Metaphors

The textbook contains many metaphors that help me to understand differentiation. I will add here a metaphor that I helped to formulate for a group project in a different class. This metaphor also applies to differentiation just like the metaphor of the mother making gravy for her son, the bread maker becoming an expert bread maker, and the way we learn to ride a bike.  This metaphor is about a gardener and is sung to the tune of "You are My Sunshine."

Teachers are gardeners of little children 
They help them learn and stretch and grow
They may not know it, but they are learning
Please continue to help children grow.

A gardener helps plants grow by nourishing and nurturing the plants. The more the gardener knows about a particular plant the better able the gardener is to differentiate their care for that plant.  Teachers are always learning, even if they do not always realize it.  It is when the teacher applies what they are learning from the individual students that they are able to help children continue to grow and flourish.

Learning About My Students

Our textbook discussed the interaction between the Fox and the Prince in every chapter.  The Fox asked the Prince to tame him.  The last chapter ends with the question, "Can you show me how to tame you?"   If I am willing, I can learn from my students how to teach them and help them achieve.   I feel that learning about my students from my students is the key to differentiating effectively.  To differentiate, teachers must learn about their students, learn from their students, and learn with their students.  Once I know my students, I can differentiate content, process, and products according to student readiness, interest and learning ability by applying the hallmarks of differentiation.

Tiering

As I was reading more on the subject of tiering, I found a website created by Bertie Kingmore that has many articles on the subject of differentiation.  I read the article on tiered instruction. Kingmore explained tiered instruction using the analogy of a staircase.  Students are all at different levels of the staircase, so they need different instruction, activities, or support systems to get them to their highest learning potential.

In class today, it made sense to me that tiered instruction is differentiating for a student's readiness.  The cake analogy and our discussion of how the hallmarks apply to tiered instruction helped me to understand the hallmarks of differentiation a little more deeply.   The one that stood out to me was hallmark 2 (absolute clarity about what the teacher wants the students to know, understand, and be able to do - about what is truly important to learn in this unit).  In tiered instruction the teacher uses the same objective, but differentiates the process, and products to get the students to where they are supposed to be.  I can only succeed with tiered instruction if I know clearly what I want my students to know, understand, and be able to do.

Movie on Differentiation

I was looking for more information on tiered instruction and found this movie on differentiated instruction that reviews a lot of what we have learned so far this semester about differentiation.

Peer Blogs

I read a few posts on some of my peers' blogs about differentiation. It was interesting to see what stood out to different people from the readings for our class.  Brittany mentioned in her blog that she is excited to use learning menus.  When I read through the toolbox strategies I thought that learning menus would be fun to do too.  It will be fun to learn more about them and use them in my future classroom.  Brittany also discussed learning environments and how it is the teacher's responsibility to create a positive learning environment in the classroom.  Differentiating for our students can make our classrooms a learning environment that is welcoming, positive and secure for each one of our students.

Leah discussed how classroom work needs to be important, focused, engaging, demanding, and scaffolded.  Leah shared how her psychology teacher in high school wanted to make sure each one of her students succeeded.   She made the work important, focused, engaging, demanding, and she scaffolded the instruction.  Because of this, Leah can look back at the experiences as a good learning experience and remembers what she was taught.  I want my students to remember what they learn in my classroom.  The whole purpose of me teaching is so that my students can gain more knowledge.  I do not want them learning something just so they can pass a test and then forget about it.  I want to provide learning experiences that are important, focused, engaging, demanding, and scaffolded so my students can retain the information they gain in my classroom.

Teaching Students Not Lessons

In my LDS Institute class, whenever a student apologizes for asking a question that leads to a long discussion my teacher responds by saying, "Teaching students is more important than teaching lessons."

As teachers we teach students.  We need to not get caught up in teaching lessons.  We use lessons to teach students.  Students are active beings who hunger for knowledge and we should focus on teaching them and helping them learn.  In the textbook, Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom ,by Carol Tomlinson, there is a chapter about using curriculum and instruction to address students' needs.  One quote that I like from the book is, "We rarely succeed in teaching subjects unless we teach human beings as well" (p. 57).  

As I am teaching in my classroom trying to help each student achieve the core standards I need to maintain my focus on the students and not the curriculum. The curriculum is simply a tool for helping students learn and progress.  I want to be a teacher of students, not a teacher of lessons.