To reach this student population, many educators used differentiated instruction strategies. Research by educator Leslie Owen Wilson supports differentiating instruction within the classroom, finding that lecture is the least effective instructional strategy, with only 5 to 10 percent retention after 24 hours. Engaging in a discussion, practicing after exposure to content, and teaching others are much more effective ways to ensure learning retention.
According to Tomlinson, teachers can differentiate instruction through four ways: 1 content, 2 process, 3 product, and 4 learning environment. As you already know, fundamental lesson content should cover the standards of learning set by the school district or state educational standards. But some students in your class may be completely unfamiliar with the concepts in a lesson, some students may have partial mastery, and some students may already be familiar with the content before the lesson begins.
The six levels are: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Students who are unfamiliar with a lesson could be required to complete tasks on the lower levels: remembering and understanding. Students with some mastery could be asked to apply and analyze the content, and students who have high levels of mastery could be asked to complete tasks in the areas of evaluating and creating.
Each student has a preferred learning style, and successful differentiation includes delivering the material to each style: visual, auditory and kinesthetic, and through words. Differentiated instruction IS taking multiple approaches to content, process, and product. Differentiated instruction IS student centered.
Differentiated instruction IS a blend of whole-class, group, and individual instruction. Differentiated instruction DI begins with an accurate understanding of what DI is— and is not.
You may be surprised how easy it is to incorporate into your classrooms. The teacher may still need to fine tune instruction for some learners, but because the teacher knows the varied learner needs within the classroom and selects learning options accordingly, the chances are greater that these experiences will be an appropriate fit for most learners. Effective differentiation is typically designed to be robust enough to engage and challenge the full range of learners in the classroom.
Many teachers incorrectly assume that differentiating instruction means giving some students more work to do, and others less. For example, a teacher might assign two book reports to advanced readers and only one to struggling readers. Or a struggling math student might have to complete only computation problems while advanced math students complete the computation problems plus a few word problems.
Although such approaches to differentiation may seem reasonable, they are typically ineffective. With the help of modern technology, more universities are readily implementing differentiated instruction techniques.
CBU's Dr. Stan Eisen , Professor of Biology and Director of Pre-Health Professional Programs, requires his students to write children's books as the final exam in his parasitology course. Besides being an engaging project, the children's book is a more down-to-earth method of evaluating student mastery than the traditional exam.
According to Dr. Eisen, only students who thoroughly understand parasitology can explain the subject in clear, concrete, and simple terms. The University of Maryland reorganized and updated its classrooms to be more amenable to a differentiated format.
Called TERP classrooms —TERP stands for T each, E ngage, R espond, and P articipate—these refurbished learning spaces make use of round tables, multiple screens, mobile student desks with tablet arms and integrated storage compartments, and multiple writing spaces on the walls. TERP classrooms demonstrate the advantages of differentiated instruction by enabling a collaborative and flexible learning environment for students of all learning styles and backgrounds.
At Assumption College, Dr. James Lang , Professor of English and Director for the Center of Teaching Excellence, is encouraging his faculty to use backward course design when creating new courses.
Lang says to begin with the question, "What do I want my students to have retained from this course 20 years from now? Differentiated instruction provides challenging, meaningful, and engaging activities for learners of all levels. Writing for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development , Alexa Epitropoulos lists seven distinct advantages of differentiated instruction.
Postsecondary students particularly benefit from differentiated instruction because of how diverse they are.
A demographic cliff is coming in higher education. Moreover, in the future, students are expected to attend community or technical colleges as the wage premium for four-year college degrees declines. In this environment, schools are turning their recruitment initiatives toward non-traditional students, including minority students, older learners, and first-in-the-family college students.
These learners may not have strong academic or self-regulatory skills—or may simply be too busy or career-focused—to thrive in a traditional lecture-oriented classroom. Therefore, schools that rely on passive learning approaches will find themselves unable to retain newly recruited students.
However, [ In contrast to the educational practices that exist in higher education, pedagogy in elementary and secondary schools is evolving to meet the needs of diverse learners. This has been accomplished, in part, through the use of differentiated instruction. Providing students with ample practice activities and reinforcement of course information is the best way educators can promote mastery of a subject.
Moreover, differentiated instruction combines individual, group, and full class education techniques. One of the largest benefits of differentiated instruction for students is that it incorporates many different teaching styles. In courses applying differentiated instruction, whole-class discussions are often followed by group or individual learning activities that help cement subject comprehension. Finally, differentiated instruction places more focus on qualitatively adjusting student assignments.
This is particularly helpful for college and university students because the quality of required assignments is more important in determining student understanding and retention than the number of required assignments.
Adjusting the nature of an assignment instead of simply altering the quantity of work for that assignment is a much more effective and active way of promoting learning. The benefits of differentiation in the classroom are also significant for postsecondary teachers. Turner, Oscar J. Solis, and Doris H. Kincade state that most surveyed instructors believed differentiated instructors brought "significant" rewards. However, differentiated instruction also comes with many challenges. Instead, use multiple texts at diverse reading levels for your units of study.
This will enable every student to gather information from books and magazines they can truly read Robb, ; Worthy et al.
Organize for instruction so you meet all reading levels. Set aside 15 to 30 minutes of class time, at least three times a week, for students to read books at their comfort levels — and these levels carry from student to student.
Show students how to construct meaning while reading. Students can become better readers only if they understand how to construct meaning as they read. By modeling the ways you think about texts during your read alouds, while you work with small reading groups, and in your one-to-one instructional conferences with students, you are offering students mutliple opportunities for learning how to consruct meaning Encourage discussion.
Discussion is especially important in a differentiated reading classroom because it provides a powerful way to build on every student's understandings and knowledge of facts. It also provides them with opportunities to clarify meaning and to build comprehension.
By asking students to move beyond memorizing the facts to applying those facts to issues and problems through discussion, students deepen their understanding and recall. In-depth discussions among small groups, and with the entire class, can show students how their peers think and reason, can build background knowledge, and can make the facts relevant to their own lives. Write to explore, think, learn, and improve comprehension.
These insights support planning interventions for individuals, pairs, small groups, and, at times, the entire class. Use ongoing assessments to support each student. Study the assessments students complete for a unit to discover their successes and their areas of need. Then support each student in your class by getting to know him or her so you can provide targeted instruction. Ongoing assessments allow you to do this.
Plan your units carefully. Thinking through each unit of study enables you to understand what you want students to learn about a genre, an issue, and reading strategies Tomlinson, It will also ensure that you have gathered reading materials that meet the needs of each student, as well as appropriate texts for your read alouds.
Suggested Reading Related to Differentiation Here are some seminal books on differentiation. View not found. Download the PDF from here.
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