There are many blog posts on this website. The key points of the blog titled Four Important Concepts of Differentiation are flexibility, planning, resources, and choices. Flexibility is important because teachers must be flexible based on the types of learners in the classroom and if they need to speed up or slow down their lessons if the students understand more quickly or slowly than planned. Planning is essential, but it must be paired with flexibility as mentioned above, because every teacher needs to have guidelines of where they want the day's lesson to go. To teach differentially, teachers must utilize their school's resources. For example, you can use multiple textbooks, computer software, and manipulatives for easy understanding. Lastly, it's important to give students choices with the standards-based activities taking place in the classroom. Students will gravitate towards the activities that best suit their needs; therefore choice is important for students.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because to allow all students to learn through inquiry means that all students must be adequately learning. Since students learn differently, one must differentiate their lessons to account for all students’ needs when teaching to numerous students.
I am hopeful as you shared that studnets will graqvitate to those acticities that "best suit their needs" when infact they may also option for those that best get there work done or allows them to work easiest, or even with their friends!
First off I am a little upset because I just had a great comment and forgot to sign in and it got deleted. But I enjoyed how you brought up how important it is to be flexible. Not every student learns in the same ways nor do they learn at the same time, so we must be able to and be willing to adapt. Also choice is important because we shouldn't make students do something if it won't help them and if they are not interested in it. Learning will be optimized if we allow students to take part in activities that interest and tailor to their own needs.
There were a few different blogs to read through on this site and I felt that each made some great key points. Some of the key points that I found most helpful in better understanding differentiation are as follows. Even though Bloom's taxonomy uses words to categorize what types of learners students are, that these words are not there to label, but there to show that every student thinks at a different level at a different time. Some may be higher ordered thinkers in one area and lower level in another. Another important point that I completely agree with is that fair and same do not mean the same thing. Every student is at a different level, with different needs so in order to be "fair" so that every student learns the same concept you do not need to do the "same" thing with every student. You can use the same content and vary the assignments in a few ways so that the students have a choice and that choice will be made based on how they will learn the best. I think that the last blog does a very good job in describing this, especially with the statement "all students must learn content, but can learn it in different ways. Therefore, teachers can use standards as a guideline for the subject matter they are teaching but not for how to teach it. That is something that should be different from student to student and classroom to classroom.
This article helps me better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because in inquiry based learning all students should be learning, and to be learning it does not have to be in the same way. This article helps lay out some very good ideas for how to differentiate your classroom and the materials that you are distributing. It is important to keep in mind the needs and learning processes of all students so that as a teacher you can accommodate as many as possible.
I am sure you can appreciate that to do as you state, is truly the work of an expert teacher. Differentiation is hard, especially when providing the needs of so many varied populaitons. How often do you do this and is whole groupd instruction passe?
The key points in this article are about the importance of differentiation. There are many different ways of differentiation. One of the points is the application of Blooms Taxonomy, “The trick in using this thinking structure, as with any instructional tool, is to make sure to offer students adequate and appropriate challenges.” Appropriate challenges are not always going to be the same for each student. Every student has different needs in the classroom and it is important to identify and understand them in order to meet the needs of the student. Another major point is to set the standard high for every student, by having them think abstractly, “When we ask students to think about abstract ideas or concepts, we require them to think at a higher level and encourage them to make connections across time and disciplines.” Having students aim high doesn’t mean, everyone will reach it at the same time but everyone will eventually get at their own pace. It is up to the teachers to be flexible and creative in incorporating all the different ways to differentiate within the curriculum. In order to do this, teachers must plan and stay structured and yet open to new methods of teaching. Giving students choices in the lesson is a great way to give students a sense of independence and control of over how they learn something.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because understanding students learning abilities is the best way to implement inquiry based lessons into the curriculum. In order to plan out lessons that best meet the students a teacher must first understand what type of learners are in his/her classroom.
I like the implicit link between identifying students different needs by having them think abstractly, and using this to keep expectations high yet individual. Well said!
