the content, project, and on-going evaluations, grouping and regrouping must be a dynamic process as one of the foundations of differentiated instruction. Yesterday, in our module 5 TESOL discussion topic: Classroom Management, Joe brought up an interesting topic: How can you provide effective differentiation teaching in your classrooms. (See the links to learn more about differentiated instruction). For example, differentiated instruction adopts the concept of “readiness”. As noted previously, studies on the package of differentiated instruction are lacking. Because we must first determine the specific needs of the students with fresh data and then determine which areas of differentiation we want to use.