Differentiation of Instruction

Differentiation of instruction is what all students deserve from their teachers. According to Tompkins (2017), differentiated instruction “means ‘shaking up’ what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn.” Each student is unique which means each student will learn differently. The teacher must use a variety of instructional strategies so that it reaches each student throughout the lesson at one point. It is important that when a teacher is differentiating instruction, it targets all the subgroups in the classroom. There are different strategies that work when differentiating instruction – each teacher has their own style and their own students, so they will adapt the strategy to meet the needs of the students.

In order to differentiate instruction effectively, teachers must plan and prepare their lessons to do exactly that. Yes, it is a lot of work, but the purpose is to not leave any students behind and to keep them on track with the class. Like the saying goes, the team is only as strong as its weakest link. This can be easily thought of in a classroom, the students and teacher must work together to bring everyone up – this is the purpose of differentiation instruction.

The multi-tiered support system (MTSS) is a way to differentiate instruction. The first tier is how the teacher delivers instruction to the whole group. The second tier is small group instruction. The third tier is individualized or intensive instruction (tutoring). This is how differentiation of instruction works – the teacher teaches, the teacher then goes and observes and helps students in small groups, and then the teacher recommends students for tutoring.

In my classroom I differentiate instruction daily. I usually give students a smaller case when solving problems and have them apply this same thinking to the problems we are working with. I also differentiate instruction by breaking students up into different subgroups – high, medium, and low. I am able to target each groups’ specific skills and have them work on more advanced topics, give more practice, or work on the skill that they need in order to work on the problems now.