Differentiated Instruction

a book review

INTRODUCTION

Differentiated instruction is not something new in education. It has been around for at least two decades. It was first developed as a way of dealing with gifted and talented students about 8 or 10 years ago, Teachers began using it for special students. It is not really a method. It’s a way of thinking about teaching and learning that can be translated into classroom in many different ways.

Differentiated instruction is based on the premise that since students differ significantly in their learning styles, interests, knowledge, socialization needs, comfort zones, then teaching strategies, materials, and pace should vary accordingly

            The model of differentiated instruction required teachers to be flexible in their teaching strategies to maximize learning for all students with different characteristics.  Every teacher should know that students come into classroom with different character and not all are alike. Therefore, teacher must be ready with well preparation to engage them in learning process.

.Debora Blaz, a professional teacher, who has taught English and French for the past 26 years in Indiana, wrote a guide book for foreign language teachers. The book report examines information on theory and research behind differentiated instruction. She began with the theory and some research to support differentiation. Then, she provides some basic principles and characteristics for establishing a differentiated classroom in chapter 2, and key words and concepts are provided in chapter 3. Next she explains how to plan differentiated contents in chapter 4, gives some types of activities to support learning process in chapter 5, and provide guidelines of differentiated assessment in chapter 6. At the end of book, there is a reflection on differentiation.

SUMMARY

1.    Basic principles and characteristics for establishing a differentiated Instruction

Firstly the author introduce this term by giving common sense of differentiated instruction as a wide range of teaching strategies and attitudes that focus on the two concerns of any good educator: students and learning. Then, she quoted the definition from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate®Dictionary, 11^th Edition and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate®Thesaurus©2005 in which differentiated instruction defined in two senses: transitive and intransitive. Transitive senses concern with teachers in their ways to develop and implement possible teaching strategies in different situations, and intransitive senses lay on the students’ ways to recognize their selves as learners.

Differentiated instruction is complex and flexible, rigorous, relevant, and proactive. This model can be applied based on certain beliefs and practices: the best learning environment offers a large variety of choices to satisfy individual abilities and talents (Jensen, 1988), there should be a connection between new learning and student’s previous experience, knowledge and interests, students need to learn how to learn, and learners differ in their learning methods, learning never ends and that thinking about topic should continue, etc. for clear explanation, the writer provides the compare and contrast table in page 5 and some research.

From the various principles of differentiation and their effectiveness, it can be concluded that differentiated instruction related to various and appropriate techniques/strategies/activities that teachers implement and develop to engage all students into learning process. The techniques/strategies/activities are developed based on students’ readiness and interests, individualization, zone of proximal development, learning profiles, attention to students’ varied learning needs, and multiple intelligences. There are three key aspects/elements/ dimension of differentiation in the education environment: content, process, and product.

a.       Contents refers to various elements and material (what to teach) that should come from variety of sources: printed text (brochures, news paper, music, poetry, etc), audio- and video tapes, DVDs, guest speakers, field trips, Total Physical Response (TPR) or Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS),  endorses exploring and webbing topic, using open-ended questions, and so on.

b.      Process refers to the use of different kinds of instructional techniques/strategies, learning activities or material (How to teach) including how teachers plan instruction and implement it in classroom, and variety ways of ways by which students make sense of content or input and come to own it. There are three essential components in varying process: preassesment, provide a balance between teacher-assigned and students-selected tasks, grouping students.

c.       Product involves varying the complexity of the product created by students to demonstrate their level of mastery of the unit content. There are several key elements to differentiating product:

1)      Product should be accessible and challenging but should never whelm students

2)      Product should emphasize critical and creative thinking as the students apply what they’ve learnt

3)      Products assigned by ability level should not penalize the advanced students

4)      Product should be view not just as way to measure learning but also as a logical outcome or extension of that learning

2.    Planning a Differentiated Unit

The idea of differentiated instruction can be applied in classroom by a well preparation of teacher with support of their students. Hence, the author guides us to consider five steps which are described in unit 4:

a.       Identify what is to be taught (content)

b.      Preassess  students’ needs and capabilities

The learning content/income should have any compatibility of students’ readiness and interests, learning styles and anxiety levels. To be covered it, there should be preassemen: formal and informal preassesment.

c.       Choose the form(s) of assessment to be used (product)

d.      Decide on method of presentation

e.       Select a variety of learning strategies (process)

1)      Design a differentiated Lesson (the writer provided chart as the model in page 55)

2)      Use Bloom’s taxonomy levels  when planning the lesson

3)      Provide scaffolding

4)      Consider to use Williams’taxonomy

5)      Use interest-based strategies such as learning centers, webQuests, Tiering, Spin-offs, and so on

3.    Various strategies/activities to support learning process

There are many strategies/activities that are possible to show the differentiation which are described in chapter 5 and 6. The writer focuses on describing types of activities to support learning process in chapter 5, and various activities to assess learning outcome in chapter 6.

