Differentiation is based on student needs, abilities, interests, and learning profiles. When differentiating instruction many teachers find it extremely helpful to reach the wide range of student needs based upon class ability.  Through the act of differentiation it stretches out the comfort level and challenges the zone of proximal development. To fully allow for differentiation to work there must be tolerance for error.

 

Structures we can use to differentiate instruction:

 

1. Accommodation/Modification

2. Multiple Intelligences

3. Co-Teaching Arrangements

4. Flexible Grouping Strategies

5. Learning Environment

6. Student Choice

7. Concept Development, Exposure, Extension

8. Learning Styles

 

 

With an emphasis on Student Interests/Choice:

 

 

Content: what the teacher is assessing

 

Process: to make sense of content

 

Product: what students can come up with

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Friend, Marilyn Penovich, and William D. Bursuck. Including Students with Special Needs: A Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers. 6th ed. Boston:

             Allyn and Bacon, 1996. Print.