The quote "Having students aim high doesn’t mean, everyone will reach it at the same time" is i think one of the most important parts of differentiated instruction. I agree with you completely. We need to hold students to high standards, but expecting them to all reach those standards at the same time is completely ludicrous.
The key points of this article are using the right tools to differentiate in the classroom. There are several techniques in which to follow by to use differentiation most effectively. Differentiation is about making the classroom a fair environment. “It means looking at student’s needs and learning goals and planning ways to meet those goals in a way that is most appropriate for that student.” The four important concepts of differentiation are flexibility, planning, resources, and choices. These four concepts should be considered in differentiating in a classroom. Teachers should be flexible with their lessons. They should be able to give instruction, but being able to change something if needed. With planning differentiation it could make the classroom an easier environment during a lesson. This is so time can be used effectively and not wasted during class time. Next, there are so many resources in classrooms that teachers don’t use at all. See the resources that you have in your classroom and use them if it can be useful to particular students. Lastly, students should have choices, but there always should be the teacher who is ultimately in charge of the classroom.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because differentiating in the classroom can teach me how to assist my students in their learning habits. Being able to accommodate each student effectively is a goal in differentiation in the classroom.
YOU say ultimately the teacher should be in charge of the classroom...I ask you what does that mean? would that make you proficient or distinguished? refer to the Charlotte Danielson framework.
The key points of this article deal with effective ways to implement differentiation in a classroom. The article goes through the different ways we can differentiate material. Bloom's Taxonomy can be a powerful tool in differentiating types of questions used in the classroom. Certain students just are not up to the same level as other students, and you can attempt to assess the same learning standards by using different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy to assess different students. Another important point brought up by this blog site is the idea of "fair" vs. "same". "Fair means that each student is doing the activity best suited to his or her learning. It does not mean that every student is doing the same activity". Teachers must give students activities that are catered to their own learning needs, and gives them the best chance to gain a true, rich understanding of the material.
The blog then goes on to discuss the different things that are differentiated in a classroom. Content is perhaps the most obvious thing that can be differentiated. There are other aspects of the classroom that can be differentiated. One thing that I overlook when thinking about differentiation is the learning space (or physical environment) that learning takes place in. The learning space should be flexible, and conducive to all types of learners.
I believe the biggest key to effective differentiation in the classroom is good planning. Teachers must know the different types of learners in their classrooms and plan to differentiate accordingly. It is the job of the teacher to make sure each student learns in his of her classroom, and that starts with good planning.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because differentiation can lead to wonderful, rich inquiry based lessons. Differentiation can lead to good group exercises where everyone in the classroom has a specific role which caters to the learning style of each individual student.
As you shared, the article states fair may not always be equal, but how can that be FAIR, if all students have to take the same assessment and performance level at the end of the course or year?
I agree that knowing your students and planning differentiation accordingly is the most important part to delivering information to your students. And "rich" was a good word I hadn't thought to use in describing inquiry based lessons.
The Key points on this website are the importance of and how you can go about using differentiation in the classroom. The website has many different posts that go through an array of tools for teachers to use in order to help differentiate the classroom. These tools include product resources, concepts, questions to ask yourself, Bloom's taxonomy, Tomlinson's equalizer, and concept-based teaching. One of the posts that particularly drew me in was the post entitled "Four Important Concepts of Differentiation." The post goes through the concepts and their role in shaping a differentiated classroom. These concepts are flexibility, planning, resources and choices. I believe that the most important of these concepts is to be flexible. Every student learns differently and if your way is of teaching them is not working, you have to own up as a teacher and think of another way to get to them.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry by providing me with a resource that will better me as a teacher. With the tools I can learn throughout this website, along with the new posts that can come in the future, I will be able to better reach my students through the use of a differentiated classroom. The website has also opened me up to new ideas and thoughts on the way a classroom could be run and organized. I fin that this is the best part about reading articles and websites like this one, they open up our minds as teachers to bigger and brighter things.
