Differentiated Instruction

 Differentiated instruction is a philosophy of teaching that asks the instructor to reach all learners on a personal level.  Differentiated instruction takes many things into consideration for each student: prior knowledge, level of readiness, learning style, age and environment.  Differentiated instruction has four main components: o Individual learner: instructors must know their individual students on a personal level o Brain cognition: knowledge of how the brain works at each stage of development o Curriculum: derived from state and district standards o Content: instructors must be knowledgeable on the subjects they teach  Differentiated instruction can be accomplished in three ways: o Process: the path a student takes to understanding the objective o Product: how a student demonstrates understanding of the objective o Content: not more work, but more readiness-appropriate work to reach the objective