or does it…?
The book “Differentiated Instructional Strategies” is very direct. Right on the first page it states “each student is unique” and “leaners can not be placed through the same educational hoops”. They immediately support the title of the chapter “One Size Doesn’t Fit All”. Essentially what they are saying is that like clothing there are different cuts and sizes that make specific items work really well for a few people but don’t fit the majority. They go on to introduce differentiated instruction as the answer the problem of “different sizes”.
To me differentiated instruction is like a nice pair of thanksgiving pants, oh yes I have a pair. It truly is the size that fits all. Theoretically, it should make students experiences indulging in education similar to their experiences indulging in a glorious cooked bird. They should both be relatively easier to consume. It should be comfortable for all and everyone can sleep easy afterwards.
I do feel that realistically think that differentiated instruction has some difficult challenges. The school environment between students, other events, and so on is highly unpredictable. How can an educator plan a lesson that is prepared to reach to their entire class of 20-30 students. Also teaching is difficult to define success as a teacher, how do we really know if a regular lesson was a success and if so by who’s definition is it successful. It would be difficult to analyze 20-30 different lessons to determine whether or not the differentiations were successful. This is difficult primarily because of time restrictions. However, another factor that makes this difficult is that instead of monitoring a group a teacher must closely monitor all students throughout the lesson to accurately evaluate their adaptations.
I am aware that my last paragraph is a little dark towards differentiated instruction. When in fact I would like to go on the record as a supporter of it. I think it is vital for educators to teach for understanding rather than departmentals and I see differentiated instruction as a tool to do just that.
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Tyler – perhaps it would be helpful to think about differentiation less as a way to plan a lesson that reaches every single student, and more about planning lessons that allow students to access information in a variety of ways, that incorporate student interests, and that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge in different ways. Yes, it can be overwhelming, but you can start by building in one or two things into every lesson that present information in different ways, for instance, by allowing students to read a text and also practice using manipulatives.