Differentiation
The importance of differentiation for effective teaching and learning must not be understated. Each classroom is filled with a diverse array of students with different interests, capabilities, strengths, weaknesses and backgrounds. According to Krause et. al., (2012, p.267) inclusive classrooms are ones where “teachers recognise difference, and devise ways to address students’ differing needs and also take into account what each learner brings to the learning process.” The failure to differentiate the learning in the face of this diversity will lead to students becoming disengaged, resulting in poor outcomes (Krause et. al., 2012). From my experience, differentiation is also one of the most important strategies for behaviour management. This is because the moment a student feels they cannot access the learning, they will become frustrated and begin to act in disruptive ways. I have found that making the learning accessible to the whole classroom, although challenging, is one of the most effective strategies for preventing disruptive behaviour and improving learner engagement.
While I attempted to include some opportunities for differentiation in my unit plan, this was also identified by peers as an area for improvement. Peers recognised that the personalisation of certain tasks in my unit plan, like allowing students’ to choose an essay topic within certain parameters that suits their own interests, was an important form of differentiation that takes into account what different learners bring to the learning process. Peers suggested that this approach could have been extended to other activities and tasks in my plans, and that more group activities could have been implemented, such as in the TEEL paragraph writing and essay structuring lessons. In one of my lessons I ask students to identify persuasive strategies being used in a speech on YouTube. Peers suggested finding alternative resources that contain persuasive strategies and providing students the choice of which type of resource they use as some students might be more equipped to identify strategies in an article or podcast.
While I attempted to include some opportunities for differentiation in my unit plan, this was also identified by peers as an area for improvement. Peers recognised that the personalisation of certain tasks in my unit plan, like allowing students’ to choose an essay topic within certain parameters that suits their own interests, was an important form of differentiation that takes into account what different learners bring to the learning process. Peers suggested that this approach could have been extended to other activities and tasks in my plans, and that more group activities could have been implemented, such as in the TEEL paragraph writing and essay structuring lessons. In one of my lessons I ask students to identify persuasive strategies being used in a speech on YouTube. Peers suggested finding alternative resources that contain persuasive strategies and providing students the choice of which type of resource they use as some students might be more equipped to identify strategies in an article or podcast.
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