What Is or Is Not When it Comes to Differentiation

       Today in class we discussed more about what differentiation is and what it is not and I thought the quote I picked today really fit with that. My last two posts have been trying to define what differentiation is and how I can use it within my classroom. This one goes a little bit more in depth for those of you who are like well you gave us a little bit of a definition, but what does it look like? 

Differentiation is NOT

Differentiation is not individualizing every lesson you do by teaching each student on their own. Could you imagine if this was what differentiation was all about? Teachers would be failing left and right with students and burning out a lot quicker. We as teachers want to make sure that every student feels like they have that opportunity to get individual instruction if needed, but there isn't any way to teach every lesson to every student individually.  

Differentiation is not behavior management. Although we want to have our classes run smoothly every day all day, that is not differentiation. Consequences whether good or bad help to manage your classroom, but should not be your driving force to what you think differentiation is. Some students made need extra attention here and there to help modify their behavior in class for acting out or other various things and just because you do this does not mean that you are differentiating for them. 

Differentiation is not a reaction. When you have your students take a test after teaching them a unit or lesson and they didn't do as well as they needed to, many teachers' first reaction would be to panic and find out how to pull students back to reteach the concept. It's that knee jerk or gut reaction that has us making rash decisions instead of carefully considering what we could really do to help our students. 

Differentiation is not really, really, really good teaching. Being a good teacher is a great thing. There are many teachers out there that are great teachers for various reasons, but some of them aren't differentiating in their classroom. When great teachers take the time to differentiate they open up the opportunity to grow even more as a teacher and become one of the best where all students are reached and progress is observable. 

What Differentiation Is

Differentiation IS a way to provide access to all students in order to build on their past experience and further their education. If we teach to the standard of multiple entry points, many of our students will not feel "dumb" or "stupid" when talking about subjects in school. They will be able to participate in the conversations we have a feel like an expert because of the knowledge they already do have. 

Differentiation IS proactive and responsive. Teachers need to make sure that when they see a need, they fill a need and that's not waiting until the situation becomes desperate. It's that first glimpse of the possible storm ahead and how to take precautions to maintain it or solve the problem before it can truly arise. 

Differentiation DOES include accommodations and adaptations for individual students under your care, but that does not mean that every student needs an accommodation to everything or else you'll never get anything done. Take into account as you go to teach a lesson which students may struggle with what you're going teach and adjust before you teach the lesson. Or if you see a struggling student emerge through your lesson be able to move gears or switch him/her to a place where she/he can best learn and fulfill their potential. 

So What? 

What does this mean for educators? Differentiation is a big deal, but done right your classroom will have so many wonderful experiences and bonding moments that you will be blown away. I'm not the expert by any means, but I'm hoping that by the end of the semester I will have a better understand of exactly what differentiation is because the things I listed today on my blog are not the only answers. There are a few that can help anyone looking to identify what differentiation is, but know please that it is not the only answers. Hopefully by reading my blog you learned something you didn't know, you didn't know today about differentiation!