Chapter 7:
This chapter is about how to provide differentiated instruction to students that require it. Wormeli stresses how important it is for teachers to provide differentiated instruction to students because it’s impossible to expect students to learn at the same rate. He emphasizes that differentiating instruction doesn’t just mean giving easier or harder assignments; it’s supposed to be about changing the complexity of an assignment. Based on his own personal research, Wormeli created a list of characteristics on how to approach differentiated instruction. Some of his characteristics are: risk taking, being empathetic, organized, flexible, tenacious, resourceful, and able to collaborate. Wormeli also discusses how differentiating instruction based on the multiple intelligences can be helpful for students. He ends with saying how he felt that if he had tried to differentiate instruction sooner then he may have been able to help particular students succeed academically.
This is a topic that we hear about frequently over our education career. Differentiated instruction is probably the most important thing a teacher can do, but it’s also probably the most difficult. In my practicum class I had 2 severely autistic students, 1 student with emotional disturbance, 3 more with learning disabilities, 2 gifted and talented students, and then the rest of the class. I remember planning a lesson felt like walking through a mine field because I was never quite sure where I could or couldn’t go based on the student’s various levels. The high note was at the end of a unit of the Revolutionary War my students presented about a person that played an important role in the war. I told them they could present the information however they wanted and I can remember the look of pride on my two students with autism when they showed their poster board. I feel like differentiating instruction is an area I struggle in, but hope to improve.
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