Simon Says To Establish A Differentiated Classroom

In response to the varied student learning needs, differentiation will be a key component of this classroom. It is “designed to improve access to the general education curriculum by adapting instruction to each student’s diverse learning needs” (Smith, 2007). “Differentiation instruction means changing the pace, level, or kind of instruction you provide in response to individual learners’ needs, styles, or interest” (Heacox, 2012). Because each student comes to this 6th grade classroom with unique needs, differentiation will implemented frequently to ensure that each student receives the rigor needed to master the 6th grade curriculum. It will be relevant to your student and his/her needs. It will provide an appropriate level of challenge. It will be engaging and at times, it will offer choices. Delivery of differentiated instruction will frequently involve centered based learning activities and small group instruction. A list and description of some of the centers will be distributed to parents and is attached as Appendix

Differentiating instruction is a valuable instructional management and delivery tool, which can be used to assist teachers in meeting the needs of the diverse populations of students which they now find in their classrooms. In using these strategies, a teacher may use pre-assessments to determine the learning styles, interests and readiness of the students, prior to the introduction of a lesson or unit. After developing a learner profile, the teacher may then differentiate according to the readiness of the student, by process of delivery, and by the product which the student may produce to

Differentiation of instruction is the process of teaching in a way to meet the needs of students with differing abilities in the same class, including those with special learning needs. One way to do this is by providing several different avenues by which all students can learn the same material. In differentiating instruction, teachers plan out and implement a variety of approaches to content, process, product, and environment. Differentiated instruction is used to meet the needs of student differences in readiness, interests, and learning needs. Many people in the education field believe differentiation has the potential to transform teaching and learning in a way that raises expectations for all students.

Describe at least four significant ways in which differentiated instruction differs from traditional classroom instruction.

Differentiated Instruction is separated into two different principles: ongoing assessment and flexible grouping. (Allen & Dickson, 2013) Typically students are tested at the end of every chapter or unit, ongoing assessment test students throughout the entire chapter or unit. Assessing a student’s knowledge constantly helps the teacher gauge the pace at which a student learns or how will they are retaining the information. By using this technique teachers can determine how to continue teaching personalized to a student’s needs. Consistent assessment gives teachers a way to create classroom activities that are interesting, inspiring, and obtainable for students. The second principle is flexible

Differentiation is the tool used by educators who recognize that all students come to them with different readiness levels and learning styles. It allows us to meet the needs of each individual student while meeting the standards developed by state and national education associations. Additionally, there are many different types of differentiation that can be used in a classroom: teachers can create learning centers, use differentiated assessments, and develop anchor activities, etc. Currently, I utilize differentiated assessments, but my goal for the upcoming school year is to utilize more learning centers and to incorporate anchor activities into my daily classroom routine.

Readingrockets.org defines differentiation as tailoring instruction to meet individual needs. Differentiated instruction is a broad framework for supporting student differences by varying content, process, products, and learning environments based upon students strengths and weaknesses (Tomlinson, 2000).

All in all, differentiated instruction is a method used by teachers to accommodate all the different learning modalities, levels of learning, cultural and language barriers and special needs often integrated in one classroom with one lesson plan.

According to the article Differentiated Instruction: A Primer, I learned from Sarah Sparks how to evaluate students and come up with strategies with the use of differentiation instruction. Sparks states, “Differentiated instruction is the process of identifying students’ individual learning strengths, needs, and interests and adapting lessons to match them” (Sparks, 2015). Sparks explains how individualization is used by teachers for breaking material down into smaller steps to see which students are on different paces. Teachers use differentiation by giving students a variety of different material covering the same subject to see the students’ strengths, needs, and interests.

Today, Ms. Laura Garner did a professional development on Differentiation. It was amazing! I’ve read professional articles and books on this topic, but never actually saw it up close as a participant. I was not just a participant but I was an active participant. I was engaged in the learning process. In fact, every teacher in the room was actively engaged in the learning process. Everyone was not doing the same activity, but the topic at hand was the same for all participants. Thus, instruction, in a classroom, should not be one size fits all. It should be catered so the needs of each student that enters into a classroom to learn are met and more importantly, students’ weaknesses are not highlighted for everyone in the classroom to

In school there is only one style of learning per class for all students. Not all students learn the same way, which is why teachers need to teach each student according to which group they learn best whether it's by taking, visual, or some things don't work, it is said that “it is true of course, that groups do not learn; individuals do (source D) which is why schools need to work on individuality instead of groups for us to become better learners. In the other hand, schools should keep conformity by farming groups of individuals with their own type of learning style in

All learners in one classroom will have differing prior knowledge, skills, and learning rates, as they are all different individuals. Most importantly, as a teacher, I must know my student's skills, abilities, learning rates, and what they know to be able to differentiate instruction. There are different things that I can do while I am teaching, such as checking for the need to provide background knowledge and change the rate of my instruction, that will help meet the needs of each student. Also, it will be important to develop groups for reading and math, separately, that might differ for small group instruction so that students are grouped in similar reading and similar math abilities. Thus, differentiating instruction will be important to be sure that students are engaged and learning at their individual rate and level.

Differentiation is needed because each student is unique. For the purpose of the classroom and differentiation, their uniqueness can be separated into three categories: readiness, interest, and learning profile. Even if a student is at the same level of their peers in readiness and possesses the same learning profile, their different interests will still impact how they learn and why they have reason to learn. Thus the reason behind differentiation within that particular category.

Differentiated instruction adapts learning to the students’ unique differences. It is a must for teachers to learn as much about each student as possible. Understanding students helps guide teachers’

Differentiation is a tool that requires teachers to change from focusing on the “average learner” to one that allows students some control over the difficulty level. It is a problem-based approach for the classroom that works well for teaching mathematics while attending to a wide range of students.