FIAE+Chapter+1+Block+1

Abstract:
In this first chapter of __Fair Isn't Always Equal,__ Rick Wormeli gives us the basic definition of differentiated instruction. In short differentiated instruction is the idea that everyone is different. We learn at different paces, we learn different things and at different paces. It is the job of the teacher to facilitate our learning and ensure that, as students, we each have thenecessary to succeed in and out of the classroom. As teachers it is especially important to take learning outside of the classroom. In order to gain the of the students it is helpful to use real life examples in your lessons. In this chapter we as teachers learn how to teach students about differentiated learning. As is true with the multiple intelligences, if we teach the students about the topic they will be better off in the long run. Perhaps one of the most important things we can do is to teach students about some of the techniques we may use. In teaching the students about [|differentiated instruction] they will be more confident in doing things like asking for help and will be better equipped to handle problems in their future.

Synthesis:
As many of my fellow classmates said, without differentiated instruction it would have been a miracle if our teachers held their positions, let alone that we graduated. One thing that we all really seemed to like was this idea that teachers were able to use real life examples in the classroom. If you think about it, we are not going to be in school forever and our job as educators is to enable students to successfully function in society. With differentiated instruction and the help of these real life examples we will be able to do that. We have seen this even in our short few weeks out in the field. Our mentor teachers took us under their wings and while some of us were ready to jump right in and knew everyone's name on the first day, others needed to wait a week or two. In fact, some of us may still not be ready. If we as future educators [|learn to differentiate instruction] then in turn our students will learn to do the same and ultimately be more effective.
 * Synthesized by Emily Haskell

Alex Randall
FIAE Chapter 1 This chapter is all about having a differentiated instruction mind-set and what it is. Right off, the chapter helps the reader recall instances of how their past teachers may have "differentiated" for us. But what does that really mean? Is it just a fancy way of saying "they accommodated your learning style"? That's what I got out of it. It was all about accommodating for the student. If a teacher had students with attention problems sitting in the front, it was to help them pay attention. If a student did not understand something because of the wording of a question and the teacher rephrased, they were accommodating. So, as I read on, the definition of differentiated instruction was written out as follows: it is "doing what's fair for the students" (p. 3). What I found really interesting was that, if students are taught about or taught by using differentiated instruction, they will know themselves as learners and, even if they are in a situation where there is not differentiated instruction, they can still excel BECAUSE they know how they learn and they know what to do to accommodate for themselves. If I think about my schooling and try to imagine it where my teachers did not differentiate for me, we would have had a serious problem on our hands. I would have been a serious problem and I would most certainly not have graduated. If I did not understand something, I would have needed a teacher to rephrase or I would not have understood what was being asked and I would have become frustrated very quickly and I would have acted out in drastic ways until I felt my needs were met. Keeping this in mind, I know that I will continually have to use differentiated instruction. Even though this seems obvious to me and has always seemed obvious, it is absolutely crucial.

Sam Leal
Differentiated instruction is “doing what’s fair for students. It’s a collection of best practices strategically employed to maximize students’ learning at every turn.” After reading chapter 1 of __Fair Isn’t Always Equal__ by //Rick Wormeli// it made me think of the many instances in a class where the teacher helps out students individually. Some students receive more attention than others, and it’s a natural thing teachers do that helps keep each student in a class up to pace. The book pointed out that classes that are undifferentiated are those in which you have a teacher that teaches just to the group as a whole; you follow along or you drop way behind. This made me think back on my teachers in the past and whether they fell into one category or another. I really liked that the book referenced this to the real world. Does the real world differentiate for people? Definitely and this chapter makes that clear with many examples. One example that most people have experienced is when you first get a job. Someone typically helps you out the first day or two, and every person is going to learn the tricks at a different pace, and what is that? Differentiated instruction. I look forward to using this in my classrooms and I believe its very important for student success. Every student has different learning needs and paces, but by differentiating instruction for students will help everyone in the classroom do better.

