Differentiated Instruction

          Differentiation is an approach to teaching where teachers modify their curriculum, methods, resources and learning activities to make sure all diverse needs are met of all students, whether individual or in groups to make sure everyone has an equal opportunity to maximize learning and make learning accessible for everyone. Some ways to meet the definition in the classroom is by having multiple ways to represent a concept so all students understand, multiple expressions and action, and multiple ways of engagement so all students can be involved and no student is left out of the learning process. Differentiation is one of the most important aspects of the classroom regardless how hard it is to incorporate for teachers. Meaningful differentiation instruction is actually what is being lacked in classrooms but is what needs to happen in classrooms. To incorporate meaningful differentiation teachers need to differentiate content, process and product based on students needs, interests and readiness to learn the material. This is important because teachers need to make sure that student's are engaged and lessons are modified for these student's, otherwise the differentiation will be set up to fail.
          Differentiation during the first stage is mostly where whole group instruction is taking place with modifications for students who need are present. In this tier teachers focus on general interests, and provide motivational needs as well as see the whole class's ability level with the content and the past content being taught. During tier one there are targeted outcomes such as more assessment,  and more time where both time and assessment is differentiated to each student. Students need more time and need to be assessed to see where they are so teachers can be beneficial in the learning process. Some strategies for differentiating is choice boards, tiered activities and learning contracts. Choice boards for example are menus, a tiered activity could be a persuasive essay and a learning contract talks about what the student learned. It is important to incorporate strategies into students learning, whether it be one of these three or other strategies that support the individual or group needs. You may only have to use a strategy for one child, but teach it to the class, differentiation is important regardless of how much you have to change your schedule around, or your lesson plan. Classrooms are more diverse, and have more diverse learners then ever, which is why differentiation needs to start now with all the teacher support it can.