Differentiation

This is my first infographic I have created. My design is based on the key concepts to differentiation. The person is explaining teachers need to be proactive. Teachers need to think on their feet and change their process or procedure if something is not working for their students. The box, represents the assignments and instruction students should be receiving. The most important is it's qualitative rather than quantitive. It doesn't matter how much the student completes, the important part is the student learns the information and understands the content. It's important to always assess students throughout the lesson and have multiple approaches. When this is completed lessons are of quality rather than quantity. The other concepts of differentiation is student centered, students need an opportunity to be in groups, work with partners, or even one on one with the teacher for extra support. To have student centered learning, it's important for teachers to understand how their students learn. 

What is Differentiation?

Differentiation is when all students are learning at different levels, teachers use different approaches and could use different content to help the student understand the material better. “Differentiation is a way of teaching; it’s not a program or package of worksheets. It asks teachers to know their students well so they can provide each one with experiences and tasks that will improve learning” (Robb, 1999).

The best way to explain differentiation is by an example that happened in my classroom. It was during a vocabulary lesson. For the activity, I had my students fold their paper into four squares and write the vocabulary word on the top of each square. Then I had my students draw a picture and write a sentence using the vocabulary word. Students were required to use their text when writing their sentence. The whole class started the lesson together. We read the story, talked about each vocabulary word independently, discussed with partners about the meaning of the word, did examples and non-examples of the word and then went to our seats to work independently on the assignment.

Throughout the lesson I assessed my students. While assessing, I would decide if the students needed extra support with the vocabulary word. I had students that needed extra support, come to the back table to work with me one to one. We talked about the word, broke the word into parts to help with the meaning of the word. We found the evidence in the text. Some of the students understood the word and were ready to go back to their seat to complete the assignment. Other students still had difficulty.

I became proactive (Tomlinson) and noticed; the students who had difficulty reading were having a difficult time writing the sentence. Instead of having them write a sentence for each word, I modified their assignment and had them draw what they thought the word meant. Then I had them verbally tell me about their picture. From their sentence, I was able to assess if they understood the vocabulary words.

To differentiate means to have qualitative instead of quantity (Tomlinson, 2001).  The requirement for my students was not to finish the whole assignment (with the picture and sentence for each word), instead it was to understand what the meaning of the words were. Whether understanding was shown through a complete sentence or a picture, both were acceptable. Differentiating can look different in each classroom. It all depends on the student and how they learn.

Reading Rockets is a great website to find different activities to do in your classroom to differentiate with literacy. Here are the ideas I found from the website; I particularly like numbers 1,4 and 6.

1.     Using reading materials at varying readability levels;

2.     Putting text materials on tape;

3.     Using spelling or vocabulary lists at readiness levels of students;

4.     Presenting ideas through both auditory and visual means;

5.     Using reading buddies; and

6.     Meeting with small groups to re-teach an idea or skill for struggling learners, or to extend the thinking or skills of advanced learners.

Key concepts to take away from differentiation

1.     Be proactive – know your student and change the process or content if needed

2.     Qualitative is more important than Quantity – What matters the most if the students learn and understand the content. Finishing all of the word, when working at a slower pace, will only increase anxiety. If a student understands the material, move on.

3.     Assess your students all the time. Don’t wait until the lesson is complete to assess understanding, be proactive, walk around, observe, ask questions, listen to the students. Check to make sure they are understanding what they are learning.

4.     Change the approach. If student(s) are not understanding, change the approach to the instruction. Think on your feet and try many different ways until each student understands the content.

Differentiation happens all the time. It could even be when you’re walking down the hallway with your students. Differentiation is extremely important for students success. All children learn differently from one another. It’s important teachers differentiate anytime they see necessary.

Resources

Tomlinson, Carol Ann. How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms. Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD), 2001. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 5 January 2015.

Robb, L. (1999, February 6). What Is Differentiated Instruction? | Scholastic.com. Retrieved January 13, 2015, from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-differentiated-instruction

Tomlinson, C. (2009). What is Differentiated Instruction? Readingrockets.org Retrieved January 15, 2015, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-differentiated-instruction