Differentiation can be done so many different ways it is crazy to think that some teachers neglect to do it. Yes it takes lots of planning and forethought but in the end it benefits the students so much more than teaching to them above or below their readiness level. I have been able to do lots of differentiation in my current placement. For me differentiating in math was the easiest, like when we did a lesson on regrouping in addition. For the gifted student instead of giving her two two-digit numbers to regroup I would give her three two digit numbers or two three-digit numbers. For the ones who struggled I have them one single digit and one two-digit number. I wasn’t changing the criteria I was just meeting the students needs. Where as in literacy it is hard for me to do these modifications. I feel like I always end up changing the criteria when getting the students to write, this is something that I am continuing to work on.
This has actually been a big part of my semester; I did my inquiry on differentiating to each student multiple intelligence. My partner and I noticed that often students were disengaged during the literacy block. We wanted to get them engaged and we thought the best possible way was to teach to their intelligence, teach to how they learn and preform best. We did a shared reading lesson with an activity to reach all eight of the intelligence. The students were extremely engaged.
The only thing I struggle with is knowing how much to differentiate what and when to do. Sometimes I feel as though I may do it too much, other I felt like I didn’t do enough, rarely do I feel like I did just the right amount. Like when I did my Multiple Intelligence activity, I was able to think of an assignment to fit their intelligence but for some I don’t think it met their readiness level. It was either to easy of they struggled. During planning I thought we were differentiating to much, but maybe it wasn’t enough. Is there such a thing as too much differentiation? Though I am asking this question I believe I know the answer, there is over extending your self as a teacher but there isn’t a limit to meeting your students needs.
This has actually been a big part of my semester; I did my inquiry on differentiating to each student multiple intelligence. My partner and I noticed that often students were disengaged during the literacy block. We wanted to get them engaged and we thought the best possible way was to teach to their intelligence, teach to how they learn and preform best. We did a shared reading lesson with an activity to reach all eight of the intelligence. The students were extremely engaged.
The only thing I struggle with is knowing how much to differentiate what and when to do. Sometimes I feel as though I may do it too much, other I felt like I didn’t do enough, rarely do I feel like I did just the right amount. Like when I did my Multiple Intelligence activity, I was able to think of an assignment to fit their intelligence but for some I don’t think it met their readiness level. It was either to easy of they struggled. During planning I thought we were differentiating to much, but maybe it wasn’t enough. Is there such a thing as too much differentiation? Though I am asking this question I believe I know the answer, there is over extending your self as a teacher but there isn’t a limit to meeting your students needs.