Synthesis Blog #4: Differentiation in the Classrooms

When having a classroom full of students that all come from different walks of life, it seems like it would be hard to come up with instruction that meets everyone's different learning levels. Because kids are all so different, I can imagine that curriculum and teaching methods are always changing. 

This is what we saw in this week's video, Content Differentiation in 3rd Grade Science. From what I could tell from the video, the teacher was very respected by her peers and was great at her job. But despite that, she was still looking for ways to keep improving, which I think is related to differentiation. In my content-area classroom, I hope to have the same mindset as this teacher-- always looking for ways to change my classroom and instruction in order to fit all of the needs of my changing students.

Differentiation in my content-area classroom should look diverse. By this, I mean instead of just teaching a lesson over and over, I hope to provide other ways to engage students in my classroom such as experiments, activities, and other interactive ways. In the video, the teacher really engaged her students using the board at the front of the room, and the students seemed to really enjoy it!

Another example of differentiation in the video was the puzzle activity. I really loved how it engaged all students and she had special pieces of the puzzle for each individual students based on their learning level. The kids felt included and important while still contributing what they knew. I think this is what differentiation in my content-area classroom should look like-- instruction and learning that accommodates for every single individual in the classroom no matter their level of learning.

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