There are several things that come to mind when hearing this word. The main idea of differeniating insturction is to factor a student’s readiness or learning style before designing a lesson plan. This idea is important not only in elementay classrooms but classrooms throughout the school building. A teacher needs to know their students and their styles of learning before delivering a lesson. There are four main ways to differentiate in a classroom.
The first way, and the way I think of usually, is differeniating by content. Students are on differenet levels of understanding when it comes to content. Some may already have mastered the content and some might have partial mastery. Covering various levels of Bloom’s is a great way to help with differentiating.
The second way is through the process. As many know, every student learns differently. A teacher should try their best to familiarize themselves with each student in their classroom to pinpoint how each student achieves the greatest. Provide interactive parts of the lesson for hands-on learners, textbooks for word learners, and visual graphs for visual learners. Being a hands-on type learner myself, I want to provide these components throughout my lessons so students feel they can learn to the best of their ability.
Another way you can differentiate is the product. How students show what they’ve learned is the main idea of product. Some students may love book reports, while others love poster presentations. As long as the students are showing their knowledge of the content, it shouldn’t matter how students accomplish this. Variations of assessments is something I want to try to incorporate in my classroom.
Lastly, you can differentiate the learning environment. I want to create quiet spaces and spaces with flexible seating so students can feel comfortable in the layout of the classroom. If some students want to read alone instead of as a group that is also another aspect of the learning environment. Creating a safe and strong learning environment in the classroom will let students learn the best in the classroom. After all, they are stuck in this classroom for 8 hours a day, might as well make it an enjoyable place for them.
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