Reply #66: That's what diff. learning is

[poliguru]

Basically, it's like teaching multiple classes at once, So if my objective is to understand the purposes of the Declaration of Indepence and what effects it had, my "low" group will be assigned a cause/effect poster, my "average" group will analyze three of the listed offenses of King George and explain the historical background of them and present-day examples in either the US or world relating to the examples, and the "high" group will take a challenging primary source like the Declaration of Sentiments and write an analytical essay. (These were three actual assignments I gave when I taught 7th grade.) All the kids were challenged at their level, all the kids learned, no work was over the kid's head, and they all could still discuss the topic as a class because the all met the same objectives. Differentiated learning is basically setting classroom content goals but individualizing the skill goals. So while they will reach the same level of content achievement, the skills that make someone low, average, or high achieving are different.