What Is This Differentiated Instruction?

Schools are like airport hubs: student passengers arrive from many different backgrounds for widely divergent destinations.  Their particular takeoffs into adulthood will demand different flight plans(Tomlinson,2003, p.1).

    The quote above does a great job of explaining what differentiated teaching is.  All students come to our class room with different backgrounds and individual destinations.  As a teacher, it is my job to get to know each student and help them reach a final destination that will have a positive landing for the student and society.  This Blog is going to be a great forum for me to express my thoughts on the book Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom and a great place for me to keep track of what I have learned. While this blog will be in my own voice, important ideas from each chapter will be recorded in a easy to follow, and easy to find later, method.

  The first chapter of the above mentioned book does a great job of explaining the idea of differentiated instruction.  It identifies what students need to learn and how every student's needs are different.  In this chapter the book describes the four traits that teachers must address in order to provide an ideal classroom. Student Traits include readiness, interest, learning profile, and affect.  While all are important traits I place a very high value on affect.  Affect is how students feel about themselves, the work they do, and how the feel in my classroom.  If students want to come to my class, enjoy the work, and feel like they belong the learning will be much more satisfying for them and me.  

The first chapter also does a great job of explaining the things that teachers control or can change to make the classroom more effective for all learners.  These items include content, process, product, and the learning environment.  I may question the ability of the teacher to choose content, but they have the ability to deliver that content in a way that all students can get the most from it.  Of the mentioned items teachers have the greatest control of the learning environment.  Teachers must set a tone, or as the book calls it, the mood.  Students must feel apart of the classroom and that it is a safe place for learning.  This brings up the issue of trust, but this will have to wait until the next(hopefully shorter) blog when I will get into the metaphors used by the book.  The metaphors deal with trust and roles in the classroom.

Goodnight