Differentiation

1. Differentiation is necessary for each student to obtain one year of growth. Each student starts in different place on each subject. It would be unfair of me as a teacher to expect all of my students to be the same and learn in the same way. Students have different learning profiles and come from different backgrounds. I should keep this in mind while planning.
2. Differentiation diminishes discouragement. If I teach all of my students the same way, some of them are bound to get discouraged. This will hinder their learning. They may stop trying or think they aren't smart enough. "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." (Albert Einstein) It is important that I emphasize to my students that there are multiple ways to achieve success.
3. Differentiation helps provide a supportive environment. It stops becoming about teaching the content and starts becoming about teaching the content to the child in the right way. This helps students feel cared about, which provides a positive classroom environment.
4. The way you learn is as unique as your fingerprint. A good teacher knows her students and looks at their class as individuals who make up a whole instead of the other way around. It is important for teachers to know how their students learn and their interests so that students will be motivated to continue learning.
5. You can't improvise differentiation. You have to "plan for unpredictability."You may not know which students for which subjects will need extra help or extensions to deepen their learning, but there will be students in all categories. If you plan to differentiate you will be able to help your students. One size does not fit all.
6. Differentiation provides teachers with the opportunity to teach their students in an efficient way that provides genuine learning experiences. As a teacher what is my goal? My goal is for my students to learn. Differentiation is a means to accomplish this goal.