Differentiated Instruction

Rashida David

EDU 200

Professor Regan

1, May, 2012

            Final Blog Post

            Differentiated instruction describes an approach to individualized techniques that address the wide range of differences that exist among student’s in today’s classrooms. Differentiated instruction is a form of personalized instruction with the goal of maximizing each learner’s potential. No two students enter a classroom with identical abilities, experiences, and needs. When teaching in a classroom student’s will consist of various learning styles, language proficiencies, background knowledge, readiness to learn, and other factors. Despite their individual differences, however students are expected to master the same concepts, principles, and skills. The role of the teacher is to help all students succeed in their learning which is an enormous challenge that requires innovative thinking. Differentiated instruction focuses on constructing understanding rather than accumulating facts. Teachers structure learning environments that address the variety of learning styles, interests, and abilities found within a classroom.

            Differentiated instruction is based on the belief that students learn best when they make connections between the curriculum and their diverse interests and experiences, and that the greatest learning occurs when students are pushed slightly beyond the point where they can work without assistance. Rather than just providing one avenue for learning for all students in a class, teachers who use differentiated instruction match tasks, activities, and assessments with their students’ interests, abilities, and learning preferences. Teachers should provide several learning options that help students take in information and make sense of concepts and skills. Providing appropriate levels of challenge for all students is important including those who lag behind, those who are advanced, and those in the middle. Under-performing students who may have been sorted into lower tracked classes in the past are likely to be mixed into more advanced classes in order to be prepared to attain higher academic standards. The goal of differentiated instruction is that all students should reach a similar level of mastery of the intended outcomes.

            Instruction can be differentiated based on three general areas. These areas include the content of instruction, the process and techniques used to help make sense of a given topic, and the products produced by students that demonstrate their learning. Some examples may include utilizing pre-tests to asses where individual students need to begin to study for a given topic, providing access to a variety of materials which target different learning preferences and reading abilities, and using a variety of assessment strategies. Some more examples teachers might use in their classroom include putting text materials on tape, providing interests centers that encourage students to explore subsets of the class topic of particular interest to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7kcFkRgiV4

            Mesquite Elementary School developed a teaching strategy that turned their school around in just six months. Mesquite Elementary School is located in Tucson, Arizona and they have developed a teaching method that has worked so well that it has raised Mesquite to Arizona’s highest school rating, excelling for the past eight years and has twice won the prestigious A+ School of Excellence Award from the Arizona Educational Foundation. Mesquite managed to achieve all this while on an extremely low budget. The state of Arizona has the second lowest per pupil spending in the nation, and Mesquite has the lowest per pupil funding in southern Arizona. The system that Mesquite uses is called Reteach and Enrich. This system happens every day from 12:30p.m. To 1:00p.m. What happens during this period is teachers give students who are struggling with a concept extra time and attention, and students who have already mastered the basics receive instruction that takes their learning to the next level. The system is based on a shared curriculum map, listed with objectives defined every week of the school year. At the end of each week, teachers assess students on those objectives. Depending on the students results, they get assigned to either a reteach or an enrich session the following week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8DQugVxHv0&feature=relmfu

                I would use differentiated instruction in my classroom because it targets all of the students and gives every student the chance to succeed equally. I would use an approach similar to the one used at Mesquite Elementary I like the whole idea of the reteach and enrich plan. Students who are struggling and need help are granted the extra help they need and the students who have already understood the concept can move on to the next idea. I would use this approach just as a way to make sure that all of my students understand the material that I am teaching to them. I would also use some differentiated instruction strategies like letting them use reading buddies, using more of a hands on approach, also giving students options on how to express their understanding of the concepts.

Citations/Urls:

http://www.projectachieve.info/about-project-achieve/project-achieve-components.html

http://www.edutopia.org/stw-differentiated-instruction-budget-overview

Student Loan Bill

   President Obama is threatening to veto the houses decision that will end up doubling student loan rates. According to this bill they would take $5.9 billion from a program within the health care law to help keep rates on subsidized undergraduate loans at 3.4 percent. If the law is not passed to keep the student loan rates at the current 3.4 percent then it will return to 6.8 percent which will be devastating to college students all over America.This 3.4 percent was set in 2007 by democrats to temporarily reduce interest rates for the seven million low and middle income undergraduates who receive subsidized Stafford loans. Many college students end up graduating in mounds and mounds of student loan debt and cannot find jobs that could possibly help them pay their debts off.

Philosophy of Education

One of the philosophies of education that I liked was existentialism. Existentialism calls for a personal examination of one’s own life. Existentialism in education has to do with encouraging deep personal reflection on one’s identity, commitments, and choices. According to existentialism we possess the personal power, the will, to make choices and to create our purpose for existence. I think this is important in education because students need to understand that they have the choice to be anything they choose and that it’s up to them to decide their future. It’s important for them to understand that the choices we make in life are trivial and lead to personal self-definition. Education is lacking in the aspect of teaching students how to deal with the real world and life decisions. Existentialism teaches that each person must make meaningful choices about freedom or subordination, love and hate, peace and war, and justice or injustice.

Communication

                Today there is a lack of communication when it comes to student’s families, the school, and teachers. I think more should be done to fix this problem. Some schools have policies that don’t allow for direct communication between the students and teachers. It’s both the job of the teacher and the parents to work together to help improve the students education. Many parents leave it all up to the teacher and then are surprised when their child isn’t doing well in school. There should be a direct communication between parents and teachers at all times. Whether it’s posting grades or the progress of the student online for the parents to see or mailing something home. Parents should be aware at all times of the progress in their child’s education.  Schools should make it mandatory that teachers have contact with the parents. Research shows that students do better in school when there is communication between the parents and the teacher.

State of the Union-Education

   In Obama's state of the Union the part about education consisted of the challenges that still remain in America’s educational system today.  He speaks about how tight budgets have forced many states to lay off thousands of teachers. He also explained what the value was of having a good teacher. “A great teacher can offer an escape from poverty to the child who dreams beyond his circumstance.” This statement was so powerful because many children have the ability to achieve success but just need a good teacher to guide and motivate them. Having good teachers are vital to our education system.  He goes onto to explain how hard teachers work for their students. Obama goes onto say that schools should reward teachers who do the best jobs. Rewarding teachers who do the best job is important because many teachers who don’t do a good job might be getting payed more than teachers who actually do a good job. He also talks about granting teachers flexibility instead of just having them teach to the test. Also replacing the teachers that don’t help kids learn is important because those teachers are harming the education of students.

                Obama also talked about not allowing students to drop out of school unless they are eighteen. This is important because it will stop many students from dropping out or giving up on school. He also talks about the rising cost of college. He says that congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling. This is so important to education because so many students want to have the chance to go to college but with the rising tuition that is not realistic for them without putting themselves into thousands of dollars in debt. He talks about doubling work study jobs for student which is good because many students need some source of income while attending college. He says that colleges need to work on keeping the cost of tuition down and if they don’t then their funding they receive from the government will go down. “Higher education can’t be a luxury it’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.” Every child should be given the chance at higher education and being successful.