This week was all about differentiation. I learned a couple of very important things this week:
1. differentiation can be simple and effective at the same time, 2. differentiation does not have to stand out or be obvious, 3. differentiation should not always look the same, 4. there are a lot of different ways and reasons to differentiate.
In the classes I have observed so far there has been obvious differentiation and no differentiation. I observed a drama class where the teacher gave a great deal of autonomy and leeway on assignments as a general rule and not necessarily to consciously differentiate but just to get students to participate and be creative. The secondary math 1 class I observed had guided notes for everyone each day. The teacher did this to make sure she was accommodating any students that had that in their IEP. Some classes had students that had this and others did not. She found it to be simpler to use them for everyone so that she didn't have to think about who was supposed to get them.
I feel like I haven't seen a lot of differentiation that was thought out and planned. What I have seen is just what is easy or made sense for the class. I want to be very deliberate with my differentiation. I want to be able to pin point what I did and why I did it. I don't want to take the easy way out. I think this will take some practice to really perfect. I will also have to put a bit more time and effort into it, but I think it will be more beneficial to my students that way.
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