Differentiation:
Differentiation, simply put, is the ability to guide a diverse spectrum of students to the same destinations: target skills. As we have learned, the variety in our students current skill levels, content knowledge, and abilities is due to many different factors. Whether it's due to differences in developmental stages, maturity levels, perspective, family life, learning styles, etc., every student is unique in how they learn best.
Where differentiation comes in is reaching every student where they currently are in terms of ability, understanding, or knowledge. No matter where that starting point is, the teacher's job remains the same. We are responsible for getting each and every student to those articulated targets/goals/objectives we have decided on for our classes. I like to think of differentiation as a ski mountain. Every student needs to get to the base lodge (read: learning target) before the mountain closes (read: the end of the school year/the end of high school). It is the teacher's job to help guide each student to the lodge by recognizing the ability level of the student and choosing which level of trail is best for them to get there, and giving them tips and pointers along the way. For different students, those levels of challenge will vary between the green circles, blue squares, black diamonds, double blacks, etc. What's important is that each student is practicing the same skill (skiing) with the same destination but at a level in which they feel simultaneously comfortable and challenged (somewhere between crashing into a tree and being able to ski the whole trail backwards).
Differentiation, then, means knowing each student well enough to pick that appropriate level of challenge and comfort, and to push them to try the black diamonds when the blue squares become too easy for them.
Summative Assessment
Formative Assessment
Feedback
Formative Assessment 2
Summative Assessment 2
Differentiation, simply put, is the ability to guide a diverse spectrum of students to the same destinations: target skills. As we have learned, the variety in our students current skill levels, content knowledge, and abilities is due to many different factors. Whether it's due to differences in developmental stages, maturity levels, perspective, family life, learning styles, etc., every student is unique in how they learn best.
Where differentiation comes in is reaching every student where they currently are in terms of ability, understanding, or knowledge. No matter where that starting point is, the teacher's job remains the same. We are responsible for getting each and every student to those articulated targets/goals/objectives we have decided on for our classes. I like to think of differentiation as a ski mountain. Every student needs to get to the base lodge (read: learning target) before the mountain closes (read: the end of the school year/the end of high school). It is the teacher's job to help guide each student to the lodge by recognizing the ability level of the student and choosing which level of trail is best for them to get there, and giving them tips and pointers along the way. For different students, those levels of challenge will vary between the green circles, blue squares, black diamonds, double blacks, etc. What's important is that each student is practicing the same skill (skiing) with the same destination but at a level in which they feel simultaneously comfortable and challenged (somewhere between crashing into a tree and being able to ski the whole trail backwards).
Differentiation, then, means knowing each student well enough to pick that appropriate level of challenge and comfort, and to push them to try the black diamonds when the blue squares become too easy for them.
Summative Assessment
Formative Assessment
Feedback
Formative Assessment 2
Summative Assessment 2