Differentiating Instruction

          I learned a lot about differentiating instruction from chapter two in our DeVry’s textbook. As a teacher you really are going to have a wide variety of ability levels. I really noticed this when I was in service learning. There were a handful of students who were sent to enrichment because they are gifted, students who are on grade level, and students who are really struggling. I have spent over 60 hours with these kids so I’ve gotten a pretty good idea of all the students’ ability levels. I started to get kind of nervous of how I would deal with this when I’m a teacher. I need to make it challenging for the kids who are advanced, or else they well get bored.  But it also can’t be too hard for the students who are behind, I need to cater to the needs of these students or else they will fail.  Knowing all of this I got very overwhelmed, but this chapter helped me gain a better understanding of how to attack the differentiating needs in a classroom. I learned how tips on how to differentiate instruction in this chapter.  I learned that pretesting is important, it helps teachers to determine which students know concepts and which don’t. This can help teachers, because you can pair students who are knowledgeable on the concepts with students who aren’t. This creates heterogeneous grouping, which helps comprehension. I also learned that teachers will have to change strategies and activities for some students because of their abilities or knowledge. I learned that it’s ok to not have all students doing the same exact thing. You can provide different activities, and the students can produce different products. I also learned that it is important to assess the students’ interests and learning styles at the beginning of the year to better understand your students. This will help you to accommodate to their needs. ESOL (1.1, 2.2, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 5.3) (REC 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 5.13, 6.10, 6.11)