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Differentiated Instruction Reflection

Sarah Grady

Regent University

Your Introduction to Education defines teachers who utilize differentiation of instruction

are ones who understand students strengths and weaknesses and do their best to cater to these
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characteristics. There are three main ways to differentiate instruction which include content,

process and product (Powell, 2012). Although it can be overwhelming to determine these needs,

it is necessary to engage students and serve them in their learning. Hebrews 6:10 states that,

“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have

helped his people and continue to help them” (NIV). By being conscious of students’ traits,

educators are not only helping students learn but also honoring God in one’s daily life. The two

artifacts I chose to reflect differentiation of instruction are two lesson plans.

The first lesson plan is entitled “Reading Stations: the Sequel.” this lesson was based

around four stations which addressed various reading skills. The four stations were a read for fun

station, a venn diagram comparing two articles that have been read and annotated in class, a

station that involved classwork to help remediate students, and a NoRedInk.com station which is

a software to help students improve their grammar and editing skills. I chose this lesson to show

differentiation because it utilized small groups and allowed students that were behind to catch up

and students who were caught up to be able to be enriched through tailored activities. Students

utilized both physical texts, texts on the computer and various websites in their stations. Each

station had a folder which included any materials needed to complete the activity and both the

target and task to be completed within the station. These characteristics of the lesson utilized

many elements of differentiation in both process, and content.

This lesson also made use of student characteristics to differentiate which include interest

and learning profile. Burden and Byrd’s text refers to differentiating through interest allows

students to choose between tasks and products and differentiating through learning profiles by

crafting lessons to present information in various ways (2010). The reading stations permitted

students to choose different topics in NoRedInk.com to best support what they needed to learn
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and refine. They also had a variety of ways to show information through visuals, and auditory

learning.

The second lesson plan chosen for an artifact was on review of the mid-term assessment.

This test was given by the city of Virginia Beach district wide to all sixth graders. I took the data

from this test and using the tool of SchoolNet was able to identify the most missed questions on

the test in relation to the corresponding SOL. I then created a lesson plan that would allow for

review of the test, time for individual self reflection and class reflection. I chose this as my

second artifact because the lesson was very “learner centered” and allowed me both to address

and identify student’s needs (Levin and Nolan, 2007).

I took the data from the four English classes and addressed each class with their most

missed questions, and students were able to understand what questions their peers struggled with

and reasons why these questions were missed. After the most missed questions were reviewed as

a group, students looked individually on their Chromebooks at their own results and wrote down

the questions they had missed with the correct answer. Then they identified the objective the

questions related to and as a class comprised a list of objectives to be taught before their reading

SOL at the end of the year. This gave them the opportunity to be included in the learning that

will occur in the remainder of the year as it will help guide activities and objectives in lesson

planning.

References

Burden, P. R., & Byrd, D. M. (2010). Methods For Effective Teaching: Meeting the Needs of All

Students. Hoboken: Pearson Education, Inc.

Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (2007). Principles of Classroom Management: A Professional

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Decision-Making Model. Toronto: Pearson Canada Inc.

Powell, S. D. (2012). Your Introduction to Education: Explorations in Teaching. New York, NY:

Pearson Education, Inc.