Skip to main content

Differentiation Done Wrong!

Hey there,

I have asked teachers about their struggle when planning lessons and most of them responded that differentiation is what takes more of their planning time.

So I decided to take a refresher course on differentiation, and it's already sparking some intriguing questions. I'd love to dive into them with you!

The facilitator emphasizes that students aren't just averages; they're individuals with unique needs. Do you agree? How do you incorporate this idea into your planning and teaching?

Next, let's discuss the concept of maintaining high expectations. The facilitator suggests that by setting high expectations for all students and allowing them to take different paths to reach them, we're providing quality opportunities for learning. Have you encountered this approach in your teaching experience?

Lastly, the facilitator introduces Mastery Learning, emphasizing that students thrive when given opportunities to learn at their own pace and level of difficulty. Do you teach with mastery in mind? How do you measure student learning and set goals?

To sum up, differentiation isn't about lowering expectations or moving on prematurely. It's about ensuring that every student reaches the same destination, albeit via different routes and timelines.

What are your thoughts on these concepts? If we hit 10 comments, I will make a second post with ideas on how to differentiate effectively. Let's discuss in the comments below.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Débora


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Strategic Planning.

When planning, one thing we must think about is where we want to be at the end. Once we know our destination, we can plan how to get there. To plan the journey, we need to understand where we are starting from. You might think I’m talking about planning lessons and teaching our students, right? Actually, no. I’m thinking about you, teachers. If you're not happy with your current job, it's time to make a change. You need to plan for this change. No one should just jump into new adventures without planning. That would be careless. So, let's go back to the beginning and think again. If you find it hard to go to work, if you don’t want to get out of bed to face your boss or that difficult colleague, or if you're tired of using the same workbook again, you should look at what’s wrong. Why is this happening? The first step is to think about where you would like to be. What is the perfect scenario that would make you get out of bed happily and go to work? Write it down, say it...

Motivate teachers to use songs in their classes

If you followed my posts about creating versions to enhance learning, you might have thought, “Ah, Débora, it's very easy for you to talk about singing, inventing and all that, but I don't have a background in music, I sing out of tune, I don't have rhythm and I have no creativity or talent for music.” Calm down! All is not lost. Let's talk about it... I'll start from the end… Talent. I'm one of those who doesn't believe in talent...sorry. As Isaac Asimov would say: “Whoever has talent will succeed in proportion. However, only if you persist in what you do.” That is... it's no use having talent if you don't use or practice. So let's put out what you already have and let's practice, practice, practice. Thinking about creativity, let's go the same way. It's no use being creative if you don't have food for your processes. Here comes the study part so that the practice is effective. You want to know what to do and how to do it so that...