Differentiated Instruction

http://thinkafricabusiness.com/why-differentiated-instruction/

In the classrooms of today teachers constantly hear about differentiated instruction. YOU HAVE TO DO IT! IT MUST BE DONE! Educators just entering into the education program might wonder what it looks like to have a differentiated classroom, let me tell you it’s amazing. I am currently in a classroom where we engage our students in differentiated instruction on a daily basis. “What does it look like?” you may ask. Well it looks like a lot of things.

http://edtheory.blogspot.com/2016/04/differentiated-instruction.html

On the walls there are pictures and text so that students who learn in different modalities can experience what suits them. We engage our students in activities that require them to use visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and tactile techniques. This ensures that all students get what the need. Every day, we engage students in 10 minutes of activity through an app called GoNoodle so that they can stay engaged and awake, we do this after math when their brains may get a little sleepy. We ensure that they aren’t at their desks all day long, they are up, moving around the room and engaged in something. We include Think-Pair-Shares, quick draws, think and writes, reading, hands-on activities, you name it we try to do it. This is because we want to meet the needs of all learners which is why many people are in favor differentiated instruction, because they understand that not all learners learn same way.

http://www.mrstruittspage.org/differentiated-instruction.html

There are those that would disagree with differentiated instruction like Daniel Willingham  a professor at the University of Virginia, who is also a cognitive psychologist and a neuroscientist. Willingham argues that differentiated instruction increases educator work and frustration levels for the falsely believed ideology that students learn in different ways. He goes on to explain that though some people are better with visual, auditory, or kinesthetic things, when they h
ave to learn certain tasks that require one of these skills differentiation isn’t really helpful (i.e. when learning about a map all students have to learn it visually. According to Willingham, using auditory or kinesthetic tactics aren’t required here) (Bryant, 2012). There is a video that is included with the post I got most of this information from that is very compelling that I will include here: https://youtu.be/sIv9rz2NTUk but I have to say I’m not compelled to stop differentiating instruction.

              
 Though Willingham may have a valid argument and it is a lot more work for educators, the students appear to enjoy learning more when instruction is differentiated. If nothing else differentiation gets the students out of their seats and interested in learning! It makes a difference in the classroom I’m currently in and I will certainly differentiate when I obtain my own classroom.

References

Bryant, J. (2012). Is Differentiated Instruction a Useless Fad? Retrieved November 09, 2016, from http://edge.ascd.org/blogpost/is-differentiated-instruction-a-useless-fad