Differentiating instruction is a way to meet the needs of every student without individualizing every lesson. In differentiated instruction, educators take into account the learning needs of students with learning disabilities, gifted and talented students, and students in between these extremes.Because today's students have a wide range of skills and interests, a "one size fits all" method for teaching students no longer makes sense. According to This We Believe . . . And Now We Must Act published by the National Middle School Association:
In virtually every middle level classroom, there will be many students who have limited capacity for complex, abstract reasoning, some who are comfortable with it, and a majority who are somewhere in transition from concrete to more abstract modes of thinking. To deal with this spectrum teachers must be keen observers who provide a rich variety of materials, opportunities for hands-on and experiential learning, and tasks which appropriately 'stretch' students toward the next level.
Differentiation provides challenging learning experiences, which encourage every student to strive for the next level.
As pre-service educators interested in teaching middle level students, we began researching differentiation in an effort to understand how this educational strategy can be put into practice. In addition, we wanted to communicate to other educators what we learned, through a website dedicated to middle level differentiation. In this way, interested educators could gain a further understanding of the concept as well. The areas that we found important for educators interested in meeting the needs of every student include: defining differentiation; applying differentiation in heterogenously grouped middle school classes; creating differentiated units and lesson plans for middle schoolers; applying differentiated instruction to different populations of learners; and integrating curriculum using differentiation and standards-based instruction.
Created by: Students at the University of Maine at Farmington Carolyn Shorey:carolynshorey@hotmail.com Sarah Olmsted:omisj@hotmail.com
BeckyWaugh:waughb42@aol.com
Eric Feeney:efeene@hotmail.com