Culturally Responsive Teaching & Differentiation

Definition

Differentiation in the classroom is adapting instruction to fit the needs of all learners in the classrooms. As a teacher, you will have students who have a different ethnic background, who have a disability, who are identified as gifted and talented, who are of different genders, etc. Acknowledging these diverse components in the classroom and adapting lesson plans and instruction is differentiation. Culturally Responsive Teaching ties together with differentiation. It is an approach to teaching that focuses on cultural knowledge, prior experience, performance styles, and frames of reference to make learning outcomes effective in the classroom.

Resource & Application

The resource that I found is an article titled What is Differentiated Instruction? Examples of How to Differentiate Instruction in the Classroom. The article starts by defining differentiated instruction and giving a history of it. "In 1975, Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), ensuring that children with disabilities had equal access to public education. To reach this student population, many educators used differentiated instruction strategies. Then came the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2000, which further encouraged differentiated and skill-based instruction—and that’s because it works (Weselby, 2017)."

The majority of this article focused on four ways to differentiate instruction, which I found to be very helpful when applying this to my future classroom. I can use these ways when I am making lesson plans, and I can keep these in mind when I have to adapt those lesson plans to fit the needs of all learners. This article will also help me be a good culturally responsive teacher. This article causes me to think about the different learners that I will have in my classroom, and how I will help them meet learning outcomes. 

1. Content: Differentiate the content by creating activities that cover a variety of learning levels.
2. Process: Provide different resources for students based on the type of learner they are.
3. Product: Have students create a product that tests their mastery for the content by allowing them to creatively develop something. Do not always create a paper-pencil test.
4. Learning environment: Make sure the learning environment is flexible.

References

Quotes about classroom Instruction. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.quotemaster.org/classroom instruction

Weselby, C. (2017, November 20). What is Differentiated Instruction? Examples of Strategies. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/examples-of-differentiated-instruction/