picture: www.primary-education-oasis.com
One of the things that I have preached is that differentiation
is not a fad, but rather at its core is just good teaching. Don’t we want all of
our students to succeed in our classrooms, don’t we want to meet the needs of
more if not all of our students. To say
that all the students walking into our classrooms are the same is absurd .Would
you want your doctor to treat all of his patience the same
way regardless of their needs.
Ok,well enough of me let’s hear from the expert. Here are
some key points from the article:
“I’m puzzled, however, by how many classrooms still
proceed as though the differences students bring to the classroom with them are
either of little academic significance or an inconvenience. It's not that we don't see the differences,
it's that we often do little to respond to them.
Every significant endeavor seems too hard if we look only
at the expert's product. In the beginning, golf pros once regularly hit divots,
master chefs initially burned dinner, the wisest parents regularly said foolish
things to their children, and renowned surgeons in an earlier time doubted
their hands. The success of all these
"seasoned" people stemmed largely from three factors. They started down a path. They wanted to do better. They kept working toward their goal. “
Editor’s Note: For
differentiation or any new endeavor to be successful I think at least two
things need to be present. 1. A growth mindset, which tells us we can all
change and grow and 2. A culture that supports risk taking and where failures
are seen as a necessity to succeed.
“I'm often asked how to get started with
differentiation. I'm inclined to say,
"It doesn't matter. Just
start." That's not helpful, though. A better answer is, "Study your
students. Work steadily to understand
them better as individuals. Observe what
encourages and discourages them. Listen
to the stories they want to tell you.
See how they interact with peers and how the interactions appear to
affect them. Observe their
success-to-effort ratio in your class, and how they respond to both errors and
successes. Hone in on their strengths.
Get a sense of their fundamental "soundness" with foundational
skills that support learning. As we
increasingly understand the distinctness of the humans in front of us,
differentiation becomes an informed teaching.”
Editor’s note: See above the note about risk taking and
failures. Also this emphasizes the notion that we need to know our students and
that we are teaching people and not just subjects.
“We began with the conviction that we could not serve our
obviously heterogeneous students if we taught them without regard to their
differences. From that launching pad, we
came to five guiding principles.
1) We needed to teach what mattered most in the content
for which we had responsibility and in a way that helped students see why it
mattered. We asked ourselves often,
"Why are we asking the kids to learn this??" Textbooks, grades and tests were not
acceptable answers.
2) We needed to plan for student engagement. There was an ad slogan at the time that said,
"Medicine doesn't have to taste bad to be good." We clung to the belief that we could be
creative enough to teach whatever needed teaching in ways that appealed to
young adolescents.
3) We had to build a sense of community--a team of
learners--so that both teachers and students had partners for success.
4) We needed to emphasize the primacy of growth--for
every student, every day……..
From those "givens," we made proposals. "What if we try it this way?" We shared successes--and lesson plans, and
materials. We became comfortable with
saying, "That was a mess. There's
got to be a better way. Let's look at
why this approach worked, or didn't, and go from there."
………were unafraid to fail, and learned to think
flexibly. Everything else was
an outgrowth of that sound footing. The
very diverse students who will join us at schools across the country and in
much of the world this year need teachers who are determined
inventors of mechanisms for helping every learner connect with the power of
learning. In the end, that's what
differentiation is. In the end, that's
what successful teaching is.”
If you
get nothing else know this Differentiation = Successful Teaching
