Truth: before I started this course, I thought I knew what
differentiation was about. If you had asked me, I would've told you that I thought it had to do with learning styles (audio, visual, kinesthetic, etc.) and being able to teach to those styles.
Even though this course has just begun, I’m realizing that I
was way off! Differentiation is about so much more than learning styles. It is
about meeting each unique child’s individual needs so that they can grow
and progress. In class, our professor, Nancy Peterson, said something like, "Every child
deserves a whole year’s growth from a year of school." That really hit me. Each child will come to my class at different starting points, with their own set of strengths and weaknesses. I must also take into
account students’ backgrounds, interests, readiness, and learning profiles. I will need to learn to vary the process, content, and learning environment.
Although I have a long way to go, I’m starting to revise and
expand my personal knowledge and definition of differentiation. I know that it will keep evolving and expanding during this course and throughout my career. I'm excited to see where this journey takes me as a teacher!
I just LOVE it when someone realizes this... I believe that the majority of people who THINK they know what differentiation is, think of it as you did... just varying their teaching so that they can teach in a variety of styles and modalities. That IS part of it, as you discussed... but seeing that we need to manage things without making every child "go through" every single thing we do... but that we can adjust according to different children's needs, and help them learn in the most efficient ways for them. And this requires different pathways... which are sometimes simultaneous!
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