"Teaching is hard." "Teaching well is fiercely so." I'm just glad as I've said before that we don't know any different from standards based-differentiated instruction. I'll use the standards as a guideline but I'll also strive to teach "out of the box", to be creative. I'll do everything I can to provide differentiated instruction as often as possible but as Dr. Scott expressed it is not feasible for every lesson for every subject to be differentiated!
Now let me change tracks and pose two questions. My first question is what are our goals as teachers for our students? Are the goals still college (first choice) and technical/skills school (second choice) for our class? If so, what are the long term results of differentiation? Can all students pass a standardized test such as the ACT/SAT? I submit that since differentiation is still a new concept we don't know the answer to this question. OK, second question. Once I become a more experienced teacher will I have more behavior control over SGI which seems to be an integral part of differentiation?
More to come on all that but meanwhile; I will continue to improve my differentiated thinking skills. I will strive to find new and better methods to achieve successful learning skills in all of my students.
4 comments:
I agree with you that differentiation can seem almost overwhelming and that it is not possible to use it in every lesson in everyday. I do think that the results of differentiation would prove that more kids may be able to pass SATs and ACTs. If teachers are finally able to reach the children that have had such a hard time grasping concepts in the past, I feel that it could only be positive. I think that the content standars should only serve as a guideline and that teachers should branch off and do what they feel comfortable doing.
I will join you on improving differentiated thinking skills. There are many questions about standards and differentiated instruction. However, I am glad we have those questions because they show our interests and concerns about them. A good sign for a thoughtful teacher.
I'm glad someone here had the guts to question the "emperor's new clothes." We're all jumping on the differentiation bandwagon without so much as kicking the tires. Maybe Tomlinson's real motive behind reconciling her bread and butter teaching strategy with standards-based learning is to stay relevant and keep selling books. Maybe she's trying to convince us we need a fork(differentiated instruction) to eat pizza(standard-based content) because that's all their serving now and she's in the silverware business. Just a thought.
Interesting thought, Mark...Okay, first of all, I think I may need to clarify something...I am in agreement with Tomlinson that DI is not something you do or don't do, depending on the situation; it's a philosophy (a "stance," if you will). So, in that sense, in every lesson every day you will be "differentiating." That doesn't mean that you may not be teaching the same lesson to the whole class in the same way at that particular time; you may have decided that that was in the best interests of all your students at that point in time (or you may have decided it was the best course of action at that point, given limited resources and time.) That doesn't mean you have abandoned the philosophy; you apply it all the time, at whatever level you are able, given that pesky notion of reality.
As far as a fork to eat pizza...I think it's great to question all ideas and theories--and I'm glad you are!! I, personally, don't feel it is my professional responsibility to tell students that all they get is pizza. Period. If keeping our forks in reserve means that we are hopeful that best practice will ultimately be the way we decide the menu, then I'm keeping my fork.
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