Differentiation Reading Response

Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom: Strategies and Tools for Responsive Teaching, Ch. 1-2


Favorite parts and thoughts

When teachers "invite students to invest their time and energy in the pursuit of knowledge, understanding, and skill" by differentiating for their interest, students "are more likely to be engaged and to persist in learning." (pg. 3)

I love thinking of teaching as an invitation. We can't choose for a child to learn. He must choose for himself. If I can be the kind of teacher who understands her students interests well enough to help them find a bridge to the things society expects them to learn.......

The teacher must find a way to entice the child into the room of learning because the child who is dragged in takes nothing with him when he finally escapes. The child who enters because he sees something valuable to himself will stay, explore, grow, and never want to leave.

But there is more. The child must be more than in the room of his own choosing. He must be engaged with the content found in the room. He must find something to occupy his thought and cause him wonder. He must find thing he wants to grab a hold of. Then the child is engaged, then the child is learning.

(This line of thinking has called up a memory of when I was young. I read a book about babysitting, and one of the sections was how to calm a child or distract them if they were upset when the parents left. One of the strategies was to take with you a bag of things that might be interesting to a child. The book suggested to ignore the child's crying, reassure them and begin to focus you attention on some activity from your bag. The child will see your interest, want to watch, and eventually join you in the activity.)

"Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow." (St. Exupery's The little Prince pg. 80,83)

There's something so touching about children who peek at you from their burrows wondering if you will be the kind of person to sing to them, to sooth them, to love them. And something heartbreaking when you can't find the tune they're waiting for.

"The truth is, we will never really do all each child needs us to do. A simultaneous truth is that the first truth is no reason to stop trying." (pg. 22)

It's a little discouraging to think that the ultimate goal cannot be reached. But like Esme I feel I must try. And that just trying makes a difference.

The classroom scenarios on pg 23 and 24 are also a little discouraging. The teacher is doing what we would guess is a great way to help students feel good about their work and being in the class, but they are totally missing the mark. I'm hoping that chapter three offers some advice on how to do better than this. I wish I could read it now, but alas other assignments are calling....