Prompt #10: Do you differentiate instruction? Why or why not? What is the importance of differentiating instruction? What impact does it have on student learning?
Quite honestly, I don't differentiate instruction for every lesson. Sometimes I feel like it is not necessary since I introduce completely new material and assume that all students do not understand it. With this mindset and backwards planning, I build up to a standard slowly and try to take into account all the essential questions that are necessary to comprehend and complete the objectives. I try to teach as if all of my students do not understand any of the material, and include as much reference to prior knowledge as possible. I also reiterate previous concepts in detail just to ensure that there are no questions about previous objectives either. This leads to much chagrin with my high-performing students, however, since I take great pains to help my lower-performing students. The main reason I do not differentiate instruction as often as I would like is due to the time constraints I face. The amount of work that is demanded from this position is preventing me from spending extra time on developing differentiation strategies for my students. I also am still experimenting with different teaching methods and do not know which method works best for students of each performance level yet.
Differentiating instruction is very important for keeping students engaged, developing deeper understandings, and keeping students invested in the material. If students are not appropriately challenged with the material or understand the instruction clearly, self-efficacy generally decreases and learning suffers. The idea of a one-size-fits-all education is flawed because all students learn from different types of instruction and students perform at different levels of competency. In order to maximize performance and understanding, instruction must be differentiated for each individual student.
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