by Alma Pettenger, Professional Learning Specialist
Standard # 2: Understanding and Encouraging Student Learning, Growth and Development
Quality Indicator #5: Prior experiences, learning styles, multiple intelligences, strengths, and needs
Is your classroom designed around the content you are teaching or the students who are learning the content? It is imperative to understand that teachers do not just teach content; they teach content to students. For effective instruction to occur, teachers must not only know the content well, but they also must know the students to whom they intend to teach that content. Heacox (2007) writes, “Today’s classrooms reflect astonishing levels of academic diversity, and teachers report that the diversity of students seems to increase each year” (p. 19). With this reality in mind, teachers must be intentional about developing strategies that allow them to know their students in order to lead them to academic success.
Although there are many important aspects about each student, the differentiated instruction philosophy suggests that teachers focus on just three: interest, readiness, and learning profile (Tomlinson, 1999).
·
Interest draws on the students’
passions or curiosities regardless of readiness levels and learning profile. When
I talk to teachers about the struggles they may be experiencing in the
classroom, lack of motivation is often at the top of the list. Even though teachers know that personal or
situational interest is a motivator for students, translating that knowledge
into lessons and strategies is a challenge.
How can teachers identify the interests of their students? One way is to
have them fill out an interest survey. These surveys can yield valuable
data that the teacher can use to differentiate instruction. If students are interested, their level of
motivation to learn is increased. “Allowing students to make choices based on
their interests empowers them as learners and allows them to work more quickly
and effectively through their work” (Turville, 2007, p. 5).
·
Readiness is where the student is
in relationship to a particular learning goal.
An effective teacher assesses students’ levels of readiness prior to (pre-assessment),
during (formative assessment), and at the end of (summative assessment) the
lesson or unit. “In a differentiated
classroom we don’t separate assessment from instruction. We weave these two
essential components of teaching together on the premise that we cannot have
good assessment that does not instruct, and we cannot have good instruction
that does not assess” (Wormeli, 2007, p. 67). For differentiation to be effective, teachers
need to know where each student begins and where he or she is in his or her
journey towards meeting the success criteria of the lesson (Hattie, 2012). It is this knowledge that allows teachers to
respond to the learning needs of their students, determining where, when, and
how differentiation might be needed.
·
Learning Profile refers to ways in which
we learn best as individuals. There are four factors that teachers can use to
plan instruction that fit learners’ profiles: learning style, intelligence
preference, gender, and culture (Tomlinson, 2001, p. 60). These factors may suggest some ways of
thinking about learning that can impact the way we plan instruction to meet
students’ needs. In her book How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms, Carol
Ann Tomlinson (2001) shares some useful guidelines when responding to learning
preferences:
o
Remember
that some, but not all your students share your learning preference.
o
Help
your students reflect on their own preferences.
o
Use
both teacher-structured and student-choice avenues to differentiation.
o
Start
small; select a few learning-profile categories for emphasis as you begin.
o
Be
a student of your students; learn as much as you can about them.
As we
move into second semester, consider how you might look for opportunities to
determine who your students are, where they are, and what they need to make the
most of the months ahead.
Hattie, John
(2012). Visible learning for teachers.
New York, NY: Routledge.
Heacox, Diane (2007). Making Differentiation a Habit. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing.
Tomlinson, Carol Ann (2001). How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Tomlinson, Carol Ann (1999). The Differentiated Classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASDC.
Turville, Joni (2007). Differentiating by Student Interest. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis.
Wormeli, Rick (2007). Differentiation: From Planning to Practice. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
