Differentiated Instruction Individual Exploration - Response

For my individual exploration on differentiated instruction, I found an article by Dr. Ruthanne Tobin titled "Differentiating in the Language Arts: Flexible Options to Support All Students."  This article is geared more towards elementary education, but I felt that this article has a lot of useful applications for secondary classrooms as well.

In this article, Tobin explains how classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse, making differentiated instruction essential.  She explained how all students need their intellect, language, culture, and imagination validated, and differentiated instruction can help teachers validate their students by promoting responsive teaching.  Tobin defined differentiated instruction by explaining that "differentiating instruction means establishing a learning environment in which students are more likely to get their individual learning needs met."  This differentiation requires teachers to modify their content, process, and products of student learning in response to the readiness, interests, and learning profile of their students.

One of the most interesting things I read in this article is the idea that we need to accommodate not just the needs of students but their preferences.  Tobin elaborates by explaining that giving students choices and accommodating their preferences plays a key role in motivation and engagement.  I think this is a very simple but important point to keep in mind.  It makes sense that students would be more motivated and engaged if they got to do activities in class that they preferred to do.  In spite of this, it seems that many students experience an education that does little to accommodate their preferences.  Tobin mentioned one way of differentiating instruction would be to give students an opportunity to choose their own book, which is also one way of giving students choices and accommodating their preferences.  Students could potentially pick out books that are too easy or too hard for them, but that is one way that they can learn about themselves and evaluate themselves.  I think that giving students the option to choose their own books occasionally would be an excellent way to differentiate instruction in an English Language Arts classroom

Another differentiation technique I read about was to give students multiple response options.  This means that students can respond to a text or an assignment in multiple ways.  For example, students could be given the option to demonstrate their understanding of a chapter from the book by writing a summary, acting out a scene, drawing a picture, creating a diorama, giving a presentation, etc.  The teacher gives students options, and students choose which assignment they would prefer to do.  Additionally, instruction can be differentiated further if the teacher tiers the activities so there are several different levels of difficulty.  I think this is another good way to differentiate instruction, but I think it is essential that the teacher makes sure that the options require a similar amount of effort or else students would most likely pick the task that requires the least amount of effort.

Lastly, yet another potential differentiating technique I read involved fostering open discussions with a responsive teacher.  The key in this strategy is to validate student's unique contributions to the discussions, which will validates students' intellect, culture, and imagination.

I was able to gain a lot of insight regarding differentiated instruction from this article.  I have a much better idea of what differentiation actually looks like when put into practice, and I understand how differentiated instruction is beneficial not only because students may need it but because they prefer it.  Everyone likes having their preferences accommodated.