“Differentiation in instruction” had become a hot topic recently. Different teachers will interpret it differently. How should we differentiate instruction for students?
Here are a couple examples of lesson plan that try to address the differentiated instruction: 1) When student go back to their desks to work independently, the group of students that are ESL may stay at the front with the teacher and complete the project together; 2) When student go back to their desks to work independently, the group of students that are at tier one level work in a small group with the teacher on the carpet using cubes to explain each problem individually on page 198. The teacher’s assistant circulates with the rest to make sure they stay on task. The enrichment students move on to page 199 quickly and will be able to complete more of it. These examples touch upon the DI only a little.
To better address “differentiated instruction” for all students, we need to address two things: accommodation and adaptation. No two people share exactly the same learning styles and learning preferences. Nor do they share the same learning disabilities.
The key idea for differentiating instruction is to address the individual needs. Teachers should be aware of each individual student’s needs so that s/he can accommodate their needs and take into consideration during the instructional planning. To address varying learning situations, the teachers can customize the instruction, materials, level of difficulties, support, time, tasks, assignments, forms of assessments, etc.
Thus, let’s spend sometime for accommodation and adaptation.
