Differentiated Instruction Blog Post

For our last article of choice (social justice) I ended up picking an article that was actually a study and very formal. For our second “choice” article I wanted to go to the other end of the spectrum, and boy am I glad I did.

My differentiated instruction article was actually blog responses to an article written on differentiated instruction and I found it had some great insights from readers. First these two experts spoke about differentiated instruction in the classroom. Both of them suggested adding differentiation to the classroom even if it’s only 10 minutes a day or something like 15 minutes a week. But they both adamantly suggested getting after it and making the change in the classroom, and eventually teachers will become practiced in the idea of differentiation. A woman responded to this article saying that actually in doing this they were hurting the students along the way who wouldn’t reap the benefits of the differentiation. She argued that this made the point for ability grouping classrooms when advocates for differentiation tried to suggest gradual implementation. She believed students would be better off grouped together: special education, gifted, on par, etc.

A second responder to the blog posting argued that differentiated instruction is impossible to implement and do well. Though I can see a basis for their argument, that there isn’t enough time to do individual meetings with each student ensuring they are getting the proper type of instruction conducive to their learning style, I actually wonder what kind of experience this person has in the classroom. They suggested tracking students and their learning and dividing them into groups based on their learning, which is essentially ability groups as the woman has suggested above. This person’s blog name is “Labor Lawyer” so I’m not so sure I trust their judgment about teaching issues, but I found interesting and helpful to know the hesitations to differentiated instruction.

In theory, differentiated instruction is the cure all it seems like. I believe it needs to be implemented into all classrooms but the how and methodology is far more complicated than just saying okay let’s do it! Like one of the authors of the blog post said, “ accepting differentiation more as a collection of principles about response teaching than a collection of quick recipes for someone’s diversity cookbook is my first piece of advice, as practical as those recipes may be” (Wormell). Implementing this form of teaching, or responsive teaching, is difficult and time consuming. But, it could be well worth the price.