Differentiated Instruction Agenda

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We know that students come into our classrooms and schools with different backgrounds and cultures, but their cognitive abilities, assets, and experiences are just as wide ranging.

Sometimes the only thing students have in common is their age! When students feel alienated, alone, and unsure about what is going on in school it is difficult for them to be able to adapt to and perform in the classroom. In an age where drama rules the day (check out reality TV!), it is important to remember students will be more ready and willing to learn when they feel positive about their classroom experience. Our strategies set the stage for that to occur.

• All students are different
• DI is the implementation of strategies to reach multiple learning styles and intelligences.
• Students should be taught content in the best way that they learn.
• DI is for all learners!  Big or small, experienced or young, all learners deserve the best opportunity to learn.
• DI should be used in every lesson we teach!
• In order to be fair to all students we must differentiate their learning and our instruction.
• Students have different modalities of learning.
• Depth of knowledge is as important as breadth of knowledge.
• Students need a reasonable amount of pressure to perform at peak academic levels.
• Not all kids learn the same information at the same time or even at the same rate. Not all teachers teach the same and not all curricula can be taught the same.  (Robinson, 2008)

Today, you must compete for student attention. You compete with hundreds of channels available through cable and satellite television. Our phones and tablets stream most of them too! This is not to mention computer games, social media, and everything else available 

through the internet and cyberspace.

Our kids are overstimulated and our teachers overwhelmed as they endeavor to get their students interested and involved in the curricula. Paradoxically, it is our own lessons that teach students when they can be off-task and when they can minimally participate in class! The notion that fairness and that everyone must participate the very same way often create habits and gaps in student attention in the classroom. 

The good news is that promoting attention and interest is immediately doable!

• Students in Differentiated Instruction classrooms enjoy a number of advantages over those in traditional “one-size fits all” approach settings.  Students are able to be active participants in their own learning.
• The curriculum is no longer pointed to the middle of the group but available and interactive to all students.  Those students that found a traditional classroom lesson too difficult or something they had already learned which led to feeling of being “bored” or “not engaged” are now excited about their learning.
• Students receive the content and curriculum in ways that ensure they are engaged.  This engagement allows students to connect and learn the content at a deep level of understanding.

The worse thing we can do is become Charlie Brown’s teacher! Subject matter that is irrelevant and meaningless (“whaa-whaa-whaa”) is easily ignored as simply…noise.

If you are not connected with your students 

and they feel your subject matter has no relevance in their lives, you will feel as Sisyphus did at the end of every school day. The good news is that we teach you how to end the “myth of the struggle.”

By creating relevant points your students have a chance to attach meaning and value to what you teach which is critical in helping them care about what is being taught and to embrace the knowledge for themselves! Strategies that help students find their voice and explore your subjects are extremely valuable. Synectics, connecting relevant terms through visual and auditory methods, are some of the ways we help our students attach value and meaning to what we teach.

• Differentiated Instruction allows administrators to know that teachers are deeply covering the standards in their content or grade level so that students have a deep and solid understanding of the material.
• Administrators in Differentiated Instruction schools know that each student is a part of an appropriately challenging and rigorous learning environment that will benefit them now and in the future!
• Administrators have the tools to support their teachers and focus on instructional leadership!

The true purpose of an education is to discover how we learn best so that we may continue doing so throughout life. Because of our busy lives and the many extra tasks thrown at us, we as teachers often feel we have to give away the facts instead of having the students earn them. When we struggle yet overcome the obstacle, we become stronger.

The same is true for learning. If we have to think a bit harder and deeper and arrive at the answer, we have earned that knowledge. Our strategies emphasize this simple concept: The student is responsible for the learning and the teacher is the guide to help them discover how to do it. We can never learn for our kids, nor should we, but we can most certainly help them learn to work under pressure and discover how they can truly perform above and beyond our expectations. 

We will show you how to do this!

• Students in Differentiated Instruction classrooms enjoy a number of advantages over those in traditional “one-size fits all” approach settings.  Students are able to be active participants in their own learning.
• The curriculum is no longer pointed to the middle of the group but available and interactive to all students.  Those students that found a traditional classroom lesson too difficult or something they had already learned which led to feeling of being “bored” or “not engaged” are now excited about their learning.
• Students receive the content and curriculum in ways that ensure they are engaged.  This engagement allows students to connect and learn the content at a deep level of understanding.

By virtue of the physical structure of our educational institutions and the habits they have kept in place for so long, we have become a profession of loners. This is truly a shame since so many teachers are creating magic in their classrooms, yet other teachers struggle with the very same lessons and populations.

Through the use of our matrix, we demonstrate how the individual teacher can share their best efforts and successes with others, as well as entire schools sharing best practices across the grades and subjects they teach.  By encouraging each other to share, we will prevent others from reinventing the wheel or suffer through ineffective methods already tried by others.  

This guided strategy is both powerful and useful as we learn to share successes and celebrate the great learning going on in our classrooms.  We are great at helping you to share your best practices.

• Sometimes the only thing students in a classroom have in common is their age! Students come into our classrooms and schools with different backgrounds and cultures. Their cognitive abilities, assets and experiences are just as wide ranging.
• When one lesson resonates with one student but not with another, we owe it to students to offer the learning in many different approaches to help them receive it in their strengths and abilities.
• Fair does not always mean equal – sometimes we need to go an extra step for a student.  In order to be fair to all students we must differentiate their learning and our instruction.