Did You Say Differentiation?

The way that a person speaks and uses language can speak to their character. The vocabulary that people choose can help to identify their comfort level within a topic, their educational level, or even their origin of birth. It is fascinating how many things that can be determined from the simple words someone uses. For example, in education if you are able to have the gift of gab and the appropriate lexicon then many people trust your words because they carry heavy weight. However, one word in particular seems to be all too popular within education as of late: differentiation.

Rick Wormeli compared differentiation to a scene in The Sound of Music where everyone is riding a bike, but not everyone is on the same level of competency on a bicycle. He says, "Despite everyone's different rate and competency with bike riding, the group is moving as a whole; everyone is on the trip, advanced and struggling bike riders, and no one is left behind." (2015, Differentiating Instruction: A Modified Concerto in Four Movements) In this perfectly identified analogy there is still no concise definition of what differentiation is. He explains that this "differentiation", allowing kids to ride ahead of the teacher, some to lag behind, and others to ride on the teachers back, grants everyone access to the same activity. The "d-word" is used to describe the creativity that had to occur to keep everyone together and on the same task. While this theory and logic is great it is not always practical. 

Now, I do support differentiating instruction and trying to teach to each students needs by offering options and difference. Throughout Wormeli's article he discusses the benefits of teaching using different modalities and offering accessibility to more students. This type of teaching is differentiation. It allows access to content that is usually off limits to someone who is struggling or needs to see the information displayed in another way to fully grasp it. While, I whole heartedly agree that this approach is beneficial and helpful it is far too vague for reasonable implementation. 

Differentiation has become a buzz word within education and is used far too often as the remedy for all educational ailments. The ultimate basis is great, but the biggest shortcoming is that it is too broad of a practice. There is not a clear and concise process to follow, therefore it can be commonly misinterpreted. Many times teachers aren't even sure what they are differentiating, "Is it the curriculum or the instructional methods used to deliver it? Or both? The terms "differentiated instruction" and "differentiated curriculum" are used interchangeably, yet they are not synonyms." (Delisle, Differentiation Doesn't Work, January 6, 2015) Administrators and coaches believe that differentiation is a magical cure-all, and they demand that teachers do it more, for every lesson. However, in reality every lesson cannot be differentiated and each day will not conclude with all students gaining mastery of the content. There are just some days that are tough and that has to be acceptable. If it is not acceptable then we do not need a pretty name to throw around as an educational elixir, but rather clear, measurable, data driven techniques that support student learning. A step by step process that teachers can follow and adapt to their individual classrooms would be best. We all believe in the ideology, but now we need to develop guidelines to apply it. 

Resources

Delisle, J. R. (2015, January 6). Differentiation Doesn't Work. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/07/differentiation-doesnt-work.html

Wormeli, R. (n.d.). (2015). Differentiating Instruction: A Modified Concerto in Four Movements. Retrieved June 25, 2016 from http://www.ldonline.org/article/Differentiating_Instruction:__A_Modified_Concerto_in_Four_Movements

My Way or the Highway

During my short time as a special education teacher I have been faced with many challenges. Many of them I have been able to work with my colleagues, however, there are still very many difficulties that I face  everyday to support my students. One of the most debilitating issues for my students is when it comes to making inferences, determining theme, and using background knowledge. All of these can be seen in practice in English and Language Arts, but surprisingly they are also found in every other class!

My ninth grade students with disabilities, and without, all have similar challenges when it comes to making inferences. They are required to read a paragraph and determine what they think is a logical inference, but the issue is that they lack background knowledge of the topic to fully inform their decisions. This lack of background knowledge holds my student's comprehension hostage. They have not been privy to many experiences in life due to their socioeconomic status and historical lack of social mobility. I struggle to know how to give them practice in making inferences while also exposing them to knew information. 

Many students struggle to  determine theme and make inferences because these are more abstract ideas and less concrete. More often than not teachers create a mentality of "my way or the highway" because they tend to have the correct answers. This mentality and environment hinders student's independent thinking and leads to students to believe that their ideas are not as valuable as their teachers. Ultimately I have seen this unfortunate situation play out many times. For example, my students lack the confidence to allow themselves to step outside of finding the verbatim answer that the teacher is expecting. My students consistently ask, "Mrs. Gilkey, is this right?", rather than saying, "This is what I believe because of this information." When you are consistently trying to find the "right answer" you struggle to allow yourself to explore the reaches of your mind. The concepts in U.S. History force students to analyze how past mistakes, or battles, can inform our future governing decisions and this requires background knowledge and determination of theme. Many of the content is relatable for my students because they have been in similar situations on smaller scales, but they are so scared of being wrong that they don't allow themselves to step away from the specific and see the bigger picture.  Who knows what they could find if given vocabulary, confidence, and the ammunition necessary to successfully make inferences, determine theme, and utilize background knowledge.