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