Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Post on differentiation

When I hear the term “differentiation,” in terms of education, I think about the many different styles of teaching that educators will use to reach their students. For teachers to be successful at this they need to understand a child’s interest and motivation. Once taking into consideration a student’s culture and prior knowledge as well, a teacher can begin to cater their teaching in literacy to fit the child’s need. When teachers try various ways of teaching the same subject this to me is differentiation.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really like your discussion on the importance of looking into students prior knowledge and culture capital when choosing your teaching styles. I think it would be very beneficial to have an understanding about how a child has learned in the past and what skills they have acquired before selecting the tasks you are going to have them do. Understanding where a student comes from and what skills s/he will bring to the classroom can greatly add to classroom lessons while also helping a teacher know what skills students need help building.