Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated instruction is the dynamic tailoring of instruction to meet the needs of individual students. This can take many forms in a classroom and can look differently day by day and activity by activity. The pictures above show the two extremes of teaching. In the first is the extreme that the only fair instruction is the one-size-fits-all approach. This approach fails in the classroom as all students are different and their learning styles and abilities are endless. The second is a flowchart for the other extreme: differentiated instruction. This type of instruction is priceless in a classroom as it is the ability to meet each student on his or her own level.

 

As a teaching assistant for three years I had the opportunity to begin to learn differentiation techniques from my supervising professor as well as occasions in which to try them out. I taught the laboratory portion of general chemistry. General chemistry is composed of about equal parts math and chemistry and so I was seeing students experience two subjects in one course. I quickly started to understand some students were better at the math portion while some were more comfortable with the science portion. This allowed me to tailor my explanations to their questions in the format I thought they would best understand. It also allowed me to better group students when group work was needed.

 

Successful teaching without differentiation is impossible. Fortunately, my personality allows me quickly “read” students and understand their personalities and learning abilities. This combined with careful planning and a good dose of sense of humor, I hope will lead to a successful classroom. Careful planning is so important because it allows differentiated instruction to work well. For example, when I prepare a lesson I plan out each area where I feel a student may be confused and then I prepare alternate ways I could explain these areas. Likewise when I plan example problems to use, I try to envision each mistake a student could make and work out explanations for each of those options. This type of planning allows the differentiation to go more smoothly.