How committed are you to differentiation?
Effective learning cannot be left to chance and differentiation is the most critical tool you have at your disposal to affect the learning process. The most effective teachers are those who continually consider the ways in which they can differentiate their approach to empower, support and challenge those they teach.
A Series of Interventions
To give differentiation the value it deserves, try looking at the lessons you teach as a series of interventions along a learning continuum. Every time you plan a lesson or interact with a pupil during the course of a
A useful look at differentiation, Claire, and refreshing to see that you reflect on your practice and what has worked – or hasn’t. Increasingly I believe that differentiation is an overused and sometimes unhelpful term. Inclusive high quality teaching is personalised and routinely uses questioning, visual support, printed notes, written instructions and more to ensure the lesson is accessible to all. Then there may be a few specific strategies for pupils with particular needs. In the best lessons I have no idea who in the class has SEND.
Hi Barbara – lovely to hear from you. I’ve written about Differentiation Myths being an impossible ask here. Ross
I also believe every child learns differently and at a different pace. I think the most successful way to teach is to have the same goal in mind for every child, but to also be flexible in the way each child will learn to achieve that goal. Each child will get to the same goal, but they will each take their own path to get to their goal. We need to be able to appropriately differentiate as you discussed.