Chapter 7: Differentiated Instruction-Fitting the Lesson to the Learner

The main idea of this chapter that I will take into my classroom is that there is not just one way to differentiate instruction. In order to actually cater to the individual student’s needs a teacher must be flexible and resourceful. We are aware that children learn differently so it is our job to not try to box them into our lesson plans. This gets me on a rant about the standards again but that is a different chapter. We should be constantly evaluating where our students stand and find ways to bring them further into the material so they are learning at their maximum capacity. Creating lesson plans with differentiation in them is a great start but the teacher needs to be able to formatively assess the situation and adjust on the fly if a student needs additional instruction or differentiation. I truly think that individualized instruction is the most powerful way to get all the students to gain the most from their time in school.