Knowing Your Students

Without differentiation it is impossible to truly get to know your students. If all assignments were the same, it would be possible to know who can respond to the given questions appropriately, but it would be impossible to know what many of your students understand. Any knowledge that goes beyond the given questions is never shared or appreciated. Likewise the opportunity to build new understandings is lost for all students. The more differentiation is used in a classroom the more apparent the need for diverse instructional approaches, materials, and curriculum modifications becomes. Success on differentiated assignments shows that gifted individuals are capable of completing advanced work and thinking at a higher level. This information can be used to create further differentiated assignments and identify a cluster of students who can provide intellectual and social companions for one another. The differentiation can come in a variety of forms and should because every individual student is different. What may motivate some gifted students could turn off others. This is why it is important to not only analyze how the curriculum can be changed to meet the needs of the students, but also how the students will spend their time in the school day. Some students may benefit from a change in the teacher’s presentation of material while others may need a separate setting in which they can spend individual or small group time working on advanced material. The intent of differentiation is to provide students with an appropriate education. Many changes in the way a student receives an education may be necessary to make the education appropriate. It is important that a teacher gets to know her students through examining how she provides instruction and imparts content.