2014 Education Buzzword: Differentiation

According to Scholastic.com, differentiated instruction is "a way to reach students with different learning styles, different abilities to absorb information and different ways of expressing what they have learned." 

Educators have already been introduced to this new style of teaching in previous years, but it will be further stressed and emphasized throughout 2014 and probably beyond. This method allows educators to teach concepts to students at various levels and reinforce and assess them afterwards. School districts, teachers, and education product manufacturers are catching on and creating a variety of unique learning systems to address this effective style of teaching. Below are different ways you can incorporate this into your classroom.

Learning Centers – Previously, learning centers were built based on whole-class instruction. Differentiated learning centers are focused on student assessment data and allow students to work with multilevel resources. With older versions of learning centers, students who didn't grasp or understand a concept became easily frustrated and those who mastered the concept were quickly bored. A differentiated learning center uses a tiered system to keep students engaged with activities and assignments at their level. 

Choice Boards – Choice boards or menus are a great way to assess everyone, regardless of level, on a concept or lesson. Choice boards give students the opportunity to select how they want to demonstrate their knowledge of something. Choice boards can even include creative presentations for visual learners.

Learning Systems - Unique learning systems that address differentiation are also hitting the market. Learning projects like Heux.com give students different ways of understanding, reinforcing, and viewing information that has been presented to them by their teacher. Students with different learning styles can also be addressed through various presentations and features of these programs. 

Think-Pair-Share – This teaching strategy works by first giving students the opportunity to think about a particular concept on their own. They are then paired with another student so they can further discuss and think about the topic. After the students converse with their partners, the class comes back together and everyone reveals what they talked about. This strategy is excellent because it gives every student a voice, which is always helpful in engagement and learning.

More ways to implement this style of instruction will be introduced as more people see the benefits of differentiated learning.