Effective Key Areas of Differentiated Instruction

One of the most important and critical areas of differentiated instruction is the ability to know your students. Finding out about your student’s and their individual needs is very important in deciding what the best approach is to deliver lessons that will best suite the student. It is also important to look at these needs individually and as a whole class. Some students may learn differently than others and in this case presenting the lesson in different ways may be more beneficial. I feel that as I begin to teach a new group of students one of the first things I would do would be to use student learner profiles and interest profiles to find out about the student’s needs, strengths, interests, preferences and ways of learning. It is important to start with a clear picture of where the students are at, so that you are able to help them progress throughout the rest of the year.

As a beginning teacher, it is also critical that I understand the curriculum. This is another key area of differentiated instruction. Knowing the “big picture” and “key ideas” of the curriculum will help in planning different types of lessons for students. Differentiated instruction implies that students are still able to meet the objectives in the curriculum; however individual students may meet these same objectives through different ways of learning. As a new teacher, it is important to be creative and flexible when planning lessons. It is imperative that the student’s different needs be taken into consideration when planning lessons. By becoming knowledgeable with the program of studies, we are able to design different lessons for the same type of learning outcomes to suite each student’s needs.

Another key area of differentiated instruction that I would use as I began to teach a new group of students is the idea of scaffolding the responsibility from me to the students. Because we know that differentiated instruction does not happen overnight, it is important to give the students some lead way when it comes to being responsible for their own success. At first, creating interesting and motivating lessons to get the student’s engaged in learning is key. However, as students grow and become more and more capable it is important to transfer the responsibility of learning to them so that they become capable and motivated learners throughout their lives. It is important that we help students develop strategies and tools that help them communicate, gain ideas, organize information, and critically assess concepts.

Asperger's Syndrome: John Elder Robinson Case Study

John Elder Robinson is the founder of J. E. Service Co, has created Milton Bradley games, and once designed guitars for the band KISS. Recently he has become a New York Time’s Bestselling Author with his book Look Me in the Eye. Aside from John’s many accomplishments it is important to note that he is living with a disability. John was diagnosed as having Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) when he was in his forties. Although the diagnosis came later on in his life, he has lived with it since he was a child.

John found school to be a constant challenge and by Grade 10 had dropped out completely because he felt that his learning style was not similar or suitable to the learning style of the education system. Growing up he constantly felt isolated, alone, and misunderstood. He struggled socially and had difficulty developing communication skills. John believed that he was faulty or flawed in some way. It wasn’t until his diagnosis that he came to realize that he was not a misfit at all; he was living with a challenging disability. Because of this realization he has decided to share what it is like to live with AS and offers insight and new knowledge about this disorder. John is currently working at The College of Our Lady of the Elms in Chicopee, Massachusetts in Communication Sciences Disorders department as a professor.

I found John Robinson’s story and knowledge about AS to be very insightful, helpful, and relevant. I am entering a PSII placement in a month and I will be teaching a student who has been diagnosed as having AS. Reading through John’s blogs helped me become more aware of the disorder and what I can do as a teacher to provide the best learning environment possible to suit the needs of these individual students. Some approaches that I might use are as follows:

• Establish a relationship with the parents of the child to open up the lines of communication. Parents may often feel overwhelmed or helpless, so by working together to come up with solutions that best fit the child’s needs may be very beneficial.


• Make sure a student with AS feels safe and comfortable. Depending on confidentiality issues, it may be best to notify the rest of the students in the class so that they can develop an understanding of what AS is which can create a sense of empathy which may produce a more positive environment within the classroom.


• Create a regular routine in which AS students will be accustomed to. It is beneficial to provide a clear structure for these students because they are better able to learn when they know what is going to happen. Repetition is very important and useful to students with AS. Many of them will react in a negative manner when they are placed in situations that come as somewhat of a surprise to them.


• Speaking clearly and giving direct instructions in a plain and simple manner is a key approach because students with AS have difficulties with communication skills.
  Breaking down big or whole assignments into smaller parts or tasks will help these students accomplish what it is that is being asked of them.


• Keep distractions and loud noise to a minimal. AS students have greater difficulty trying to concentrate when there are distracters in their environment. Allow for these students to relocate if they are disturbed. Try to keep the classroom setting calm.


• Build on the strengths of students with AS and celebrate their differences. Teaching students with AS is a great opportunity as a teacher to develop new teaching skills and techniques to fit these particular students needs. Differentiated instruction is one of these key techniques.