For me the biggest common misconception
to Differentiated Instruction was the need to move away from whole group instruction
to small group instruction that focused on common abilities, targeted
instruction, and activities that varied by their construction that access
different intelligences. Through lesson
three, I feel that what I currently do, at a low degree, is Differentiated
Instruction.
The first two videos point out that human beings are each very different beings. Multiple Intelligences theorizes that we all experience life and thrive in different ways because of our differences. In “How to Escape Educations’ Death Valley”, Ken Robinson points out that we as humans flourish base upon three different principles. One, is humans are naturally different and diverse. The second principle is very obvious in children, humans are curious. Being curious brings out our need to understand how things work or why they are the way they are….we want to know…we want to understand. Ken couldn’t have spoken truer words than,” Curiosity is the engine of achievement.” Therefore, having an education system that is not diverse, that tends to bend more towards conformity would be on a straight course to destruction or failure. We can’t assume or expect that everyone is going to be on the same page all the time. The fact that we have thought or still conceive that we have the ability to do that ourselves in 180 days is imposturous. Get everyone to the same place using only one track? How can that be? Carol Tomlinson hit the nail on the head for me when she explained the following about Differentiated Instruction. That “Differentiated Instruction is NOT a curriculum model, it is an instruction model.” It is NOT WHAT you teach, but HOW you teach it. “DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION is not just for ‘certain’ types of students; it is for every kind of student.” “DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION is not extra teaching; it is good teaching.” Now that is ‘heavy’. That really puts the ball in the teacher’s court and says, “Score!” Do whatever you have to do, but score. See the students as individuals. As teachers, we must utilize many devices, methods, and activities to deliver the material we want our learners to learn. In the end, we should always be revamping, revisiting, rethinking, what we do. We should vary our method of teaching based upon what we are trying to accomplish with our learners. If we want to engage our learners, we will have to access all needed information that gives us the road map that leads to our students’ mastery. The road trip to get there is our Differentiated Instruction. Each year the road trip may contain different pit stops along the way so we can be sure to evaluate and meet the different needs of each student. |
Great video to pull together concepts of Differentiated Instruction that 'Hollywood' has used to illustrate various teaching scenes.
This video explains different ideas for implementing Differentiated Instruction in the classroom.
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"Every education system in the world is being reformed at the moment and it's not enough. Reform is no use anymore, because that's simply improving a broken model. What we need -- and the word's been used many times during the course of the past few days -- is not evolution, but a revolution in education. This has to be transformed into something else."
--Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution! Talk Video TED.com