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Curriculum
Differentiated Instruction: What Is Differentiated Instruction?
Differentiated Programming: What It Is and What It Isn't . . .
Differentiated programming and instruction are big terms for what is really a simple educational concept--providing instruction that meets the differing needs of all students. Although the concept is simple, making it a reality in the classroom is complex. For the gifted student, it means the opportunity to advance as far as possible. For the slower learner, it means offering support for advancement at a pace that allows mastery. Other students have varying abilities, learning styles, interests and needs, which must be met. That is what Differentiated Programming attempts to do.
Differentiated Instruction Is— |
Differentiated Instruction Is Not— |
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- Having high expectations for all students.
- Providing multiple assignments within units that are oriented toward students with different levels of achievement.
- Allowing students to choose, with teacher direction, ways to learn and how to demonstrate what they have learned.
- Permitting students to demonstrate mastery of material they already know and progress at their own pace through new material.
- Structuring class assignments so they require high levels of critical thinking but permit a range of responses.
- Assigning some activities geared to different learning styles, levels of thinking, levels of interest, and levels of achievement.
- Providing students with opportunities to have choices about what they learn.
- Flexible. Teachers may move students in and out of groups after assessing students’ instructional needs.
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- Individualization. It isn’t a different lesson plan for each student each day.
- Giving all students the same work most of the time.
- Spending of time teaching material they have mastered to others whom have not mastered it.
- Assigning more work at the same level to high-achieving students.
- Working alone all the time. Often, it is preferable for students to work as a whole class.
- Grouping students into cooperative learning groups that do not provide for individual accountability or do not focus on work that is new to all students.
- Using only the differences in student responses to the same class assignment to provide differentiation.
- Limited to acceleration. Teachers are encouraged to use a variety of strategies.
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