FIAE+B1+Chapter+1

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Jen
Abstract-Differentiated Instruction is making learning equal to all students and providing them with the tools to make that happen. It requires meeting the needs of various learning styles in a classroom and still having a handle on the classroom management with students at various levels. Differentiated Instruction is the process of challenging students but in a way that allows them to be engaged in the material. Teachers who use this feel proud because they know that students are learning the content of the material because they are more interested because they were given choices. It's all about having the teacher continue to explain things to students in various ways until they have an accurate understanding and everyone is on the same page, until everyone is equal.

Synthesis- All of us focused on how positive differentiation can be and how it really helps engage students in the classroom. [|Differentiated Instruction] is about giving all students a fair and equal chance to achieve. It's all about providing student's with the tools they need to succeed and another essential point that seemed to come up was that autonomy is what makes students more willing to put in the effort and work because they are more engaged and can connect to the material. A teacher can simply just provide a student with a tool they lack and they will be able to achieve as much as the rest of the class. (For instance: the example with the student with poor eye sight and how moving them to the front of the classroom allows them to have all the possibilities the other students have.) Treating students fairly is an essential component to have in the classroom and differentiated instruction allows students to be both treated fairly but "get what they need" even if it is based off their various[| learning styles].

Leighlan
My friends, when they saw the title of this book, immediately took a double take and said “what?!” Then I thought a little about the concept of equality, and the concept of fairness. I initially came up with a scenario where there were two people, one with a broken hip and another perfectly healthy. Both people needed to use the bathroom. Is it more fair to have all of the bathroom stalls the same, an equal facility, or to have one bigger one with railings for the person with a broken hip? Everyone agreed that the equal stalls were not fair in that situation. When I read this chapter, I found a similar scenario involving glasses. The thing is that people are not equal. We have different abilities, heights, aptitudes, and learning styles. In order to be fair, and give everyone an equal chance to succeed, the person in charge has to differentiate. This is actually far more common in real life than one would think. Very few people expect everyone to be able to do the exact same thing in the exact same way, in the same amount of time. We treat people differently based on what we know about them all the time. It’s natural.

Brody
In the first chapter of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//, Rick Wormeli expanded on the concept of differentiated instruction that I was first introduced to in my UbD/DI textbook. When reading UbD/DI, I originally thought that differentiated instruction meant that students needed each lesson completely fit to them so much so that no two students had the same lesson. Upon reading this chapter however, I realize that differentiated instruction can be much more subtle. I subconsciously used one of these subtle techniques in my field experience when I moved closer to someone to keep them focused on a lesson. Some critics view differentiated instruction as giving students the easy way out because lessons will become simple to complete. On the contrary, differentiated instruction actually allows students to achieve more because the teacher knows how they learn and provides a lesson that complements that learning style. Thus, there is more accountability in the classroom and students aren’t allowed to slip through the cracks. This chapter will affect my future classroom because it gives me arguments in favor of differentiated instruction that I can use to educate parents about my strategies and methods.

Max
Before this chapter I thought differentiated instruction was all about planning your curriculum around the students learning ability. The first chapter in //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//, it showed some examples that made it much simpler. It can be as easy as helping a student with poor eyesight sit closer to the front of the room. I think differentiated instruction is more like knowing what you can do, if anything will help these students the slightest bit by learning how they learn. Also equality is not mentioned as much in the other books but this one makes some good points. Treating each student equally is very important because it is very frustrating when you think the teacher has “favorites.” In my classroom, I really try to treat each kid the same and try not to show any favoritism.

Brittany
In my opinion every text book should start out the way this one did. It was a concise chapter about why this book is important and this is how what you are about to learn is going to help you become a better teacher. The chapter focused on how we should want to give all of our students what they need to succeed in school and how differentiated instruction can do that. The best example I saw was the one about the two students, one needing glasses and the other did not (pg. 5+6). By giving the student who needed them glasses the teacher differentiated in the classroom and both students had what they needed to complete the assignment. The same concept can be applied to calculators, audio books, or other special items that some students will need in order to complete their work while other students can do the same thing without the special items. If done right all of the students will complete the assignment and no one will be worried about whether the teacher is being fair.

Kim
This chapter taught me that there are many ways to differentiate instruction that aren't necessarily as complex as other ways. This chapter instilled a differentiated mind-set that prepares one to think more about differentiating methods for students. There are lots of subtle ways of differentiating instruction that may not seem as though they would help students, but allowing students to select their own seating, or moving closer to them to keep them focused on the lesson can be all the help they need. Knowing that there are much simpler ways to differentiate instruction will help me to implement various techniques into my teaching methods. This will also help my classroom because it will be set up in a way so that students are able to select seats to accommodate their learning styles and needs. My teaching will focus on finding ways for all students to learn the material, whether it be through several different methods or one method. I will use as many different ways to differentiate instruction as possible in my classroom.

