Unit 1: Differentiation
Learners will identify the definition of Differentiation.
Mrs. Smith is a teacher of 21 5th graders. Her class is full of very hard working individuals with many talents. She has been noticing through her formative assessments that students are not grasping the information presented in whole group setting. What should she do?
Before we can discuss ways to Differentiate instruction, we need to identify what Differentiation means to you. Take a minute. Write down some of your thoughts on what Differentiation means to you? How does it look in a classroom?
Keep these thoughts near you. Throughout the lesson, refer back to your thoughts to see how your thoughts have developed.
What is Differentiation?
Differentiation is identified as "the process of identifying students’ individual learning strengths, needs, and interests and adapting lessons to match them—" ( Sparks, 2015) When you Differentiate instruction, you are providing different activities based upon the students needs to reach the same goal ( refer to picture at the top of this page. This is a perfect example of differentiation)
There are three ways to incorporate Differentiation:
Read this article to take a closer look at the 3 ways to incorporate Differentiation:
Watch this video for more information on Differentiation Instruction:
Reflect in the Unit Wrap Unit section on questions.
Unit Wrap up
Based upon the information from this Unit discuss the questions below in the Creating Talk Page. ( Find under the questions)
a)What is differentiated instruction?
b) What are the three different ways you can differentiate instruction?
c) What should Mrs. Smith do? (Referring back to Scenario at top of the page)
Sparks , S. D. (2015, January 28). Differentiated Instruction: A Primer . Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/28/differentiated-instruction-a-primer.html.