I totally agree that the website has opened up so many ideas about the management of a classroom. I even think that it helps spark ideas between co-teachers as well, considering that's a great way to embrace differentiation.
I agree with you when you said that teachers should be flexible because every student learns differently. I know for me personally I have to see things written down for me to remember it. That is why I hate when teachers just lecture at me. Teacher feel like they need to get as much information out without realizing that most of the students are not learning anything.
As you have mentioned the concept that you found the most important in the four steps of differentiation is flexibility. It is so important to be flexible in a classroom where students are at different learning styles and different levels because you may want to do one thing and it may not work out, so you have to be open to change in the lesson. You point out that this website and the tools provided will help you better reach your students through new ideas of running the classroom. I think that this is great that you found it so helpful and eyeopening.
The main key point in the article is how important it is to use differentiation in the classroom. The article is formatted into many different ways that we can use differentiation to reach our students because in reality, not all students learn the same way. The focus here is to still be able to reach each and every student. I enjoyed the point made in the first post about Bloom’s Taxonomy where it states his model is not meant for labeling, but we should keep in mind our lower level students have moments where they can think at higher levels, but also our gifted learners have times when they will need to focus on the basics. On a personal note, I found the post on “What is Differentiated in the Differentiated Classroom” to be most beneficial. We constantly hear that we must differentiate, but how, or what do we differentiate to reach everyone? The most important things to differentiate are the content itself, the process, student performances and products, and also our learning environment itself. Student products and performances stood out the most to me, because there are so many ways to demonstrate that a student has learned, why do we limit them to one way? Instead we should let them be creative and give them the choice. It seems as if learning would be optimized if the students had a say in how they presented knowledge so they can connect to it, rather than forcing them into something they have no desire to do.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it helps me understand that I need to be flexible, which is another recurring theme. As I mentioned, students learn differently I cannot have my mind set on one way of instruction and expect my students to thrive. Instead I need to be comfortable and willing to differentiate. It may not be the easiest thing to do, but it will help me to be the best teacher I can be for my students to help them learn.
I agree that we haven't been adequately taught the "how" of differentiating. That particular blog post helped the class understand how to reach all different types of learners in our future classrooms. Not only do we have to teach in different approaches, such as inquiry-based, projects, and group work, but we have to cover the different of styles of teaching. By this I mean cater to auditory and visual learners.
This blog was based around different resources that teachers can use to differentiate instruction in the classroom. The posts included theories--such as bloom's taxonomy and tomlinson's equalizer (which outline levels and dimensions--spectrums--of concept abstraction, respectively). Some outlined concepts that must be kept in mind during differentiation, such as the pillars of flexibility, planning, resources and choices, and defining what fairness really means in a differentiated classroom. Specifically, the blog also outlines what is different in a differentiated classroom, which is a refreshing resource to pre-service teachers who know the ideas and importance of differentiation but not how to implement them.
This helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry, because in a classroom that requires participation and contribution from the students, there is a serious need to understand children's individual needs. All people operate at different levels, and many are required to operate differently, so how do we implement fairness, especially when our individual experiences as students probably had no differentiation visible to us?
I agree with you Sam, it's hard to make differentiation possible inside the classroom when we ourselves didn't have an individual experience inside the classroom. We need to find great ways to get everyone participating in their own ways and help each student grow. It's also kind of refreshing because we don't have to live up to expectations. We can make our own path and find out what works and what doesn't. Don't you think?
You're totally right about people knowing about differentiation, but not knowing exactly how to carry it out. I think that may be a huge downfall with the whole idea to begin with. I think it's an absolutely necessary technique, but if teachers don't know how to use it effectively, then what's the point? It's sort of like when you have a really intelligent person who knows the content front and back, but then when they go to teach, there's no passion, connection with the students, or even skill! (I think we both have experienced a couple of these!)