Seth
The differentiated instruction mid-set. Geez. If there was ever a way to make a chapter seem uninteresting, you give it that title. However, soon after I started to read I became entwined in the words and ideas of the chapter. Like chapter five suggests in MI, the author makes a real world connection to develop interest. “If your teacher ever rephrased… she differentiated instruction” (1). Like Emeril would say, “Bam!” There is it; a real world connection. Later on in the chapter Wormeli gives examples on how to help students who are struggling and looking back on my days in high school many, many years ago, can remember when my teachers offered my classmates different learning opportunities despite the protests from others in the class. Now, I see why my teacher offered these opportunities and feel a bit of remorse for being so opposed to it. “It is not individualized instruction, though that may happen from time to time as warranted. It’s whatever works to advance the students. It’s highly effective teaching” (3). To close, I feel like I have to quote Dr. Hiam Ginott on page nine (9) when he says, “I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous…” And so on and so forth. The crazy thing about this is that… (wait for it) He’s right. In the classroom teachers are the ultimate power and can control with an iron fist if they choose. However, I liked the relaxed atmosphere in my classes at Mount Blue.

Jen
What I really learned from this chapter was a little bit of a clearer picture of the reasoning and what's gained from differentiated instruction. As the book does discuss, differentiated instruction isn't making the work easier for students but it's just giving them a different way of looking at things and showing the teacher that they understand the material. It really helped emphasize individuality and how important that is and that in the classroom the teacher doesn't need to be so particular on having each assignment done a specific way. I think it really showed me that students choice really helps them be more in-tuned and focused on the project. It's interesting to look back on my past school experiences and see how much differentiated instruction was used in our classrooms and how that impacted how much we learned. I can see how my high school did use in in various ways but we also had teachers who stuck to the standard tests and exams as an evaluation. I can see how those teachers who used projects and gave students choice did help each student feel better about the assignment and helps them stay engaged in the material.

Lily
This chapter is great! IT focuses on broad lesson plans and classroom styles can be. We do not have to be a cookie cutter class learning out of a book, everyone including students can put a twist on how we go about learning the subject. Although things such as picking where you sit, or the questions that you answer may seem small it is giving students the choice and ultimately more motivation to do well, even if they do not know it. “Nobody cares what we teach—not our principals, out superintendents, out legislative bodies. No one. In fact, what we teach is irrelevant. It’s what our students learn after their time with us that matters”(8) This is such a great quote because it is so true we need to help the students learn and also teach them how to gain knowledge on their own. Gaining these skills in the classroom and learning what suits you best individually will help for your whole life. I hope to gain experience and the confidence do use differentiated instruction techniques in my classroom.

Casey
In the first chapter of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//, Rick Wormeli goes into detail about what exactly differentiated instruction is, and why it is so useful in the classroom. He made very good points about how beneficial differentiated instruction is for our students in the long run. One point that Wormeli made that I especially liked was “when we differentiate, we give students the tools to handle whatever comes their way—differentiated or not.” This is so true! By using differentiate instruction in the classroom we are allowing our students to be able to do things on their own, and experience different things. If we went through the same agenda everyday that would be what they would expect all the time. Although when the schedule changes every day, it keeps the students focused and more interested because they are not expecting what is going to happen in the classroom.

**Mike**
The author in this chapter tells us the meaning and purpose of differentiated instruction. I was confused about what differentiated instruction was,but Wormeli made it simple to understand by saying that it gives students a better idea of what is being taught to you which eventually will help students understand the material easier. Differentiated instruction also gives teachers more flexibility when it comes to assignments because you can different choices on how to accomplish a project instead of particularly telling students you want this task completed this way and only your way. Most importantly though, I feel students are more motivated and feel confident when differentiated instruction is in place since students in my opinion learn more. Traditional teachers use to always handout a pop quiz every week or long essays, but I feel project based work make students feel more comfortable in a classroom. You can still measure a student's learning through differentiated instruction.

Jasmyn
Before reading this chapter I figured that Differentiated Instruction would be a complicated concept, because as I understood it each lesson needed to be tailored to each child’s strongest intelligence, as it turns out it is a simple concept. //Differentiated Instruction,// as described by the //Wormeli,// is doing whatever it takes to optimize a students learning experience. Not all students learn the same so it is crucial for the teacher to take on different approaches to teaching a subject, but the “tailoring” of the lesson does not have to be for each individual necessarily, an approach can be simplified and work for many students at a time. For example: As students learn a set of spelling words, those words may be written on the board, the teacher may then ask if any student needs to have the words spelled out loud or used in sentences. These different approaches can help all different learners, some students may only need to see it written on the board in order to spell it correctly, while others must hear the letters spoken both are fair approaches but the time spent with some students to learn the words made not be equal.

Kaitlyn Bartlett
In chapter 1 of Fair Isn't Always Equal, the author made understanding of differentiated instruction easier to understand. Before reading this chapter I was in the mind set that we as teachers need to change our curriculum to try and fit all the needs of different students, but instead the author introduced us to different ideas to making it easier for students to learn. I feel like I can use this in my classroom especially the idea about the glasses. I never thought of the impact of learning could be effected that much just by reading glasses. I feel that teachers sometimes give student excuses not to do things without realizing it, as taking the glasses away from the student did. The main point of this chapter that I learned is that we need to give students equal learning opportunities in a fun and creative way.