Comments on: Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grade Math Differentiation

By: Isosceles

Isosceles — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 02:08:07 +0000

I like the concept of differentiation and I think the intent is good, but school systems need to truly look into teacher planning time. 45 minutes might allow you to differentiate for on class, but what about the rest of the classes that elementary teachers teach? I use entrance/exit slips to group students and then reteach small groups using white boards. Its great for the low level students, but I never have time to design enrichment activities because even my honors students struggle with reading/following instructions.

By: mathteacher

mathteacher — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:44:38 +0000

I teach all skills within a seven student class, they range from 5-8 grade in math skills. We just started summer school and I have given them their first assessment. I have taken classes on differentiation and do know what it is. I am really struggling with the idea of differentiating but keeping things still engaging. It is extra work to offer students content on their level. But I am really frustrated with how hard it is to offer them engaging/hands on content at their level. Especially when that is seven different levels. Help me! I don’t know where to start or how to begin.

By: thirdgradeteacher

thirdgradeteacher — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 23:40:56 +0000

The basic theory of differentiation as I read it is that it comes in three major forms: content differentiation, process differentiation, and product differentiation. You’re right that tiering doesn’t tackle all of those, but to be frank, I’ve found differentiating in all three of those ways simultaneously to be extremely unwieldy, completely unsustainable (I burn out after doing it for a few lessons, much less all year), and often not even completely necessary. But I’d love to hear how you are able to do it if you’ve been able to make it work!

By: Dave MacLean

Dave MacLean — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 23:33:08 +0000

As I learn more about differentiation, I am beginning to understand that the tiering you are talking about only addresses one aspect of differentiation. You need to allow students to access the information in a variety of ways rather than just differentiating the access level of the curriculum. In addition, one would hope that the end product is also differentiated. I have started a conversation about this topic over on my blog http://www.bringing-it-all-together.blogspot.com because our district is about to invest a great deal of effort and money into staff development around differentiated instruction. I am reading a book to wrap my head around the basics….please join our conversation and put your two cents in.