There are some possible activities in teaching vocabulary in a unit: use unit, grid game, use context, use chunking, find patterns, use associations, use visuals, personalize, tell stories, use manipulatives, read read read, use gestures, use music.

Some of activities are differentiated in nature automatically (speaking and listening): telephone, ticket out, line-ups, never!, why?, trade-off, battleship, telephone message, survey, you don’t say, name it or wear it, props, dialogicals, circumlocution, inside-outside circles, simulation, stimulations, role play, question-and-answer activities (hot seat, what’s my line, Botticelli, elaboration, I’ve got it, recitiation, describe and draw, give one, take one)

Some strategies are possible to use for reading: in prereading: word splash and have you ever; in reading activities: educated guess, graphic organizer (venn diagram, flowchart & time line), SQ3R, mind map, KWLH, reader’s theater, WebQuests, Jiqsaw, Literature circle, poetry gallery; post reading project: story box, sales pitch, key verbs list, illustration, etc

            Here are some less familiar ways in teaching writing: write everyday texts, invitation, flip books, little book, blogging, cornel note taking, RAFT assignment, checklists, ABC book, and so on.

            Assessing learning outcomes should vary in terms of activities. There are two kind of assessment: formal and informal assessment. Formal assessments often take the form of homework assignment, the short performance tasks, dictation, and quizzes or tests over the entire contents of unit. Informal assessment show even more variety. Methods like graffiti, ticket out, filling out graphic organizers or main webs, journal entries, self evaluation, KWL (Know, Want, Learn), peer evaluation, video, portfolio, etc.

CRITIQUE

            The central idea contained in this book is differentiated instruction which focus on giving guidelines for foreign language teacher to show differentiation in classroom. She explains this term clearly by providing graphics, supported research, various types of activities, and her own experiences. Her views that language teaching should be based on students’ interests and styles, prior knowledge, socialization needs, comfort zone, and learning modes. She gave the fact that every student has different characteristics (learning profiles) that determine learning process. Hence, the teacher should provide varied methodologies to make better fit for each student.

            Joseph Renzulli (19997) developed five dimensions of differentiation: content, process, product, classroom, and teacher but the authors stated that there are three exactly the focuses of a differentiated classroom: content, process, and product. These take more portions in her explanation. Content, or what to teach is essential information, ideas attitudes, skills, or fact that students must grasp and be able to use. Content should be differentiated in several ways by determining what content should be taught. Process or how to teach refers to how teacher plans instruction, variety of ways by which students make sense of content or input, and variety of flexible grouping method. Differentiating process means selecting a variety of learning activities or strategies to explore the concepts in the unit according to students’ interests, cognitive capacity or learning styles. Product or how to assess involves the varying complexity of the product created by students to show their level of mastery of the unit or content.

            The author gives clear explanation about what language teachers should take into account when plan differentiated classroom including self –evaluation of instructional styles, student learning-styles survey, student-interest survey, learner classification systems (characteristics of left and right-brain learners), cultural capital survey, helping struggling learners, establishing expectations. At the end of book, she guide teachers to have the idea of differentiation as an appropriate model of language teaching to engage all students with different profiles in learning process.

            The book wrote based on the author experiences in her teaching design. Brain had the biggest effect on how she modified her teaching then he provided Garner’s multiple intelligences survey, assessment classified by Gardner’s intelligences, the integration of Garner’s multiple intelligences and Bloom’s taxonomy

            She provides various activities that are possible to apply in classroom to show differentiation. She has classified it into some categories of language element and skills including grammar in unit, grammar practices, speaking and listening, reading, and writing. She describes how to implement these activities in classroom. Some of activities are explained based on some of learning content such Grid game blank in family vocabulary, use chunking in family topics, etc.