**Ethan Guthrie Herrell**
Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Chapter 1

An intriguing idea in this chapter is the thought our previous methods of evaluating kids, and not differentiating instruction were inherently selfish and arrogant. If the kids do things //our// way, that’s good. For them to want to it any other way is somehow an imposition, a burden on us, as though the educational system is somehow something that belongs to us.

Further more, not differentiated instruction simply allows the children to say, “Well, not my cup of tea. I’ll just go off and do-(insert alternate activity).” Differentiated instruction //challenges// kids, if anything.

Another reality have to acknowledge is that the world doesn’t lay out problems in the same format everyday. It throws curveballs, and people have to think on the fly. History, for example, has become inundated with information, hundreds of times greater in amount than any human can expect to be able to learn in their lifetime, and that information is going to continue to grow as time passes, more historians keep appearing and Ph.D candidates have to keep writing papers. The idea that the best thing a history class can for the kids is get them to memorize the first five presidents of the United States or all the monarchs of the Tudor dynasty is simply absurd. Instead, the best thing we can do for them is to offer them a way to simply process the most relevant information they come across, and how to separate from the mass they see. toc

Elizabeth Sargent
FIAE Chapter 1: The Differentiated Instruction Mind-set: Rationale and Definition

“As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration”(9). This quote by Dr. Haim Ginott expresses how it feels to be a teacher on either side of the instruction spectrum. It can be easy to be the kind of teacher that follows a set curriculum and doesn’t differentiate instruction for students or doesn’t make differing instruction fair to all students. But it is easier to be the type of teacher that makes it possible for students to learn through using differentiated instruction appropriately.

From this chapter I learned that there is no question about how one should teach as a teacher. In the classroom, it will be much easier for me to commit to my students and give them the tools they need to learn. As a learner, it is possible for me to see what my teachers have done in the past to try to make learning a possible task for me as well. My teachers have given me the necessary tools I need to learn. While learning is demanding it enables those that try to achieve more. Without tools like: reading glasses, proportionate reading assignments, definitions after words, different descriptions of tasks, and different options for projects I would probably not be where I am today. If my teachers hadn’t differentiated instruction for my classmates and me we probably would not have graduated, and my teachers would not have held their jobs for very long.

Colby Hill
FIAE Chapter 1

It’s kind of funny, really, because after anyone reads the definition of differentiated instruction on page three, it seems impossible to dislike the idea. People, including teachers, tell us at a young age that everyone is different. As teachers, it would make sense that our goals would be to maximize student learning—the more a student learns in the classroom the better. Although fair is a rather controversial word, as in it means different things for different people, it is still something that teacher would, assumingly, try to be. All of these points mentioned are in the definition provided on page three, as well as some extra gems thrown in there.

I believe that most kids like to learn. The book we are reading for Theresa, //Fires in the Bathroom,// suggests this as well. By providing the differentiated instruction which makes “it more demanding,” a student would not be as bored with work and would believe that school is actually being of some importance for them.

I also like the segment about how the real world is differentiated on page seven. Marines, mechanics, and especially surgeons. When looking at it this way it’s almost impossible to disregard the idea, even more so after reading the definition I mentioned found on page three. I don’t even think this idea has to stick within professions. A mother who has a child will differentiate how she raises the child depending on gender and the child’s various strengths and weaknesses. I hope to integrate these ideas into the classroom without many problems (although this may be unlikely).

Karina Sprague
This chapter made me a little bit nervous. I understand the concept of differentiated instruction since it has been drilled into my head many times within the past year. However, a lot of the articles and chapters that I have been reading lately make differentiated instruction sound like a lot of work. So far, in the field, I have seen and used many types of differentiated instruction already, none of which required a lot of work. When asking oral questions, I will ask the more advanced students a harder question than I would ask the lower level students. However, the books all make it sound like you have to go home at night and spend ten hours writing multiple different tests and lessons for each student. Although I am willing to put in the effort to see my students succeed, if this amount of work is true for teachers, I think they are definitely underpaid.

