Differentiated Instruction

To be completely honest, differentiated instruction at first seemed like an overwhelming challenge to me. We got our first hand out with all the different ways to differentiate instruction and it seemed like it was much more work that I'd ever thought I would have as a teacher. However, after watching the videos we've seen in class as well as one I found on Teaching Channel, it doesn't seem quite as overwhelming as it did before.

Teaching Channel has proved to be a great educational resource for me. There are videos for practically anything you could have questions about. I found a great video designed for first year teachers about differentiated instruction. While, I'm not quite a first year teacher yet, it did prove helpful when thinking about how I could differentiate instruction in the future. Differentiated instruction is altering your lesson or activities to make sure that all levels of students are challenged. You can make your lessons or activities harder or easier depending on the readiness level of the student. 

I plan to teach at an elementary level and I think this is a perfect age to use grouping for the differentiated classroom. I could use stations for my groups and have them all do different activities depending on the readiness level of each student. It also would free up my time to walk around and monitor. I'd also be available to help if necessary.

While the video I found is about a high school teacher, the video as a whole seems to serve as a general introduction to differentiated instruction and can be used as a tool to those who have never understood the concept. The video give occasional tips, for example:

• Continually assess students
• Tier lessons to challenge all students
• Use word problems of varying complexity
• Group by readiness, interest, or learning style

It was an extremely helpful introduction to the concept of differentiated instruction that I plan to refer to when I am a first year teacher.