Reflection -
Differentiated Instruction and its Application in the Classroom
I will address the topic of
differentiated instruction, which we saw in class, we have read about due to
assignments, we have learned through examples and material in class and through
the knowledge acquired on Learning Disabilities, and we have practiced through
experience to a certain degree; particularly I will focus on the three
principles of effective teaching and learning, which state that intelligence is
variable, that the brain hungers for meaning, and that humans learn best with
moderate challenge.
First, here is a summary of
the topic, to later understand the exercise that follows. Carol Ann Tomlinson (1999)
defined what is a differentiated classroom, the following are the main ideas: teachers
have to take into account the students they have, academic and personal
background, way of learning, among others; teachers must use different ways of
teaching, taking into account different interests of the students, they should
use varied degrees of complexity; in a differentiated classroom a student
competes against himself and this leads to a greater growth and development;
success comes from hard work; and in differentiated classrooms teachers use
time flexibly, become partners with the students, and shape the environment
that fits the learner. Other important
characteristics of a differentiated classroom is that it takes into account the
different rates in which the students learn, also their different talents and
interests, and that teachers are more in touch with students, attending to their
similarities and differences.
Within the differentiated
instruction topic, Carol Ann Tomlinson (1999) lists and explain three
principles of effective teaching and learning, which are the following: (i) Intelligence
is variable, which means we think, learn and create in different ways;
development of our potential has to do with our particular intelligences and
what and how we learn (for this topic we can also use the Howard Garner theory
of multiple intelligences); and states that providing rich learning experiences
can amplify intelligence, because intelligence is not fixed, is fluid. (ii) The
brain hungers for meaning, which means the brain seeks for meaningful patterns
and is more efficient with information organized around categories and ideas
that increase meaningfulness, it also seeks to connect parts to wholes,
something new to something that has been already understood, and it responds
more effectively and efficiently to something that: carries deep and personal
meaning, is life-shaping, is relevant, and that taps into emotions. Also, that
teachers must create opportunities where students link the new with the old, which
means teachers must identify special concepts, principles and skills of their
subjects, must become experts on the learning need of their students, and must,
using this information, provide differentiated opportunities by connecting what
the students know with the essentials of what they are trying to learn. (iii) Humans
learn best with moderate challenge, which means the assignments should not be
too difficult or too easy, and they are appropriate when they ask learners to
travel into the unknown taking into account they have enough background
knowledge to begin with and they will have support in this journey; it also
states that challenges must grow as students grow in their learning.
The above is better
understood with an example, which I will provide; but before I will share how
this information has impacted my practice as a teacher. The topic of
differentiated instruction has given me a tool that will help me put into
practice what I think about education. I believe that life is a self-discovery
process, which is travelled by children and adolescents through the educational
process, and through others, being the latter what they learn at home with
their family, also on the neighborhood with friends and girlfriends/boyfriends,
among others. In the educational process, along with what they learn at home,
through the knowledge and wisdom provided, children and adolescents will carry
on their self-discovery process, if they decide to, through three cornerstones
of this process, self-love (which includes self-esteem), self-knowledge (that
is different to self-discovery), and self-respect. Differentiated instruction
is the perfect tool to achieve this because it is about getting to know your
students, through their strengths and what they need to improve, also through
their talents and interests. With all these information you can support each
student in their own process by teaching all the class the same topics, which
are important for them to know, and then differentiating and teaching them what
will best help them in their process; you can support them in knowledge, with topics
that have to do with the subject, or in wisdom, so they get to know themselves
through what they like and what they don’t, through what they excel in and what
costs them more, thus helping them define who they really are, not the social
conception of who they should be.
All of the above can be accomplished through
differentiated instruction, because it provides the opportunity to interact,
for you as a teacher, with the students in a different way that in a typical
classroom, because it will lead to interaction with each student separately,
with the class as a whole, and with students working in groups; it also
provides for the students different types of interactions with the teacher and
peers. It will also help you as a teacher with the detection of learning
disabilities, from the role of the teacher; and it will also help you find the
appropriate strategies and accommodations that could support the students with
learning disabilities, and will support other students, for example with
reference to prevention, when applying those strategies. Also, with learning
disabilities, through the self-discovery process, they will work on concepts
that are very important as: self-advocacy, self-monitoring and self-regulation;
and differentiated instruction will give teachers the tools to transmit to the
students, through the subject and how they teach, what the teacher has learned
about who the student is, supporting the student’s personal process of
self-discovery in the classroom, which they will then generalize to other
environments. Another important goal of observation through differentiated
instruction is that it helps promoting empathy, not only by the teacher who
knows the students, but by the students through their own process of getting to
know themselves, and also through watching and helping their peers in their corresponding
processes, something that can be accomplished with this tool.
