Monday, March 25, 2013

Differentiation

So differentiation is a new concept that schools and teachers are working into every day lessons. It is something that is very important and is needed. Every student learns completely from the next student that you will have in your classroom. At first I didn't really understand what differentiation was exactly. I watched videos for class and I read one article titled "Deciding to Teach Them All" and a second article titled "Differentiating Instruction to Include All Students." Both were very helpful in learning what differentiation actually is. It's about giving students options to do the same work as their peers, but at a different pace and by using their style of learning.

The main goal of differentiation is to maximize student growth and to promote individual student success. With classrooms becoming more and more diverse, that means students learning styles are becoming more and more diverse. There are many different learning styles and with so many, it makes it difficult to find a one-size-fits-all type of activity. Technology helps with this by being able to give options to students. Many students work better as a visual learner while others are more hands-on. Technology can help with both.  3D is an up and coming industry and it also gives every type of learner help with the project or activity they may be working on. It's something that is tailored to the individual learner while still being useful for everyone else. Differentiation may be hard to think of activity wise, but it is definitely beneficial to the students learning the material.