DifferentiationProgramming
What it is...
• Providing multiple assignments within each unit, tailored for students of different levels of achievement. • Allowing students to choose, with the teacher's guidance, ways to learn and how to demonstrate what they have learned. • Permitting students to opt out of material they already know and progress at their own pace through new material. • Structuring class assignments so they require high levels of critical thinking but permit a range of responses. • Having high expectations for all students. • Creating learning centers with activities geared to different learning styles, readiness and levels of interest. • Providing students with opportunities to explore topics in which they have strong interest and find personal meaning. |
What it isn't... • Assigning more work at the same level to high-achieving students. • Requiring students to teach material they have mastered to others who have not mastered it. • Giving all students the same work most of the time. • Grouping students into cooperative learning groups that do not provide for individual accountability or do not focus on work that is new to all students. • Focusing on student weaknesses and ignoring student strengths. • Using only the differences in student responses to the same class assignment to provide differentiation Copyright of Dr. Susan Allan |
