Thoughts on Differentiation

In my experience, I find that two of the biggest obstacles to differentiation are: anxiety and not enough time to prepare well.

Anxiety

• How can I compare if they are not all doing the same thing?

• How do I grade if they are not all doing the same thing?

• How do I explain that to parents?

• How do I explain that to administrators?

• How do I explain that to the students?

• How do I handle time management for students if they are not all doing the same thing? They could all get done at different times….

• Forget time, how do I handle behavior if they are not all doing the same thing?!

Time to Prepare Well

Planning for differentiation requires time to plan for:

• Options that match the learning objectives

• Multiple rubrics or grading outlines

• Plans for structuring time

• Student facing explanations and materials for all options

• Lessons for providing instruction on material as well as assignment options and expectations

The Reality

The anxiety reactions seem to drive the bulk of questions I get from teachers who are new to differentiation, but I find myself asking them similar questions about their current practice:

• How do you compare even if they are all doing the same thing? Are they all really doing the work, or only some?

• How do you grade now? Students are all at different levels as it is, how does your grading account for that? And, don’t you get bored looking at the same thing over and over again?

• How do you explain your grading to parents now? When you have clear objectives, rubrics, and clear explanations that are student facing, you generally have to explain less to parents.

• How do you explain instructions to students now? Sometimes, we become so automatic that doing something different helps us sharpen our practice.

• No matter what we assign, students will complete things at different times. How do you handle that now? With differentiation, I’ve found that I have even more options to present to those who are done more quickly. They can work on another option they think looks appealing; they can assist someone else without feeling like they are doing the same thing they just finished; they can review the rubric and/or potentially observe others and find ways to revise their own work.

• How do you handle behavior now? Clear expectations, achievable goals, and student engagement are often the best behavior management tools and are key to differentiation.

Time to plan. Ah, that is a large and sometimes immovable obstacle. That is why teachers often turn to Teacher Pay Teachers, teacher forums, or Amazon to try to find some tool that will do the differentiating for them. Some magic-differentiation-bullet. The reality is that the more you differentiate, the easier it is. Just like anything new, when you first get started, it is harder. In teaching, that type of learning curve can feel unsurmountable, but it doesn’t have to be.

“In an effectively differentiated classroom, the same powerful understanding-based goals will nearly always ‘belong’ to everyone.” – Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006.

I love this statement. I found that when I firmly embedded differentiation into my practice, my students were not only engaged but took more ownership of their own learning and our learning community. Since I have worked primarily with students with learning disabilities who became disengaged in classroom learning, I found that shift to be quite powerful stuff! Over time, as I learned more about Montessori educational principles, Love & Logic, brain research and cognitive theories, I became even more convinced that the shift I saw in my students was what education should be.

Exploring and Applying Differentiation in Reading Instruction

One key thing I have observed is that implementing differentiation is easier when done collaboratively. Learning is social. When we implement differentiation, especially with project-based learning, we see that social aspect with our students, but teachers also need that same interaction and structure for learning.

That is one reason I formed my Mind Matters Teacher Learning Community (TLC), for a little teacher TLC as well as opportunities for learning together. I have found that while it can be key to have Professional Learning Communities which are generally made up of teachers from the same building, district, or county, it can be beneficial to have a broader community like those we find in collegial settings or online forums. It requires a different kind of thinking, but it often allows for a different kind of freedom as well.

Join our group here!