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Differentiation as a Strategy to Reach English Language Learners

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Review of Literature Every student has their own story, set of experiences, and abilities. Overtime, teachers have quickly realized that they cannot reach all students with a-one-size-fits-all approach to instruction. Therefore, the goal of a “differentiated classroom” is to maximize growth and individual success of each student by providing different avenues for the students to learn the content, to process the information and ideas, and to create a final product. Differentiating instruction needs to be a daily component of my planning and teaching. Some of students need to be challenged with opportunities to expand their mind with advanced learning activities. Other students need extra scaffolding and support in order to understand the basic concepts of the course. Differentiation can be an extremely effective instruction strategy for teachers as they work to meet the needs of English Language Learners. Chamot & O’Malley (1994) explored how differentiation can best be used when instructing ELL’s. They examined direct language instruction, culturally inclusive environments, and differentiation. When differentiating or modifying instruction teachers it is helpful if teachers activate or build background knowledge, provide scaffolding, include authentic experiences, and simplify language. Regardless of the subject area, teachers need to take a unified stance in regards to identifying and working to support a student’s language needs. Establishing a

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