Differentiation in a Classroom

Differentiation in the classroom is providing instruction in a variety of ways that can appeal to different types of learners.  This can be a difficult task for many teachers because of the variety of different learning styles.  The ways that you can teach every child maybe different.  A teacher needs to plan a variety of methods to help students learn.  Differentiation might be hard to do but if teachers would strive to do the best they can then learning will become easier for students.

Differentiation requires teachers to look at a lesson with multiple approaches.  Depending on the students ability level and interests shows how the student learns best.  There are three aspects of instruction: 

• Content- information that is taught
• Process- how a student understands the content
• Product- demonstrates what the student has learned

  These different aspects should be differentiated to fit a students needs and to help them show their best effort.  The instruction should allow a student to think for himself or herself.  This allows the students to learn at their own pace.  Lessons should also be mixed with a variety of independent and group activities to help the students learn to build people skills and to make the classroom feel like a community. 

With special education students diversity in the classroom is a major part of the job.  These teachers will have a small group of students at a time who are all on different learning levels.  For these students it is important to look at different ways to teach a lesson.  For example students who are hearing impaired need to have a hearing-aid or the teacher needs to wear a microphone to help that student understand the content.  Another example is students who have a hard time learning by lecture.  Providing hands on activities for these students will help them become more interested in the content and will make it easier to understand. 

 There are many ways to help students learn in a special education diverse classroom.  Visual aids are a great way to engage students.  Some children do better seeing a picture with a word problem because it helps them understand if they are visual learners.  Vocabulary flashcards. sight words, and safety signs are great for visual learners.  Peer coaching is a great way for students to work in collaborative groups.  This type of coaching has students partner up a couple time a week.   They will work with one another with school activities such as reading, writing, and math.


Teachers today rely too much on lectures and note taking when teaching their students.  Many feel like programs such as PowerPoint are the only way to give students the information that they need to learn about a certain subject.  A multi-sensory approach is the best way for appeal to all learning types.  Many students are creative and can use that to their advantage when learning.  For example some students like to draw, or create stories.  By providing these activities for students to do it lets the student have fun but, they also learn about the topic as well. Another example would be if the subject was on a country's history.  A teacher could bring in items from that country and show what they wear and maybe even bring in food for the class to eat or show recipes from that country.  Another great tool to use is movement.  Having students demonstrate a certain part of the water cycle by acting it out would be a fun and memorable way to learn.  Many teachers like to use song and dance as well.

Differentiation is becoming the new way to teach students of all learning abilities.  Wether they are visual, kinesthetic, or auditory each teacher should try to accommodate all the styles when they can. There are many different methods that a teacher can take to make a classroom fit the needs of all students such as more visual aids, multi-sensory learning, and accommodating students with disabilities. Having a differentiated classroom is hard but if it is achieved it helps make learning more enjoyable for students.