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Because students differ so greatly, the premise of differentiation is that while students have the same basic needs, those needs will manifest themselves in different ways; depending on the student's gender, culture, general life experiences, talents, interests, learning preferences, affective development, cognitive development, and support systems. The philosophy of of differentiation suggests the same classroom experience often affects different learners in different ways.
Effective differentiation begins with awareness and understanding of basic student needs. it progresses as teachers become more and more adept at understanding how those basic needs are manifested in the classroom and how those experiences meets a learners needs, or misses the mark for that learner.
Teaching asks us to do the impossible. It asks us to establish ties with each child-not to establish ties with all children as though they were one student. They are not. In the early stages of our teaching most of us do well to manage the students and cover the curriculum. There is no time, no energy, no skill for really even seeing, let alone connecting with individual students. If we elect to continue to develop professional expertise, we can get better and better at seeing and then at connecting with children individually.
The truth is, we will never really do all each child needs us to do. A simultaneous truth is that the first truth is no reason to stop trying.
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While reading the last part of Chapter 2, I was able to reflect on my time in the classroom here in Peru. These students are so warm and open to having us in their class. I even thought about how awesome it would be to teach in a different country. But, there are so many cultural differences that it seems it would be overwhelming. It is normal here to yell at the students and to talk down to them. It is normal here for the students to depend solely on the teacher to teach them, and parents are not to get involved. It would be nice to have a small differentiation type meeting before doing a study abroad thing like this so we would know the exact expectations with the culture.
I appreciated your thoughts about cultural differences and how you're coming to see the universal ideas that all children need and deserve, but struggling with how to accept the cross-cultural situations and ideas. Can't wait to hear more about your experiences. I also want you to have an opportunity to take a look at the other two blogs that are developing... Kam's, and Lynnettes. Lynnette is just beginning, and I'm going to ask her to read yours to get some ideas about how to develop a "blogger's voice." Anyway, when you have a minute, go to http://inspiretoteach.blogspot.com, and see the blog list on the top left-hand area of the page. Click on Kam's and skim through a bit of it. Wait on Lynnette's, as she has just begun! 5 pts.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that teaching does ask us to do the impossible by establishing ties with each student and not just seeing the students as though they were one. I think this chapter helps in a lot of ways to try to make that happen though. It will never be 100% but we can always continue to try to reach that 100%. It will benefit us and our students as long as we give it our all. We should look at this cog daily about what the student seeks to keep reminding ourselves how we can reach this goal of meeting each individual needs. Students need to trust us as much as we need to trust them.Without the trust there we will fail as teachers. Giving students affirmation, contribution, power, purpose and challenge is what we are becoming teachers for. This needs to be started at day one and end never. If we don't reach students 100% that year, we have next year to change a few things, pre-plan, and try again this year.
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