Differentiation in the Classroom
...rk, and take the same test. Typically, the result is frustration on the part of many students; those who find the work to be unchallenging and therefore boring, others who find the work too challenging, and those whose learning styles or intelligence strengths are not addressed. And there is frustration on the part of teachers because they are not reaching every student. But having to teach 20-30 different ways or on different levels would not be practical. So I believe there has to be some standardized “trial” assessment in the beginning, which would allow for a teacher to formulate a student profile outling a students strengths and weaknesses. From that point a teacher could create (on paper) groups of students each characterized by different learning abilities and during lecture could differentiate styles of questioning. For example if the teacher recognizes four distinct types of students who seem to respond similarly to the same types of different questioning techniques, then the teacher should engage the students by mixing up these different questioning techniques with lecture. This is still far from a perfect learning environment but should help narrow the gap between students learning abilities. With these same groups in mind, teachers can utilize cooperative learning which is based on grouping small teams of students heterogeneously according to their assessed ability, interest, background, etc. However, one of the most important features of cooperative learning is to pick the best strategy that will be used to assign the task for students to accomplish. Engaging students in the learning process using activities that motivate and challenge students to remain on task would probably be one of the most frustrating balancing acts in the teaching learning process. I realize that this isn’t a closed system and not all students will respond as I would predict them to, that is why differentiated instruction is flexible to the student’ needs. Some limitations to this would be too large of a class having too many groups. If the same assignment is given to ten different groups (one being more accelerated – ten needing special/extra attention) each asked to complete the assignment differently, the product from group one to group ten maybe so far different that you may fail to properly convey the appropriate amount of that curriculum to group ten to participate or function at the next grade level. Additionally, ten different groups, with ten different lesson plans, may be too taxing on just one teacher. So the real challenge here will be to find that balance for each different class. But if you know your students' profiles, you have a better chance at keeping them on task to completion of any given assignment or activity. (I will go right into the next question here.) A variety of assessment techniques can include portfolios, rubrics, performance-based assessment, and knowledge mapping. Black and Wiliam (1998) define assessment broadly to include all activities that teachers and students undertake to get information that can b...