Differentiating: Knowing Your Student and Knowing the Standard

 There is no right or wrong way to differentiate.  

Today I threw a problem on the board for my first and third graders to attempt to solve and sat back and watched.  Some dived into it.  Some copied it. Others sat there with a deep frown contemplating where to start. 

There are many philosophies and ideas on the subject, but when it comes down to it, all it means to differentiate is meeting students where they are at. 

 Every person is unique and interesting and different and thus, they will need different things in math or any subject for that matter.  Just because someone is the same age as another individual, does not mean that they know the same content or need to work on the same logical reasoning process, thus comes the idea of differentiating.

If you really break it down, in order to differentiate you need to know two things.  A teacher needs to know his or her student and also the standards you are teaching.  

There are many ways in which a student can know a student.  She can get to know their interests through conversations, letters, surveys, get to know you activities and observation.  

A teacher can also get to know a student's constantly changing knowledge base through consistent use of pre-assessments and daily checks in through exit tickets and observation.   

Once a teacher knows the student, they can figure out what comes next.  If a student can only approach a problem and solve a subtraction or addition problem in one way, maybe a teacher move would be to dig deeper into the math practices and have the child make a model or draw a visual representation of the problem.  

If the child struggles with explaining his or her thinking, maybe as a teacher, you cut down the practice volume and ask the student to really show their work in depth and in multiple ways within one problem.  

If a child has difficulty working with peers, and this is a goal area, maybe that child has a partner for math daily and in conferences you are working on sharing the workload, listening, making eye contact and teaching the student to ask leading questions.

Additionally, if a student knows the grade level content, works well with others, can explain their thinking and show their work in multiple ways, then it is time to accelerate.  The student can then be exposed to above grade level problems.  The teacher might pull the student aside and give them a problem that is a little bit challenging and the student does not know how to solve.   The teacher can then ask what do you know about this problem?  What is a possible way to approach it?

The teacher does not show the student how to solve the problem and then ask the student to solve it exactly the same way, as that does not engage the learner in deeper thinking or problem solving but rather asks a student to merely mimic a solution strategy.   

Students need to engage in productive struggle and be pushed in order for learning to occur.   If a student does not engage in productive struggle then they will suffer as an adult or older student when a problem comes along.  Panic will set in.  Productive struggles helps students self regulate and adhere to challenges in the face of complexity.