In differentiated instruction, teachers adjust curriculum and content delivery to optimize learning for all students within a general education classroom. Through differentiated instruction in K-12, teachers provide appropriate instruction for students at all levels of ability: below-target students, on-target students, above-target students, English language learners, and students with disabilities.
Research supports the use of differentiated instruction to improve student learning for students with and without disabilities.
Introduction to differentiationCarol Ann Tomlinson is a former elementary and secondary public-school teacher and a professor at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education and Human Development. Tomlinson is a renowned expert on differentiation—she has authored 17 books and over 200 articles on the topic.
Tomlinson recommends that teachers differentiate instruction based on student readiness (i.e., a student’s capacity to perform a task—which may be greater than their demonstrated ability), student interest (i.e., engagement with content stemming from a student’s personality or experiences), and student learning profile (i.e., the most efficient and effective way to promote an individual student’s understanding). Teachers should cluster, or group, students based on one or more of the above three criteria.
To create clusters of students within the classroom (e.g., a group of students with a similar readiness level, a group of students with similar interests), Tomlinson suggests that teachers should consistently and frequently assess students.
Strategy #1: AssessmentTomlinson documents three types of assessments that teachers use in the classroom to support student learning: pre-assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments. Of these three, Tomlinson notes that pre-assessments and formative…