Differentiation DOES Work

This week James Delisle wrote a provocative piece on differentiating instruction for Education Week titled "Differentiation Doesn't Work."  His article argues that differentiating instruction is just too hard for teachers to implement.  Therefore, we should abandon our efforts to meet the varying needs of our students.  Instead, he suggests, we should return to homogenous ability groups, as a large majority teachers would prefer it.  

He's right about one thing.  Differentiating instruction takes a lot of work and great teaching skill, as does any worthwhile learning experience we create for students.  He is incorrect, though, to say it doesn't work.  Differentiating instruction is respectful of all students, which means it is worth the effort.  Not every lesson needs to be or should be differentiated, but we should seek ways to engage all our students several times a year based on their interests, their learning profiles and/or their readiness levels.  

Additionally, his oncologist analogy in the article is terribly flawed.  Of course you wouldn't send a glaucoma patient to an oncologist anymore than you'd send an ELL student to an AP English class.  Not differentiating instruction, however, is equivalent to an oncologist giving the same treatment to every cancer patient, ignoring all the variables such as the tumor location or stage of cancer.  It would constitute malpractice.      

Think about your own recent experiences as learners.  If Google Apps training, for example, is "one size fits all" in its approach, those teachers who are already Google experts are bored and teachers who are novices are frustrated.  Then most people leave the training having learned little.  If teachers are forced to attend professional developments courses in which they have no interest, they are not motivated to be there and won't engage in the learning.  In fact, they often leave such trainings feeling disgruntled and disrespected.  So why won't teachers offer the same respectful differentiated tasks to their students?  

I agree with Delisle that some teachers are confused about what differentiation is and when to use it.  It is incumbent upon school districts to provide professional development experiences (differentiated, of course) and ongoing coaching.  However, I can provide you a quick "what" and "when" right now.  

Carol Ann Tomlinson (the DI guru) says differentiation is simply an "active planning" strategy to " accommodate the different ways that students learn."  To decide when to differentiate, you need to be clear on your objectives and know your students.  Then differentiate by interest to increase student motivation.  Identify those lessons that most student dread and find a way to use their interests to engage them with the learning.  Differentiate by learning profile to improve efficiency. Think about those skills that are particularly challenging for all students. Design lessons that allow them to practice these new skills in a learning style they prefer. The new learning, then, isn't hindered by a learning practice that also challenges them.  Differentiate by readiness to show student growth.  When students show widely different proficiency levels on a specific objective, you need to design learning experiences that allow all students to work in their zones of proximal development.    Does it take work to do this?  Yes.  But in doing so, we design learning experiences that are responsive, respectful and effective. 

And yes, I am one of those administrators that he casts in the "out-of-touch" light.  However, I taught for many years, and I frequently differentiated instruction, giving students choices, placing them in readiness groups and designing learning experiences to meet their learning preferences.  My students felt respected by the learning experiences I designed, and they demonstrated growth in the language arts objectives placed before them.  Yes, it involved many late nights as I got used to the methodology.  However, as I gained confidence and expanded my repertoire, it wasn't so hard anymore.  Like any worthwhile endeavor, it simply takes practice.