Although it hasn't been visible different methods have existed for differentiation however people just chose not to use them because those methods are slightly more difficult to execute. However there is a lot of research done that show it does work well and benefits the students more. An example of this is teaching styles for kinetics learners is known as eurythmy. It is a method that is definitely different but it it does work for kinetic learners.
The reading broke down what it really means to be differentiated, and how it can help students learn. It talks of closing the achievement gap through differentiated instruction, and the flexibility necessary on the teacher's behalf in order to run a properly differentiated classroom. It points out that to be differentiated, you need to have modified content, processes, products and performances, and even the learning environment. Differentiated instruction allows children with different needs to be taught "fairly" meaning that everyone in the classroom is getting what they actually need, and not all getting the same instruction.
This helps me better understand learning through inquiry because responding to students questions is surely the best way to assess students' needs and level of understanding. Having an open forum in the classroom where students feel free to ask questions is important, and will help the teacher differentiate instruction for students who aren't learning adequately with the current curriculum. Facilitating student learning through inquiry is a key point of differentiation, because when students learn based off their own questions, they determine what it is they don't understand and how deep into the topic they can go.
Jamieson I really enjoyed what you took from the website. I understand and feel that making sure your students feel comfortable asking questions is a very important aspect of the classroom. If we as teachers do not recieve feedback from our students how are we supposed to understand what level they are on, or if they are even on a level at all.
This article touches on the importance of differentiation in the classroom. Obviously no two students are the same and how to properly impement differentiation in the classroom is not so explicitly given to the teacher. Although effecient differentiation is difficult to achieve it is essential to have all students to learning the same material. The article mentions that differentiations helps all students to learn in a fair environment. This is not defined but we strive to make a way for our students to have the same opportunities of achieving understanding.
There are many blog posts on this website. The key points of the blog titled Four Important Concepts of Differentiation are flexibility, planning, resources, and choices. Flexibility is important because teachers must be flexible based on the types of learners in the classroom and if they need to speed up or slow down their lessons if the students understand more quickly or slowly than planned. Planning is essential, but it must be paired with flexibility as mentioned above, because every teacher needs to have guidelines of where they want the day's lesson to go. To teach differentially, teachers must utilize their school's resources. For example, you can use multiple textbooks, computer software, and manipulatives for easy understanding. Lastly, it's important to give students choices with the standards-based activities taking place in the classroom. Students will gravitate towards the activities that best suit their needs; therefore choice is important for students.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because to allow all students to learn through inquiry means that all students must be adequately learning. Since students learn differently, one must differentiate their lessons to account for all students’ needs when teaching to numerous students.
I am hopeful as you shared that studnets will graqvitate to those acticities that "best suit their needs" when infact they may also option for those that best get there work done or allows them to work easiest, or even with their friends!
DeleteFirst off I am a little upset because I just had a great comment and forgot to sign in and it got deleted. But I enjoyed how you brought up how important it is to be flexible. Not every student learns in the same ways nor do they learn at the same time, so we must be able to and be willing to adapt. Also choice is important because we shouldn't make students do something if it won't help them and if they are not interested in it. Learning will be optimized if we allow students to take part in activities that interest and tailor to their own needs.
DeleteThere were a few different blogs to read through on this site and I felt that each made some great key points. Some of the key points that I found most helpful in better understanding differentiation are as follows. Even though Bloom's taxonomy uses words to categorize what types of learners students are, that these words are not there to label, but there to show that every student thinks at a different level at a different time. Some may be higher ordered thinkers in one area and lower level in another. Another important point that I completely agree with is that fair and same do not mean the same thing. Every student is at a different level, with different needs so in order to be "fair" so that every student learns the same concept you do not need to do the "same" thing with every student. You can use the same content and vary the assignments in a few ways so that the students have a choice and that choice will be made based on how they will learn the best. I think that the last blog does a very good job in describing this, especially with the statement "all students must learn content, but can learn it in different ways. Therefore, teachers can use standards as a guideline for the subject matter they are teaching but not for how to teach it. That is something that should be different from student to student and classroom to classroom.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because in inquiry based learning all students should be learning, and to be learning it does not have to be in the same way. This article helps lay out some very good ideas for how to differentiate your classroom and the materials that you are distributing. It is important to keep in mind the needs and learning processes of all students so that as a teacher you can accommodate as many as possible.
