4 Steps of Applying Differentiation more effectively

“Children already come to us differentiated. It just makes sense that we would differentiate our instruction in response to them.” (Tomlinson, 1999)

Teachers know that every class includes diverse learners – some struggling, some advanced, and all with different life experiences, learning preferences and personal interests. Differentiated instruction adapts instruction to meet the needs of individual learners, providing all students with appropriate level of challenge and the appropriate support to help them reach their individual learning goals.

Differentiated instruction is grounded in an understanding of how people learn. It provides students with varied experiences to engage with content. A differentiated classroom offers multiple ways for students to access content, to process and make sense of the concepts and skills and to develop products that demonstrate their learning (Tomlinson, 2001)

Therefore, educators are invited to rethink traditional educational practices or what they personally experienced in their schooling and working to customize the complexity of instruction, so all students experience learning success.

However we should mention that customized instruction has nothing to do with individualized instruction. Unlike the individualized instruction of the 1970’s, Differentiated Instruction is not an attempt at having individualized lesson plans for every student. However, it is a systematic way of maximizing learning that is both rigorous in addressing high standards for all students yet personalized to reflect individual learner characteristics and needs.

Especially for the EFL/ESL classroom, Snow (2000) states that EFL/ESL teachers have the unique responsibility of not only addressing core knowledge and skills but also to develop the language and literacy skills of a culturally and linguistically diverse group of students who also have wide differences in their experiential and educational backgrounds. We strongly advocate the responsibility of the EFL/ESL teachers to serve as the language professionals who, based on carefully consideration of the language and content curricula and student needs, are able to guide ELLs in their dual process of acquiring English as fast and effectively as possible and gaining in content knowledge and skills to reach the highest learning outcomes possible.

How can we approach the concept of Differentiation?

“Differentiated instruction is a teaching approach in which educational content, process, and product are adapted according to student readiness, interest, and learning profile” (Starr, 2004).
Content differentiation means, giving the students a lot of different materials to cover, while exposing them to a variety of learning experiences.
Differentiating the process requires the use of many instructional techniques and materials to enhance and motivate learning styles of students. A teacher should make activities different and not just add more of the same types of activities – for example giving higher-achieving students twice as many problems to finish (Wehrmann, 2000).
Products that are differentiated promote the development of students’ thinking skills and their ability to express themselves more effectively, thus giving them the chance to discover their innate talents and skills. “Product differentiation occurs when we allow students to demonstrate their learning through different assessment formats” (Wehrmann, 2000).
If learning experiences match closely with the students’ skills and understanding of a topic (readiness) then they will learn better. Teachers should create projects that allow students to complete work according to their preferences, interests and learning profiles. If a topic sparks excitement in the learners, the students will become involved in the learning process and acquire knowledge and new information in a natural way.

Steps of Applying Differentiation more effectively:

Step 1: Get to know your students
This can be achieved through surveying past records of student performance so that teachers will be fully aware of their capabilities, prior learning, social background etc. It is really important to get to know students informally as well, maybe through an interview, or an open discussion in the classroom, or by asking students to respond to an open – ended questionnaire with key questions about their learning preferences. Sometimes knowing preferences can help to motivate students to attend to any tasks that are presented.

Step 2: Make use of a variety of different Teaching Strategies

It is only obvious that “one size does not fit all” so if we take that into consideration, it is imperative that a variety of different Teaching Strategies be used in a differentiated classroom. Among many teaching strategies, there are four that are widely used and worth mentioning: Direct Instruction, Inquiry-based learning Cooperative Learning (Flexible Grouping) and Information Processing Strategies.

Direct Instruction is teacher-centered and is the most traditional teaching strategy. In a direct instruction lesson the teacher usually spends some time lecturing; then guides the students through a complex problem, with the problem broken down into simple steps; then the students are given, one by one, the simple steps to carry out on their own; finally, the students are given one or many sample problems to accomplish on their own.

Inquiry-based learning is a student centered strategy, which is very popular today. It is based on questions generated from the interests, curiosities, perspectives or experiences of the learner.
Cooperative Learning (flexible grouping) is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject.
Finally Information Processing Strategies include, but are not limited to memorization, reciprocal teaching, graphic organizing, scaffolding, or webbing etc.

Step 3: Make use of a variety of challenging and motivating Instructional Activities

Technology applications, Interactive whiteboards, e-books, animations, group activities, videos, peer tutors, and generally activities that allow for teacher interaction with students, enhance learning opportunities. Also bear in mind that the books and resources used in the learning process should be age related, up to date, with a variety choice in activities, providing students with a lot of different kinds of information and texts.

Step 4: Make use of a variety of assessment techniques:

In a differentiated classroom a variety of assessment techniques can include portfolios, rubrics, performance-based assessment, or knowledge mapping, besides the traditional testing and marking process.

To sum up differentiated instruction is closely connected to innovation and creative thinking.
As Carl Glickman mentions:
“IF, as a teacher
• I present the same lessons in the same manner that I have used in the past;
• I seek no feedback from my students;
• I do not analyze and evaluate their work in a manner that changes my own emphasis, repertoire, and timing;
• I do not visit or observe other adults as they teach;
• I do not share the work of my students with colleagues for feedback, suggestions, and critiques;
• I do not visit other schools or attend particular workshops or seminars or read professional literature on aspects of my teaching;
• I do not welcome visitors with experience and expertise to observe and provide feedback to me on my classroom practice;
• I have no yearly individualized professional development plan focused on classroom changes to improve student learning; and finally,
• I have no systemic evaluation of my teaching tied to individual, grade/department, and school wide goals,
THEN I have absolutely no way to become better as a teacher.”
Fair is not everyone getting the same thing. Fair is everyone getting what they need.

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