Now, I will land the concepts given above for
a better understanding of the topic. The three principles of effective teaching
and learning explained above are the way in which I, as a teacher, can achieve
what was proposed before, which is helping each student in their self-discovery
process. Accepting that intelligence is variable has to do with the acceptance
of the fact that each student is different from the other; what they learn,
even if it is the same, will impact their lives very differently, if we take
this into account and put it into practice, for example with the sensory pause
idea given in class, we can help them develop their potential. This is why
providing general knowledge, and then differentiating it, could be a great way
to develop many types of intelligences in the students; we will see this in the
example. Understanding that the brain hungers for meaning will help teachers in
the compartmentalization process of the information, which along with what we
talked above on this topic, the making sense of ideas and info, taping to
feeling and experiences, among others, will give tools that will enrich the
educational process in the classroom, in this case my classroom. Finally the
understanding that humans learn best with moderate challenge will help the
teacher through differentiation, to teach all the students, advanced students
and struggling learners.
The following is my action plan, which I will
show through an example, of how my class will be with differentiated
instruction. The subject is social studies in 9th grade, the topic
World War II. Take into account we have already learned about what is history,
through two lessons, the first was the importance of personal decision making
in the conformation of history, and the second one through the importance of
the personal decision making process in the conformation of personal and
world’s history. The first class is a documentary on the topic, the second
class will begin with an exposition by the teacher (me) to contextualize
students about WWII, of which they have an idea due to the homework assignment
given the last class, which was a reading assignment, and the documentary. The third
class of this topic, which will involve the differentiated instruction
strategies, will begin with information of how the time of the class will be
divided, then (as every other class) with a ritual where I get to know my
students through different reflections that they individually answer sharing
with the whole class (through different means, orally, through a drawing,
mimic, or others), this one is that they have to mimic shortly their process of
getting to school today, which will give me information about them and their
priorities, and maybe additional information on their day-to-day lives. Then I
will present different options regarding general topics that will help them understand
better WWII, and the students will have to choose among the topics, it will be
work in groups (there could be exceptions depending on the topic), the students
can propose a topic, which can be accepted by me, depending on its pertinence.
The proposed general topics are: causes that led to WWII, music and WWII,
sports and WWII, art and WWII, compare between the current situation in Europe
(in politics, economics, socially, among others) and the situation during WWII,
share stories of grandparents or others who lived during WWII or the near
post-war and how they affected them (individual work, group work if they
compare the story with what was occurring in Colombia at the time),
consequences of WWII in Europe and the rest of the World, medicine and WWII,
anthropology and WWII, human psychology behind WWII, biology and WWII, nature
and WWII. After choosing the topics, I may also, if there isn’t a decision
made, assign the topics based on my knowledge of the students (strengths,
interests and what they have to improve). Each general topic has to be
explained in detail during a presentation by each group, I will guide them with
each topic chosen so they can know clearly what to do, and they will also have
to do an activity to illustrate their topic to the classroom, for example in
the general topic music and WWII, music could be played to the class so they
can feel, through the auditory sense, what WWII was like. After choosing the
topics and making sure they understand the assignment, there will be a sensory
break, which is related to the topic, students will have the opportunity to
smell and taste different types of food that were fashionable, in Colombia, on
the time WWII occurred, this will also help students understand the importance
of framing historical events within a time period. The rest of the class will
be, in the groups made, guidance by the teacher to help them channel their
project.
The above example was one way of showing how
we can use differentiated instruction to teach a topic, and through the
process, help students advance in their self-discovery process, using the three
principles of effective teaching and learning. This will help students learn
the topic, what is it useful for, and seeing it through a different perspective;
in this case social studies has a direct relation with other disciplines too
(medicine, music, art, sports, psychology, economics, political sciences,
biology, among others), they all are in a way connected, part of a whole, some
more closely but in general they all are interconnected. It will also help
students connect with the topic and see what it is useful for, in this case
social studies will help students know about the importance of decisions and
the decision making process, it will
also help them understand their own life through processes
(past-present-future), it will teach them causes and consequences, and many
other things. In this example knowledge and wisdom work together to form the
students, academically and in values, which will definitely reshape this world
for good, and it’s definitely accurate also to, along with strategies,
accommodations and others, to support students with learning disabilities.
Reference List
Tomlinson,
C. (1999). The differentiated classroom:
Responding to the needs of all learners.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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