I am sure you can appreciate that to do as you state, is truly the work of an expert teacher. Differentiation is hard, especially when providing the needs of so many varied populaitons. How often do you do this and is whole groupd instruction passe?
DeleteThe key points in this article are about the importance of differentiation. There are many different ways of differentiation. One of the points is the application of Blooms Taxonomy, “The trick in using this thinking structure, as with any instructional tool, is to make sure to offer students adequate and appropriate challenges.” Appropriate challenges are not always going to be the same for each student. Every student has different needs in the classroom and it is important to identify and understand them in order to meet the needs of the student. Another major point is to set the standard high for every student, by having them think abstractly, “When we ask students to think about abstract ideas or concepts, we require them to think at a higher level and encourage them to make connections across time and disciplines.” Having students aim high doesn’t mean, everyone will reach it at the same time but everyone will eventually get at their own pace. It is up to the teachers to be flexible and creative in incorporating all the different ways to differentiate within the curriculum. In order to do this, teachers must plan and stay structured and yet open to new methods of teaching. Giving students choices in the lesson is a great way to give students a sense of independence and control of over how they learn something.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because understanding students learning abilities is the best way to implement inquiry based lessons into the curriculum. In order to plan out lessons that best meet the students a teacher must first understand what type of learners are in his/her classroom.
Excellent point about making sure students are offered "appropriate challenges"...that is the essence of differentiation.
DeleteI like the implicit link between identifying students different needs by having them think abstractly, and using this to keep expectations high yet individual. Well said!
DeleteThe quote "Having students aim high doesn’t mean, everyone will reach it at the same time" is i think one of the most important parts of differentiated instruction. I agree with you completely. We need to hold students to high standards, but expecting them to all reach those standards at the same time is completely ludicrous.
DeleteThe key points of this article are using the right tools to differentiate in the classroom. There are several techniques in which to follow by to use differentiation most effectively. Differentiation is about making the classroom a fair environment. “It means looking at student’s needs and learning goals and planning ways to meet those goals in a way that is most appropriate for that student.” The four important concepts of differentiation are flexibility, planning, resources, and choices. These four concepts should be considered in differentiating in a classroom. Teachers should be flexible with their lessons. They should be able to give instruction, but being able to change something if needed. With planning differentiation it could make the classroom an easier environment during a lesson. This is so time can be used effectively and not wasted during class time. Next, there are so many resources in classrooms that teachers don’t use at all. See the resources that you have in your classroom and use them if it can be useful to particular students. Lastly, students should have choices, but there always should be the teacher who is ultimately in charge of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because differentiating in the classroom can teach me how to assist my students in their learning habits. Being able to accommodate each student effectively is a goal in differentiation in the classroom.
YOU say ultimately the teacher should be in charge of the classroom...I ask you what does that mean? would that make you proficient or distinguished? refer to the Charlotte Danielson framework.
DeleteThe key points of this article deal with effective ways to implement differentiation in a classroom. The article goes through the different ways we can differentiate material. Bloom's Taxonomy can be a powerful tool in differentiating types of questions used in the classroom. Certain students just are not up to the same level as other students, and you can attempt to assess the same learning standards by using different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy to assess different students. Another important point brought up by this blog site is the idea of "fair" vs. "same". "Fair means that each student is doing the activity best suited to his or her learning. It does not mean that every student is doing the same activity". Teachers must give students activities that are catered to their own learning needs, and gives them the best chance to gain a true, rich understanding of the material.
