Standard 2: Learning Differences: The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.

 

Throughout my experiences teaching Math during my student teaching I differentiated instruction for low, average, and high achieving students. Instruction was based on formative assessments such as observations, reviewing the childrens independent work, a student-driven success criteria, as well as an exit questions from the previous days lesson. 

When teaching mental strategies I had a different group of students each day participate in playing a warm up game to freshen up their addition and subtraction skills while the rest of the class did a group warm up. The games played would be based on their level and what skills they need to take their learning to the next level. Independent work would typically be broken up into two or three different sets of calculations so that each student would be working at the right level for them. If the work seems too easy or they complete all of the calculations, they move up. If the opposite happens and the work is too hard, they try the calculations in the lower level.

 

It is important to remember that there is no "cookie-cutter" way to providing students with an effective education. All students have different needs and will need to work at different levels in order to achieve their personal goals. By knowing where a student stands with their knowledge I was better able to design a lesson that would meet the needs of all of my students, not just the high achievers.

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