Focus on Learners
Differentiation stems from the research-based perspective that students will engage more fully with learning and learn more robustly when teachers proactively plan with their differences—as well as their similarities—in mind (Tomlinson, 2017; Tomlinson et al., 2003). Such an instructional model is learner centered; it accepts the premise that a teacher’s role is not simply to cover material or expose students to content, but rather to maximize student learning. Therefore, if a student is missing knowledge or skills from the past necessary for success with current learning expectations, the teacher’s role is to help that student move both backward and forward with essential content. If a student already knows what a teacher is about to teach, the teacher’s role is to help that student move beyond current learning expectations so growth will continue. Similarly, differentiation operates from the premise that if a student is not learning efficiently or effectively in one mode, a wise teacher looks for another pathway to learning that will work for that student, and if content seems irrelevant to or disconnected from a student’s world, the teacher seeks to build bridges between critical content and student interests.
The bedrock of differentiation is a five-part argument foundational to effective teaching.
1. The environment students are asked to learn in must invite learning. That is, it must be safe, challenging, and supportive for each student. To that end, the learning environment calls for a teacher who has a growth (fluid) mindset (Dweck, 2006), who forges meaningful connections with each learner, and who brings students together in a mutually supportive community or team of learners.
2. A teacher should be able to clearly delineate what constitutes essential knowledge, understanding, and skills in a content area, unit, and lesson. In addition, both instruction and assessment should have a central focus on student understanding, lessons planned for high student engagement, and a curriculum designed to teach up (that is, to begin with a curriculum that challenges advanced learners, and follow with plans to scaffold other students to enable them to work with that rich and powerful curriculum).
3. The teacher should persistently assess student status relative to the essential knowledge, understanding, and skills throughout a segment of study. Using assessment information to help the teacher and students understand a learner’s current proximity to essential knowledge, understanding, and skills is the compass for differentiation.
4. When ongoing assessment data indicate a student is confused, has learning gaps, or has already mastered essential knowledge, understanding, or skills, the teacher should use that information to plan upcoming instruction to move each learner ahead. The idea is to address those needs that, if left unattended, will most likely impede student growth.
5. In order to have the flexibility necessary to work differently with individual students at least some of the time, the teacher needs to guide students in understanding the nature and purpose of a differentiated classroom, work with them to establish and maintain effective norms for classroom operation, and manage classroom routines that balance the predictability and flexibility necessary to address a range of student differences.
When we look at differentiation in these terms, we see it is neither revolutionary nor something extra. It is simply teaching mindfully and with the intent to support the success of each human being for whom we accept professional responsibility. It moves us away from seeing and teaching students as a unit toward reflecting on and responding to them as individuals, as well as to the needs of the group as a whole.
Differentiation is neither revolutionary nor something extra. It is simply teaching mindfully and with the intent to support the success of each human being for whom we accept professional responsibility.
Differentiation, therefore, is not a particular set of strategies, but a way of thinking about teaching and learning. It provides a framework for planning and carrying out learner-focused instruction. While a substantial differentiation model will offer instructional tools and strategies that facilitate attention to varied learner needs, it will also counsel teachers to use approaches that work for their particular students, content, and strengths and proclivities as professionals.
A Model for Effective Differentiation
Figure 1.1 presents one model of differentiation (Tomlinson, 2014, 2017). Its five key components—(1) an invitational environment, (2) rich curriculum, (3) assessment to inform teaching and learning, (4) responsive instruction, and (5) leading students and managing routines—which we regard as the nonnegotiables of effective differentiation, will serve as the foundation for this book. The components are nonnegotiable in the sense that they stem from what we know about how people learn and how strong teachers teach. Each of the model’s components is part of an interdependent system of classroom elements, and thus when any one of them is weak, the other elements in the system will suffer. Classrooms in which all the elements work together effectively are classrooms likely to work for a broad range of learners. The remainder of this chapter briefly explains these five components, or non-negotiables, and the general support for them in brain research. The rest of the book explores, in greater detail, the nonnegotiables and the brain research that relates to them.
The model begins with the assertion that differentiation is a teacher’s response to learner needs. We are well aware that many teachers are very concerned about the impact of state, provincial, and curriculum standards; advanced placement or International Baccalaureate course requirements; and high-stakes testing on their instructional decisions and time. They worry about how they can address these concerns and still respond to the needs of diverse learners through differentiation. Many of the suggestions we offer do not require much additional time in planning and preparation because they should often replace rather than add to current instructional practices. In the end, instructional practices that promote greater learning for more students will both improve achievement scores and benefit the learners who take the tests.
Further, the model we discuss in this book asserts that a teacher’s belief about the capacity of each student to succeed with essential content affects everything in the classroom. Teachers who believe that some students are smart and some are not have little difficulty with the outcome when some students succeed academically and others do not. After all, they conclude, that’s just the way the world works. By contrast, teachers who believe that virtually all students can master important content as long as teachers support them and the students are willing to work hard enough draw a different conclusion. For those teachers, success is really the only acceptable outcome. Carol Dweck (2006) calls the first perspective a fixed mindset and the second a fluid or growth mindset. Teachers with a growth mindset believe it is their role to do what is necessary to be a catalyst for student success and also to enlist the student effort necessary for success. Differentiation calls on teachers to develop a growth mindset and ensure their students do so as well. We discuss teacher mindsets at length in chapter 2 (page 19).
Source: Adapted from The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners (2nd ed.), by Carol Ann Tomlinson. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. © 2014 by ASCD. Used with permission. Learn more about ASCD at www.ascd.org.
Figure 1.1: A model of differentiation.
The model delineates five key components that guide effective differentiation: (1) an invitational learning environment, (2) quality curriculum, (3) persistent formative assessment, (4) responsive instruction, and (5) leading students and managing flexible classroom routines. These components are integral to a