ReplyDeleteThe blog then goes on to discuss the different things that are differentiated in a classroom. Content is perhaps the most obvious thing that can be differentiated. There are other aspects of the classroom that can be differentiated. One thing that I overlook when thinking about differentiation is the learning space (or physical environment) that learning takes place in. The learning space should be flexible, and conducive to all types of learners.
I believe the biggest key to effective differentiation in the classroom is good planning. Teachers must know the different types of learners in their classrooms and plan to differentiate accordingly. It is the job of the teacher to make sure each student learns in his of her classroom, and that starts with good planning.
This article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because differentiation can lead to wonderful, rich inquiry based lessons. Differentiation can lead to good group exercises where everyone in the classroom has a specific role which caters to the learning style of each individual student.
As you shared, the article states fair may not always be equal, but how can that be FAIR, if all students have to take the same assessment and performance level at the end of the course or year?
DeleteI agree that knowing your students and planning differentiation accordingly is the most important part to delivering information to your students. And "rich" was a good word I hadn't thought to use in describing inquiry based lessons.
DeleteThe Key points on this website are the importance of and how you can go about using differentiation in the classroom. The website has many different posts that go through an array of tools for teachers to use in order to help differentiate the classroom. These tools include product resources, concepts, questions to ask yourself, Bloom's taxonomy, Tomlinson's equalizer, and concept-based teaching. One of the posts that particularly drew me in was the post entitled "Four Important Concepts of Differentiation." The post goes through the concepts and their role in shaping a differentiated classroom. These concepts are flexibility, planning, resources and choices. I believe that the most important of these concepts is to be flexible. Every student learns differently and if your way is of teaching them is not working, you have to own up as a teacher and think of another way to get to them.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry by providing me with a resource that will better me as a teacher. With the tools I can learn throughout this website, along with the new posts that can come in the future, I will be able to better reach my students through the use of a differentiated classroom. The website has also opened me up to new ideas and thoughts on the way a classroom could be run and organized. I fin that this is the best part about reading articles and websites like this one, they open up our minds as teachers to bigger and brighter things.
I totally agree that the website has opened up so many ideas about the management of a classroom. I even think that it helps spark ideas between co-teachers as well, considering that's a great way to embrace differentiation.
DeleteI agree with you when you said that teachers should be flexible because every student learns differently. I know for me personally I have to see things written down for me to remember it. That is why I hate when teachers just lecture at me. Teacher feel like they need to get as much information out without realizing that most of the students are not learning anything.
DeleteAs you have mentioned the concept that you found the most important in the four steps of differentiation is flexibility. It is so important to be flexible in a classroom where students are at different learning styles and different levels because you may want to do one thing and it may not work out, so you have to be open to change in the lesson. You point out that this website and the tools provided will help you better reach your students through new ideas of running the classroom. I think that this is great that you found it so helpful and eyeopening.
DeleteThe main key point in the article is how important it is to use differentiation in the classroom. The article is formatted into many different ways that we can use differentiation to reach our students because in reality, not all students learn the same way. The focus here is to still be able to reach each and every student. I enjoyed the point made in the first post about Bloom’s Taxonomy where it states his model is not meant for labeling, but we should keep in mind our lower level students have moments where they can think at higher levels, but also our gifted learners have times when they will need to focus on the basics. On a personal note, I found the post on “What is Differentiated in the Differentiated Classroom” to be most beneficial. We constantly hear that we must differentiate, but how, or what do we differentiate to reach everyone? The most important things to differentiate are the content itself, the process, student performances and products, and also our learning environment itself. Student products and performances stood out the most to me, because there are so many ways to demonstrate that a student has learned, why do we limit them to one way? Instead we should let them be creative and give them the choice. It seems as if learning would be optimized if the students had a say in how they presented knowledge so they can connect to it, rather than forcing them into something they have no desire to do.
