Differentiated Instruction: It’s not as hard as you’re making it seem

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I just wanted to share a small example of how I’m differentiating instruction in my classroom. But before I do please understand that I am in no way a DIA (differentiated instruction and assessment) guru. I’m working on it though.

So today my grade nine applied/locally developed class was working on the newspaper article. This is a format specified in my province’s curriculum document that I find vaguely perplexing but have decided I can find ways to teach students important and transferable skills through this seemingly random writing format. Why is it that being able to write a newspaper article is the marker of a literate individual? But I digress…

So I have a wonderful student teacher right now who is working on introducing students to this format using the gradual release of responsibility model. Essentially before students are expected to demonstrate a skill independently, he/she should have a chance to see the skill modeled, practice it with peers, and receive coaching or feedback. My students have been introduced to the format of the newspaper article and have created an anchor chart as a class and then added this chart to their amazing foldable which they refer to regularly. So today I wanted them to take a newspaper article that has been cut up and give students a chance to rearrange and discuss the article in terms of the inverted pyramid structure. This is an example of assessment for learning. We didn’t record a grade for this. We just wanted to see if students understood the feature of a newspaper article.

I knew, however that I would get more buy-in if I differentiated the content of the news article. The content didn’t matter here. It was the format that mattered, so I differentiated content according to interest. We had two articles students could choose from: one on the release of the new Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 3, and another on Justin Bieber’s latest scandal. Both of these articles followed the same structure and students completed exactly the same task, but the students’ level of engagement was greatly influenced by the content of the articles.

I think sometimes when teachers hear that they should consider differentiating content they become distressed about credit integrity and think that we’re talking about differentiating expectations. That’s not what this is about.

If as teachers we have a clear idea about what it is that we want students to know and be able to do by the end of the lesson, then differentiation becomes simple. I wanted students to understand the structure of a newspaper article; therefore the content of the article is irrelevant. That allows me to differentiate content.

I become a super hero because I’m letting kids talk about J-Biebs and COD, while I’m secretly (ok it’s no secret–it’s explicit which is the point) I’m teaching the format of the newspaper article. Learning shouldn’t be boring. Let’s have some fun with this.

What do you need to do? What are the different ways you can do it without turning your classroom into a three-ring circus? Done. Deal with it.

4 thoughts on “Differentiated Instruction: It’s not as hard as you’re making it seem”

  1. I agree, D-Dawg! I think as long as you know what the essential understanding is, it’s not too hard to decide which parts can be differentiated to help kids get to the thing they really need to get to.
    I, too, am working on the news article. With my OSSLC course. And one might argue – okay, I might argue – that because they couldn’t (or didn’t) successfully complete this news article in a timed, on-demand writing piece, it might not be a great idea to beat that dead horse. Anyway, as a curriculum-following conformist, I am doing my duty.
    So we have gone through the gradual release of responsibility model as well, and we’re approaching the summative task. (Although I am jones-ing for a peek at your foldable!) So, knowing that my students are HIGHLY kinesthetic, they became the reporters at my school’s Halloween celebrations. Their pictures and interviews (with little mp3 recorders) will form the basis for their articles. The choice for them will be which picture they want to use as the foundation. And we’ve just finished making our bump it up wall – we used a formative piece that they had written and assessed it using a rubric which they created (okay, they didn’t totally create it – but they sorted and decided which descriptors that I had written fit in which row and level on a blank rubric – that’s co-creating to me!). I’m working hard to help them own the process. They’re working hard not to. But I’m wearing them down!!
    I do think that the important pieces of DI are 1. understanding where you’re going (curriculum), 2. understanding your students, 3. building a lot of community so that they’re more willing to buy in and they see more reason to be part of the process, and 4. being flexible. Then the DI strategies are secondary, in my opinion, and it becomes less about the label and more about doing what you did – reaching your kids where they are to help them get where you want them to go!

  2. Danika what a great approach and I love how you laid it out. DIA is made out to be such a big deal and you really can meet the kids where they are in such simple ways. (By the way, wholeheartedly agree on the shaking my head about the ability to write newspaper articles determining whether you are literate or not.) Thanks for sharing!