Differentiated Instruction Strategies Essay
As a teacher it is our responsibility to reach all of our students in a classroom full of
different types of learners. In order to achieve at this, you must differentiate your instruction.
Differentiated instruction is simply a teaching approach that meet all the different learning needs
of all the students. All students have the same goal. However, they may not all learn the same
way. A few different learning styles may be visual, auditory, read/write, and kinesthetic. For a
teacher to teach their class effectively they must differentiate their lessons and instructions.
In the differentiate instruction strategies that we have explored through this assignment it
gives and explains greatly of different strategies that you could use to help you to be effective in
the classroom to help you achieve the goal of reaching all your students in the classroom with a
bundle of different learning styles. For this lesson, I will describe a way to use some of these
strategies for a second- grade classroom. The lesson that I would be teaching would be a math
lesson on place value and reviewing some concepts of addition and subtraction from the unit that
we have been working on.
The first differentiation strategy that I would use in this lesson for my second-grade
classroom would be to use task cards to review some addition and subtraction math facts that we
have been working on. Through this review section I would call on a few students to answer
some sample questions on the board. Next, I would group the students according to their levels
and have them complete a few math facts using manipulatives and have them think, pair, and
share in groups of how they would use the provided material to complete the math facts. Seeing
how the different groups come up with the different ways to complete the math facts in creative
ways is always a fun activity. To see how their little brains work can be incredible. Not to
mention, this helps the teacher to see the different types of learners that they may have in the
classroom. A teacher can not always put their finger on a way that a student learns without this
type of learning activity. After completing the review part of the lesson, I would then show a fun
and engaging video to introduce place value. The video would be played on the screen and all the
students would be up on their feet and interacting with what the video is telling them to do. The
video would repeat what place values are and how to determine what a ones and tens place is in a
number while dancing and moving on their feet. This is a way to implement the differentiation
strategy of targeting different senses within a lesson. After the video, I would then use the
strategy of interviewing the students to gain knowledge of if they understood what a place value
is. We would then do a few examples on the board and complete a simple worksheet on place
values for me to see who really understands and who needs additional help on this concept. After
completing our lesson and instruction time, we would move into our centers time. In an
elementary classroom, teachers use centers as a fun and engaging way for students to play with
manipulatives and apply what they are learning through a hands-on experience. This also gives
the teacher the opportunity to have small groups at their teacher table to differentiate the
instruction by playing games and teaching each group on their level. For this lesson, there would
be three groups. One group would be at the teacher table using white boards and using task cards
to apply the concept of place value. The next group would be playing a uno game that has a
worksheet designed to write the place value with each number. And the third group would be
playing a dice game where you have to record the place value of the number that they rolled.
After each group completes the activity, the groups rotate until each group have completed each
activity.
In this second-grade classroom lesson of reviewing addition and subtraction and
introducing place values. The differentiation strategies that were used were grouping students
with similar learning styles, targeted different senses within a lesson, created learning stations,
using task cards, and using think, pair, and share strategy. By using all of these differentiation
strategies I was able to reach all of the different learning styles in the classroom while creating a
fun and engaging lesson for the students. All while none of the students even knew that they
were not all on the same level of learning. That is the key to reaching all of your students in a
classroom is not letting any of the students know that they are not on the same level. Especially,
since that is not the case. The class just has different ways of learning the curriculum. For this
lesson, I feel that this would be effective due to the fact that I used five different differentiation
strategies, and it met the needs of all types of learning styles. Overall, differentiation does not
have to be complicated, it just needs to be fun and engaging.
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