Differentiation in Today’s Classroom

Differentiation…

It’s a catch word used in education.

Lots of PD given on the topic with little follow-through.

Lots of books are written on this topic.

Has anyone actually seen differentiation in action?

I had the privilege of working with a special education teacher who had 9 students in her class, and she was differentiating constantly. Now, you might think that with 9 kids of course she could do that. Then, I saw her do it with a combined special ed class of 20 when a teacher was out. She had it down to a T! She would do whole group but then break down the task to each student’s level. Each student had a different type of task to complete on the same content topic. She was questioning them individually on their level as they were working and then challenging them with a more difficult task. Finally, I saw differentiation in action in a classroom. The best part about it was that the students got it; they mastered the task in front of them and were able to use that knowledge gained in the next day’s lesson, even in the next week’s lesson.

Here was the catch…that teacher worked her butt off to make sure those students had personalized learning and stayed late every day (like 2 hours after school was out) to make sure she had everything ready for the next day. Plus, she had a co-teacher in the room helping the students as well. So 2 teachers in a room with 9 kids…of course they all mastered the concepts, and the teachers could differentiate!

It’s hard to differentiate in a classroom of 25 or more students, when you have tons of paperwork to finish, lesson plans to create, data to collect and analyze, papers to grade, and a life outside of school. Believe me, I’ve been there; I know! The best differentiation that I could do was to give students choice in activities and assignments, group students for activities, give students roles, and give different difficulty of concepts. I thought that was enough. I had read some on differentiation and had attend a 2-hour workshop as part of my school’s professional development, but I didn’t really know a lot about it until I became an administrator. I started reading a lot on differentiation because I saw personalized learning in action in that special education teacher’s class. I wanted to find a way for teachers to really use differentiation to help their students engage more and learn more. I needed to educate myself more to be able to help my teachers help their students.

In doing my research, one name continue to pop up, Carol Ann Tomlinson. I knew her from the workshop that I attended at a previous school (the 2-hour workshop); the workshop was on the neuroscience of differentiation. I remember after that workshop, I purchased the book that was referenced over and over again in the workshop (Tomlinson’s Differentiation and the Brain). It sat on my shelf until I became an administrator. When I picked it up and finally read it, oh my goodness! My eyes were opened. I knew a good deal on the different learning styles of students, but this book exposed me to how students’ brains work and how they learn. Here are some key takeaways from this book:

• Just like each student is unique, a student’s brain is unique. Students might have similar experiences, but they interpret them differently. Now, apply that to learning—there are basic similarities in how students learn, but the preferences for how we learn are different; some students like to learn alone, and some like to learn in groups. Some learn better by just listen or observing, and some learn better by participating. Therefore, as Tomlinson (2018) states, “the pervasive notion that one curricular, instructional, and assessment program fits all is hardly brain compatible” (p.14).

• Students learn in patterns. Our frontal lobe is very important to our learning. This book goes into detail how our frontal lobe is where we process higher-order thinking and problem-solving. It does this by recognizing patterns. We come up with new ideas from these patterns. These patterns are also tied into our emotions; when we learn new information or patterns are formed, our brain releases chemicals that makes us happy and motivates us to keep learning. However, when the patterns aren’t formed because the student is rushed through the lesson or the class environment is lacking positive emotion, anxiety sets in that shuts down the brain’s ability to process high-order thinking. The brain basically goes into panic mode. Tomlinson (2018) states, “when tension is high, retention of learning is low” (p. 15). If we can make a positive learning environment where we teach in patterns, students will retain more information, and then if we include differentiation to those patterns, they will retain more than just in their working memory (our temporary memory where we do our processing that is easily lost if not connected to some meaning).

• Technology is rewiring our brain. Our students are addicted to technology, and it is affecting their brain. However, technology is a necessary skill that students need for their future. What we can do as their teacher is to use differentiation in a way that varies the “amount, frequency, and type of technology” that each student uses in your class (Sousa and Tomlinson, 2018).

One thing for you to understand about differentiation is that you can’t differentiate all of the time in your classes—you can’t be everything to every student for every minute of your class. That is impossible! What you can do, though, is to recognize that students’ brains work differently and incorporate different learning strategies throughout your lesson. You can recognize that students learn in patterns and include certain strategies and resources into our instruction, such as graphic organizers, engaging activities, and routines.

The easiest way that I made sure to include differentiation was in the activities that I choose for each lesson. Activities are great for student engagement, collaboration, enthusiasm, retention of content, and positivity. I kept a list of activities that I used and kept notes as to how the activity work, what data I used to see if they mastered the content and retained the information, and how well they did on the assessment for that material. Some activities worked better with certain classes than with others; I would have to tweak the activity at times based on the class dynamic and their learning patterns.

I created a list for you of activity ideas that incorporate differentiation (check out the ebook below). Now, these are just ideas; you can take them and make them into your own with your creativity, knowledge of your students, and knowledge of your content area. I have ideas for every level—lower elementary, upper elementary, middle school, high school, and gifted/talented. Plus, I included some AI tools that allow for differentiation which can be part of the activities or your lessons as well. I hope this helps you to see differentiation as a component that can help your students retain the material and make a positive connection with the content at the same time.

If you want to purchase this book….

Differentiation and the Brain

by D.A. Sousa and C.A. Tomlinson

Paperback: Click here to purchase on Amazon

Kindle: Click here to purchase on Amazon

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