I think every teacher differentiates their material. I believe that because when I started reading about “differentiation strategies” I noticed that I had been doing many of them already through trial and error. I think the biggest hangup people have with the term “differentiation” is the idea that each lesson should be differentiated for groups of students. Most teachers already seem to be differentiated content, but in a way that asks all students to interact with the differentiated material. I never considered learning stations or jigsawing to be differentiation strategies. I adopted them as ways to make my lessons more exciting and shake things up for the students. Same with scaffolding. Scaffolded material just feels like good teaching, not any special strategy. I mentioned earlier how I am possibly taking this all for granted because I have been surrounded by good teachers. Maybe I am a better teacher than I think I am.
However, I got a lot from diving into Tomlinson’s book and what I read online. I feel more comfortable taking the next step to differentiate among my students in my lessons. These are important discoveries. I did not study education in school, and I have been teaching for almost a decade before starting a master’s degree which is getting me reading more about pedagogy. I backed into education and developed my strategies before being bombarded by all sorts of theories and fancy book learning. I never felt pressure to “differentiate” or to “engage the zones of proximal development.” I felt pressured to teach, be engaging, and build a good rapport with my students. It turns out that if you can do those things, you can do all the edu-speak stuff from the books.
The Keasy Depot 