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Essay on Differentiated Instruction
Schools are not much different from baseball diamonds. Using differentiated instruction, high-quality teachers attend to the differing needs of diverse learners in their classrooms. The goal in each classroom is the same: to have all students attain a similar level of mastery over specific content. Leslie Kiernan and Carol Ann Tomlinson note, "In an appropriately differentiated classroom, all learners focus much of their time and attention on the key concepts, principles, and skills identified by the teacher as essential to growth and development in the subject but at varying degrees of abstractness, complexity, open-endedness, problem clarity, and structure."( Adams, C. M.,(2002)) They add that, while all learners should work toward proficiency in the subject, some may need to deal with the subject matter at a concrete level and others may learn better by working at a greater level of abstractness.
Differentiated Instruction:
For instance, among elementary students learning how to multiply, one group of students may be able to memorize their multiplication tables and understand the connection between addition and multiplication through conversation with the teacher. A different set of students may need to see how that process works through the use of manipulatives such as groups of checkers. Some middle school geography students see easily how they can use maps to help understand the natural world. Other students may need a guiding hand to take them to that natural world to see how the map represents its different features. "In an appropriately differentiated classroom, all learners should work with 'respectful tasks,'" Kiernan and Tomlinson add.
All students should be encouraged to think at high levels and should have consistent opportunities to be active learners by working on interesting and engaging tasks. "All students should sometimes be teachers, and all should continually be involved with learning that is new to them.........
