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Different Place Home How To Use This Site Historical Perspective Giftedness Defined Equal Educational Opportunity Purpose of Gifted Services in Kansas Characteristics of Giftedness Bright Child/Gifted Learner General Education Interventions Differentiated Curriculum Differentiated Classroom Individualizing the Curriculum Modifying Content, Process and Product Types of Products Multiple Intelligences Products Curriculum Assessment Using Rubrics to Guide Evaluation Rubric Examples Teacher Resources
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Differentiated Curriculum Differentiation is not a recipe for teaching. It is not an instructional strategy. It is not what a teacher does when he or she has time. It is a way about teaching and learning. It is a philosophy. As such, it is based on the following set of beliefs. Students who are the same age differ in their readiness to learn, their interests, their styles of learning, their experiences, and their life circumstances. The differences in students are significant enough to make a major impact on what students need to learn, the pace at which they need to learn, and the support they need from teachers and others to learn it well. Students will learn best when supportive adults push them slightly beyond where they can work without assistance. Students will learn best when they can make a connection between the curriculum and their interests and life experiences. Students will learn best when learning opportunities are natural. Students are more effective learners when classrooms and schools create a sense of community in which students feel significant and respected. Differentiation must be a refinement of, not a substitute for high quality curriculum and instruction. Expert or distinguished teaching focuses on the understanding and skills of a discipline, causes students to wrestle with profound ideas, help students organize and make sense of ideas and information, and aids students in connecting the classroom with a wider world. (Brandt, 1998; Danielson, 1996.) Principles of a differentiated curriculum for high-ability learners include some or all of the following:
A general education teacher should differentiate curriculum in response to the learner's needs, guided by the following general principles of differentiation. Respectful Tasks: A classroom teacher ensures that students' learning is respected. The teacher does this by assessing the readiness level of each student by evaluating competency in the skills and concepts included in the local curriculum standards, expecting and supporting continual growth in all students by providing challenging curriculum, offering all students the opportunity to explore skills and understanding at appropriate degrees of difficulty, offering all students tasks that are equally interesting, important and engaging. Flexible Grouping: Teachers link learners with essential understandings and skills at appropriate levels of challenge and interest. This could mean that students are working in groups on a variety of tasks at the appropriate depth, complexity, and speed for those involved. Ongoing Assessment and Adjustment: Throughout units, teachers use assessments to yield an emerging picture of those students who understand key ideas and can perform targeted tasks. Then the teacher shapes the next lesson to fit again the needs of individual students. Assessments need not be formal "tests" but may come from activities such as group discussions, journal or portfolio entries, skills inventories, homework assignments or interest surveys.
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