Differentiated Instruction in the Math Classroom

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog! 

This week I would like to talk about a very important concept in any classroom, differentiated instruction. Now when I first heard the term differentiated instruction, I thought it had to be very specific and cater to each individual child's learning needs. While this is part of the solution, this is not entirely true. When I entered teachers college and first began discussing differentiated instruction in my cohort, our instructor explained how differentiated instruction is not changing the lesson for each specific student, but catering to every student, so it could be as simple as talking slowly and clearly, enlarging the fonts, and other small adjustments. A better way to understand differentiated instruction is provided by edugains.ca by Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Secondary School. They explain, 

"Differentiated instruction is not individualized instruction; it involves considering and selecting from a variety of instructional approaches and making frequent use of flexible, short-term groups to address a variety of learner needs and preferences." 

In relation to this definition, a great instructional approach that teachers can use in their classroom to identify the variety of learner needs and preferences is the traffic light system. A detailed video about the traffic light system in the math classroom is demonstrated in the St. Mary's SS video. 

The traffic light system is extremely beneficial in the classroom because it allows the students to illustrate how comfortable they are with the lesson, and therefore lets the teacher know who needs further assistance as well as who is comfortable with the lesson that was just taught. This allows the teacher to better manage their classroom because the students who have learned the lesson can do other activities, while the teacher can form short-term groups and further assist the students who identify themselves as yellow and red with a different method of instruction. 

Another important factor of differentiated instruction is providing student choice. One method teachers can use in the classroom that gives student choice is by implementing open-tasked questions. There are two types of open-tasked questions. The first is open-ended, which means there are a variety of strategies a student can use and multiple correct answers. The second type is open-routed, which means that there are multiple strategies a student can use, but only one correct answer. Both are important in differentiated instruction because open tasks are inclusive of all students' mathematical thinking and its relative to students' zone of proximal development. This means that no matter what stage the learner is at in the lesson, they are working in their own comfort zone and the teacher can assess their mathematical reasoning and big ideas which are part of the mathematical processes. 

Retrieved from: The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat;
Capacity Building Series

In the end what is most important is the fact that all students receive and equitable treatment in the classroom. This means that teachers need to address the need's of all the students in the classroom and use techniques that will help all the students in the class, not just the majority of the students. It is the teacher's duty to make sure that every student gets a fair chance to learn, and this is why differentiated instruction is instrumental in the classroom and something all teachers need to take into consideration.

References:

Knowing and Responding to Learners in Mathematics.2015. Booklet

Capacity Building Series. The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat. September 2008.