Differentiated Instruction

​In my quest to inform the task of developing curriculum that addresses a variety of intelligences and learning styles, I read the book The Differentiated Classroom by Carol Ann Tomlinson.  The key principles of differentiated instruction outlined in the book and listed on page 48 are:

• The teacher is clear about what matters in the subject matter.
• The teacher understands, appreciates, and builds upon student difference.
• Assessment and instruction are inseparable
• The teacher adjusts content, process, and product in response to readiness, interests and learning profiles.
• All students participate in respectful work.
• Students and teachers are collaborators in learning
• Goals of a differentiated classroom are maximum growth and individual success
• Flexibility is the hallmark of differentiated instruction

There is a wealth of information packed into this 130-page book about how to go about differentiating instruction so that the differences students bring with them are addressed.  The first thing that is important to consider is the goal of having each student grow as much as they possibly can.  This is first and foremost and it’s clear that in order to do this you have to provide different learning experiences.  As Tomlinson states: “All students need to understand the same essential principles and even use the same key skills.  Yet, because of variance in student readiness, interest, or learning profile, children must “come to” the ideas and use the skills in different ways” (p. 37).  But even before one goes about differentiating for different students, teachers must have a clear sense of what the students should come to know, understand and be able to do from their study of the curriculum.  Without this clarity, differentiation is only shallow.  Students should come away with the same basic understanding and skills regardless of the path they took to get there.  Tomlinson goes on to say that what she calls durable learning must include understanding and engagement.   Student’s interests as well as their comprehension must be cultivated in order for learning to be long term. With the content one must address one or both of these questions in order to motivate students:  Is it interesting to the students? and/or does it have any practical value for them?  As Tomlinson states, “It is a human birthright to be a learner.  There is little we do that is more important.  In a healthy classroom, the teacher knows that we have little time for exploring and understanding.  Thus, he focuses on what matters the most about a subject and ensures that the essentials are at the core of student experiences” (p. 32).  She goes on to list these key features of what should be taught and learned in a classroom:

• is relevant to students; it seems personal, familiar, connected to the world they know;
• helps students understand themselves and their lives more fully now, and will continue to do so as they grow up
• is authentic, offering “real” history or math or art, not just exercises about the subject;
• can be used immediately for something that matters to the students; and
• makes students more powerful in the present as well as in the future

Only once this has been done can a teacher proceed to differentiate instruction in meaningful ways.  Tomlinson warns: “You need not differentiate all elements in all possible ways.  Effective differentiated classrooms include many times in which whole-class nondifferentiated fare was the order of the day.  Modify a curricular element only when (1) you see a need and (2) you are convinced that modification increases the likelihood that the learner will understand important ideas and use important skills more thoroughly as a result” (p. 11).
Tomlinson notes that there are numerous ways to differentiate based on students’ readiness, interest, and learning profiles.  She goes on to say that content (what students will learn and the material that will represent that), processes (activities through which students make sense of key ideas using essential skills), and product (how students demonstrate and extend what they understand and can do as a result of a span of learning) so that when you think about differentiating you should ask these 3 questions:

1. Differentiate What?
2. Differentiate How?
3. Differentiate Why?

One other critical feature of differentiated instruction is that assessment needs to be ongoing and its purpose is to inform how a teacher should proceed with instruction, not as a culminating activity to show what students have mastered.  This book was truly a powerhouse in terms of laying out a framework for differentiating instruction.  Now the task of making it a reality so that all students in a given classroom thrive and grow as much as possible.
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