Differentiation
The past couple of classes, we talked a lot about differentiation. What is differentiation? More importantly, what does it mean to me as a future teacher?Differentiation is realizing there are many types of students one can have in a classroom, and it is a teacher's job to tailor instruction to meet the individualized needs of the students. This can mean many things such as a student's way of learning, how they learn, and their abilities as far as the content goes. There are many things that can be altered to help children learn to the best of their abilities. Whether it's a change in the learning environment, the process, products, or the content, there are many factors that play into a child's education.
I have experienced differentiation in the classroom before. It happened a lot in high school, where a teacher would tell us to get computers, and we would all work at our own pace. It was great because each student could almost teach themselves the concepts, but also have the teacher close in case they had a question or needed help. It taught us how to be independent. A way to tailor instruction in the classroom for differentiation would be students working together in groups. Each student can say their input and feed off of one another's ideas to create a learning environment that best suits all the students. Another way teachers can incorporate differentiated lesson plans is by having one of the students teach the class a concept. For example, if one student is a tactile learner (meaning he learns by writing down information and doing physical activity) and a teacher allows him to go up to the board to write and explain aloud his concept, then the visual and auditory learners in the class can learn from the student's demonstration. The student is also learning because he is writing down and physically teaching the class. It is a win-win situation for all the students; plus, it's fun for them, and it mixes it up.
I feel that technology would play a huge role in classroom differentiation. As stated above, when my fellow classmates and I went on the computers, we could all work at our own pace. Technology allows us to expand our knowledge how we need it done in the most personal and interesting way. It makes learning more diversified. Smart boards are a great way to help students learn differently. Drawing on the board itself helps visual learners and incorporating movies and videos help auditory learners. There are many things that different types of technology can do to help us prepare the future generation.
I really liked how you gave an example from your high school. That was a really good idea and it was extremely helpful to further understand the concept of differentiation. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI agree so much with your first paragraph and it draws your reader right in. I like the fact that you are very organized in your blog with the layout and different ways you approach things. It is nice to see you are so open to technology as well and plan to use it in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteTechnology does really help students work at their own pace, I agree with you that it is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI like how you presented your information. It caught my attention and I liked the different examples you gave the reader!
ReplyDeleteYou did an awesome job with explaining how your teachers used differentiation in your classroom. And I liked the pictures you used, especially the Wordle :)
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you gave many different examples of how differentiation was used in your classrooms. That really helps to drive home the ultimate meaning of a differentiated classroom.
ReplyDeleteMy high school never really had differentiation in the classroom. So I like how you had experience with it! That needs to happen in more schools.
ReplyDeleteDifferentiation is beneficial to all classroom and students. With today's rates students are not stay attentive in their educational careers but by using a differentiated classroom places the knowledge, learning, and even technology into their hands and they get the experience to learn on their level.
ReplyDeleteThe way you tie in personal examples and many of the pictures and how neat it looks really helps to work well with making your blog eye appealling. You define differentiation very well and why we need it as well as how technology can play an important role.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of using different learning styles to help others benefit from their styles. Way to actually use differentiation!
ReplyDeleteI think that differentiation is obvious in teaching, which is why when we write lesson plans we, try to incorporate as many of Gardner's Learning Styles as possible. From my experience, students learn best with tactile objects no matter what I am teaching.
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