Sunday, January 27, 2008
Differentiation in the classroom...
Differentiation is not something that I view separately from my philosophy of teaching every child and my belief that all children have the capability to learn. Since 1993, I have worked in every grade level classroom, from preschool to eighth grade, and I have never viewed differentiation in and of itself. An effective educator scaffolds teaching and lessons in such a way that meeting a learner's needs is an integral part of a comfortable learning community. For instance, some students will need seating adjustments to facilitate their concentration or control their physical environment. By rotating seating as various points in the school year, and as a teacher gets to know his/her students and their needs, and then experiments with different configurations, the differentiation will benefit individuals as well as the whole group. Effective differentiation, in my opinion, must bear in mind the whole-group dynamics at all times, just as a good democracy will respect individual rights while simultaneously improving the quality of life for everyone in the community.
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2 comments:
I like the way you compared differentiation to existing within a democracy. What a great connection! I, too, think that every child needs some form of "differentiation." I do see merit in labeling this process as "differentiation," as it forces us to consciously evaluate our decisions, and not just assume that our instincts are always correct. (Oh...and I love the new French pictures!)
It's interesting to me that you used the terms differentiation and effective teaching together because I very much agree. I also wrote about the two together within the context of special education.
I enjoyed reading your post because I feel like I've only ever heard of differentiation in my special education courses, hence I associate it more with special education. After reading your post I see the gaps in my line of thinking about differentiation. Every teacher differentiates, whether he/she means to or not. The question is, did they do it as a solution to a problem or "on-accident" ?
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