Differentiated Instruction Done Well Looks Like This: Finding What Works for Each Student

[Music] BRN, where educators share what works. And everybody was working except for this once-tudent who's head was on the desk. He just wasn't interested in it. But I knew he was a football fan and I said, "Well, why don't you write a argument essay explaining why your favorite team is the best team in the NFL?" Oh, he was really excited about that. I said, "Yeah, just use the same outline, the same techniques. In a writing or a great essay." [Music] Welcome to Classroom Q&A. I'm Larry Frilazzo. Differentiating instruction can be a low-determ for many teachers. Some who think it means almost creating a separate lesson plan for each student. But that's not what it is and we'll talk today about what it really looks like in the classroom. I'm joined today by Isabel Visetta and Andrea Castelano, who have both also contributed written commentaries to the Classroom Q&A column at Education Week. Welcome to both of you. Isabel, how would you define differentiated instruction? So, differentiated instruction for me is when you're providing students with different level activities or assignments so that they can be able to successfully complete them at the level that they're learning. That would be giving them opportunities to use scaffold as well so that they can successfully complete an assignment or participate in the classroom or in a small group. And I think that it is a method of teaching in which you're giving each student exactly what they need as opposed to the one size fits all instruction where every student receives the same exact lesson and completes the same exact test. So, can you give an example or two of what it means, what it looks like in the classroom? Andrea? So, what would look like in my classroom, for example, would be the students doing small group work or individual tasks based on assessments that would have taken place either before or during the lesson. So, if you walk into the room, you'll see me working with a group and you'll see other students either working collaboratively or independently and you'll notice that they're all engaged in the work of the lesson but it might look different depending on what the student is particularly working on. So, it could be reading, it could be writing, it could be differentiated form of a piece of paper where what the work product might look like is different but the actual work or the thinking is the same. So, differentiating can be in terms of the task or in terms of the outcome or just the mode. Could you paint a picture a little bit about what an example of something that the learning would be the same but that the task would be different? Sure. So, if I asked students to demonstrate for me knowledge of a particular topic, for example, we've been learning about frogs and I tell them, you know, I just need to know what you know. Some students might choose to take out a piece of paper and write other students might draw and write other students might want to type up what they're thinking about and or create something digitally for me. The point is that I understand what each child is doing, they're demonstrating their learning but how they demonstrate their learning and how they choose to present it might be how the lesson is differentiated that day. That's just one way of doing it. I would have my students working in groups, maybe groups of two, three, a table with me and then I would be seeing them all working and learning at the same time. I would probably have choice. I would have different either menus or I don't know anything where they can refer to to know what they can choose from, the painting on what they're working. For instance, I would have, you know, we're talking about frogs. I would have a center where they can explore more about frogs and then maybe I would have a center where they're drawing frogs and labeling their parts and their main, you know, main cards and adding things in their habitat or maybe I would have also frogs to observe in a video or real frogs in a pond that I have created for them to go and look or watch. But I would be looking for them to be actively engaged in having conversations, having conversations using the academic or college words that they can use at the level that they're performing at that time. I know what example from my class, gender I like to use to describe differentiated instruction was one day after we're did a unit on natural disasters, so it's supposed to write an argument, a short argument essay explaining which natural disaster I thought would be the worst to experience. And everybody was working except for this one student whose head was on the desk and he just wasn't interested in it. But I knew he was a football fan and I said, well, why don't you write a argument essay explaining why your favorite team is the best team in the NFL? Oh, he was really excited about that. I said, yeah, just use the, you know, the same outline, the same techniques in writing a great essay because really the goal was to learn about how to write an argument essay, not write about what was the worst natural disaster. So what are some of the potential challenges with implementing differentiated instruction and then how to respond to that kind of challenge? Is it better? So I think that the biggest challenge is to get into know what the learning style of your students is, you know, you know, by data where they're sitting in the reading, math, science, social studies, whatever you're teaching, but it's just learning what really interests them in a way that they can produce something. You know, some of our students, especially in the elementary, which is my background, you know, they still haven't figured that out, but being able to really hook them in what they're interested in would probably be one of my biggest challenges. I teach English language learners and you know, they're very diverse in the way they learn and especially their language barrier would also be another challenge because they might really want to do an activity, but because they don't have the language or they're afraid to speak. Because they're still in the silent period, they might not be able to engage in that activity at that time. So how do you respond to that? What do you do? So it's just that, you know, building those relationships with students to find out more about what their interests are and just bringing, you know, bringing the thing that will connect with them. Like you share your story with your student, just see what their interests are and maybe, you know, stride off that way and then you eventually move it into the academic and the content skills that we're teaching. I hear a lot of teachers asking about what the rest of the class is doing while you're working with a small group. And I think it's very important to establish that culture of learning from the beginning so that students can stay focused without the constant supervision of you as the adult. And part of that is building the independence and building the trust in them that they know what to do and that you're building those structures as you set out the year for independent and partner and group work. And this just becomes a normal part of the class to say, okay, now I'm with you, but there is going to be a time of the lesson that I'm not going to be with you. But here's what you're going to be doing, making sure that everybody knows their role and knows the expectation is probably the first step to differentiating the instruction. You have to have those systems and structures in place. We're going to do what I call lightning round. What is one thing a teacher can do tomorrow to begin to differentiate instruction? Andrea? Start small. Don't try to make four groups start with two. Foster a say, learn an environment where students can feel safe. Now we can lower their effective filters so that they can start developing in those groups and in that differentiated culture. Great. I'm going to ask you if you could explain what the effective filter is for listeners who might not be familiar with that term. So when we talk about the effective filter, we specifically talk about it when we're referring to a margin bilingual learners, which would be a bilingual student or a student that speaks a different language. And so when they come into our classrooms, they do have a lot of walls because they do not know the language or they might know the language, but they do not know how to speak it or they do not have the academic vocabulary. So when we provide an environment where it is okay to make mistakes, it is okay to have an accent. It is okay to say something funny and not feeling embarrassed. We're allowing the students to be unique and to be included and cared for in the environment. Great. What I like to thank Isabel Viseta and Andrea Castelano for participating in the conversation today on differentiated instruction. You can see their written commentaries at the classroom Q&A column at Education Week. Thanks again everybody.