ReplyDeleteThis article helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry because it helps me understand that I need to be flexible, which is another recurring theme. As I mentioned, students learn differently I cannot have my mind set on one way of instruction and expect my students to thrive. Instead I need to be comfortable and willing to differentiate. It may not be the easiest thing to do, but it will help me to be the best teacher I can be for my students to help them learn.
I agree that we haven't been adequately taught the "how" of differentiating. That particular blog post helped the class understand how to reach all different types of learners in our future classrooms. Not only do we have to teach in different approaches, such as inquiry-based, projects, and group work, but we have to cover the different of styles of teaching. By this I mean cater to auditory and visual learners.
DeleteThis blog was based around different resources that teachers can use to differentiate instruction in the classroom. The posts included theories--such as bloom's taxonomy and tomlinson's equalizer (which outline levels and dimensions--spectrums--of concept abstraction, respectively). Some outlined concepts that must be kept in mind during differentiation, such as the pillars of flexibility, planning, resources and choices, and defining what fairness really means in a differentiated classroom. Specifically, the blog also outlines what is different in a differentiated classroom, which is a refreshing resource to pre-service teachers who know the ideas and importance of differentiation but not how to implement them.
ReplyDeleteThis helps me to better understand teaching and learning through inquiry, because in a classroom that requires participation and contribution from the students, there is a serious need to understand children's individual needs. All people operate at different levels, and many are required to operate differently, so how do we implement fairness, especially when our individual experiences as students probably had no differentiation visible to us?
I agree with you Sam, it's hard to make differentiation possible inside the classroom when we ourselves didn't have an individual experience inside the classroom. We need to find great ways to get everyone participating in their own ways and help each student grow. It's also kind of refreshing because we don't have to live up to expectations. We can make our own path and find out what works and what doesn't. Don't you think?
DeleteSam,
DeleteYou're totally right about people knowing about differentiation, but not knowing exactly how to carry it out. I think that may be a huge downfall with the whole idea to begin with. I think it's an absolutely necessary technique, but if teachers don't know how to use it effectively, then what's the point? It's sort of like when you have a really intelligent person who knows the content front and back, but then when they go to teach, there's no passion, connection with the students, or even skill! (I think we both have experienced a couple of these!)
Although it hasn't been visible different methods have existed for differentiation however people just chose not to use them because those methods are slightly more difficult to execute. However there is a lot of research done that show it does work well and benefits the students more. An example of this is teaching styles for kinetics learners is known as eurythmy. It is a method that is definitely different but it it does work for kinetic learners.
DeleteThe reading broke down what it really means to be differentiated, and how it can help students learn. It talks of closing the achievement gap through differentiated instruction, and the flexibility necessary on the teacher's behalf in order to run a properly differentiated classroom. It points out that to be differentiated, you need to have modified content, processes, products and performances, and even the learning environment. Differentiated instruction allows children with different needs to be taught "fairly" meaning that everyone in the classroom is getting what they actually need, and not all getting the same instruction.
ReplyDeleteThis helps me better understand learning through inquiry because responding to students questions is surely the best way to assess students' needs and level of understanding. Having an open forum in the classroom where students feel free to ask questions is important, and will help the teacher differentiate instruction for students who aren't learning adequately with the current curriculum. Facilitating student learning through inquiry is a key point of differentiation, because when students learn based off their own questions, they determine what it is they don't understand and how deep into the topic they can go.
Jamieson I really enjoyed what you took from the website. I understand and feel that making sure your students feel comfortable asking questions is a very important aspect of the classroom. If we as teachers do not recieve feedback from our students how are we supposed to understand what level they are on, or if they are even on a level at all.
DeleteThis article touches on the importance of differentiation in the classroom. Obviously no two students are the same and how to properly impement differentiation in the classroom is not so explicitly given to the teacher. Although effecient differentiation is difficult to achieve it is essential to have all students to learning the same material. The article mentions that differentiations helps all students to learn in a fair environment. This is not defined but we strive to make a way for our students to have the same opportunities of achieving understanding.
ReplyDelete