Lately, I've been reading Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom (2010) by none other than the queen of DI herself, Carol Ann Tomlinson. I just finished the first few chapters, which are dedicated to the philosophy of differentiated instruction.
That's something about DI that we can't afford to neglect -- it truly is a philosophy, a way of thinking about teaching and learning. Differentiated instruction is not a set of activities that you can just begin incorporating into your classroom. It is a belief system about how all our students learn, a system that then must inform our planning. Truly, I think the planning aspects of DI are the most significant part of implementing this type of instruction in the classroom. Yes, DI can -- and should -- happen "in the moment," but it is when we delve into our planning with DI as the consistent focus that we can see the most results.
With all that said, I'd like to use this particular post to share some of Tomlinson's thoughts on the subject. Consider the following statements from her food for thought. How do these ideas relate to your own classrooms and to your own belief systems about teaching and learning?
Today's youth are "young people who live in a world of personalization -- at least outside of school. They are accustomed to watching a particular television show when it's convenient rather than when it's broadcast. They no longer buy entire albums to 'own' a particular song but rather download just the selections they like. They order computers specifically designed for their needs. They get news on demand and information they need when they need it. In school, however, we teach them as though their variance in readiness, individual interests, and particular approaches to learning were of no consequence" (p. 4).
"During differentiation, we emphasize the methods that students use to access key content . . . rather than change the content itself" (p. 15).
"Readiness is not a synonym for ability. . . . The term ability connotes what we sometimes believe to be a more or less fixed and inborn trait. Readiness suggests a temporary condition that should change regularly as a result of high-quality teaching" (p. 16).
"Inevitably, we'll find that students are in different places with their mastery of . . . goals. Then, . . . because we want to make sure each student succeeds, we have no choice but to differentiate instruction" (p. 27).
"Teachers with a growth mind-set work from the premise that virtually any student can learn anything if the student is willing to work hard and if he or she has support in that effort" (p. 32).
"We tend to see and think of our students as a group. We say, 'The students always love it when we do this lab,' or 'The students don't understand inverting fractions,' or 'The students were restless today.' No doubt a number of students do like the lab, don't understand how and when to invert fractions, and were restless today, but there's also little doubt that some students found the lab pointless or confusing, could teach a cogent lesson on inverting fractions, and were perfectly calm and ready to learn today. It's virtually impossible to attend to student differences when we think of 'the students' as a single entity" (p. 36).
"Good teaching -- the really good stuff -- is hard work" (p. 37).
Now, I'm not going to pretend some of these ideas are instantly easy to adopt. Sometimes it's hard to read some of this stuff, for me, because I am forced to admit to myself when I've made some mistakes as a teacher. But I cannot fundamentally disagree with Tomlinson's ideas, nor do I think most teachers would. It's time to look the philosophy of DI head-on and start to embrace what it can do for our teaching and for our students' learning.
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