Differentiated Instruction /
Student Motivation
Students enter our schools with different backgrounds and cultures, and their cognitive abilities, assets, and experiences are just as diverse.
Sometimes, the only thing students have in common is their age! When students feel anxious about school or alienated by the content, it can be near impossible for them to succeed in the classroom. "Why do we need to learn this?", "This is boring", "I will never understand this" - how challenging are these words to hear as a teacher? Students will be more ready and open to learn when they feel connected to the material and confident in overcoming barriers to growth. Our strategies will help you cultivate these learning experiences.
Differentiated Instruction (DI) Beliefs:
- All students are different.
- DI is the implementation of strategies to reach multiple learning styles and intelligences.
- Students should be taught content in the best way that they learn.
- DI is for everyone! All learners deserve opportunities engage with the content.
- DI should be used in every lesson we teach.
- Students have different modalities of learning- which is great, because there are so many interesting ways to absorb and apply knowledge!
- Depth of knowledge is as important as breadth of knowledge.
- Students need a reasonable amount of pressure to perform at peak academic levels.
- Not all kids learn the same information at the same time or even at the same rate. Not all teachers teach the same and not all curricula can be taught the same (Robinson, 2008).