I really like how this chapter defines differentiated instruction as more than just altered tests and lessons. The books definition encompasses the emotional side as well. I believe that a lot of people, including myself, overlook the emotional and social part of differentiated instruction. It became more obvious to me in the field that you have to treat students different and have different types of relationships with students in order to help them succeed. I think this chapter did a good job of opening my eyes even more to the social side of differentiated instruction.

Jordan Hale
The first chapter was a lot of repetition in reference to differentiated instruction (DI). The authors pushed the DI model citing real world examples as to how it works. For instance, on page 7, the authors discuss the army and how they use DI. The way recruits learn to assemble and disassemble rifles; some need the instruction manual while other needs hands-on time with the guns. Other recruits might need to watch an instructor do it over and over again while others will just pick it up and be able to do it right after watching the Sergeant do it. This was a duh moment for me when I read this.

Reading about DI again was good because the army example really solidified my belief in the DI teaching model. It always made sense, but I could never connect it to real-world situations, as the books have been instructing us to do in our lessons. Another line that I whole-heartedly agreed with was on page 5. It says “differentiated instruction does //not// mean we make learning easer for students.” This was always a thought in the back of my head from day one. DI seemed to give students ways out of work it seemed like. Instead, after reading more about it, give students an opportunity to thrive in the their learning. All evidence points to supporting students strengths in the classroom to help them reach the ’standards’ set forth by either the school, town or state government will help fuel their learning.

Cidney Mayes
Chapter 1 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal covers what differentiation in the classroom is and why it is a good idea to use differentiated instruction. The book stresses that differentiation is fair for students because it allows those who have different needs and learning styles to be high achievers. Differentiation is about providing tools for students to maximize their learning, but it is not about making learning easier for students. Instead, differentiated instruction provides appropriate challenges to students and allows teachers to teach in a “responsive manner” (Wormeli, 4). Providing differentiated instruction does not inhibit a student’s capabilities by making them reliable on the method, but maximizes a student’s potential because the method provides them with tools so that they may adapt to and thrive when faced with challenges. Students who learn via differentiated instruction will do well on standardized tests because they have actually learned the material in a way that will stick with them.

For me, the most interesting part of this chapter came from the opinion of Secondary school teacher Ellen Berg. She said that teachers who share the responsibility for learning with their students typically seem to be the most successful, while those who either take on all of the responsibility, or put the responsibility entirely on their students, do not do as well. As an educator I will have to remember to keep this balance of responsibility while implementing differentiated instruction in my classroom. My goal is to make sure that every student learns and achieves at their fullest potential, and I will do so by listening to and knowing the needs of my students. However, it is also their responsibility to learn, so differentiated instruction requires that the teacher and student meet half-way.

Emily Haskell
Chapter 1 FIAE

In this chapter the idea of differentiated instruction as a harmful crutch is absurd. Though it is a crutch, in no way is it detrimental to the student. I feel as though it is extremely important to use differentiated instruction, but to also be sure to use it in the right way. In the field I have seen how too much personal attention is not good for a student. Some of the kids in the school are given so much personal attention that they are no longer to do their own work. Unfortunately they have come to completely depend on everyone else to do things for him or her. They are not asked what they know and are not truly challenged.

Here the differentiated instruction actually has come to hurt the student. However, I have also seen what can happen when teachers differentiate instruction in the “correct” way. The students learn the material and they discover the methods that work best for them. This is preparing them for the future. They will now be able to teach themselves almost any new material and study in ways that will work best for them.

Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So then we must be insane if we tried to teach all different kinds of kids without trying to alter our strategies to fit the needs of the students. By differentiating we can ensure that the students learn to the best of their ability and really and truly succeed.

Spencer Hodge
Chapter one of the book Fair Isn’t always Equal by Rick Wormeli really explores the concept of differentiated instruction; a topic fist introduced to me in the book UbD/DI. Critics of differentiated instruction may argue that it is hardly achievable because it’s about completely customizing every lesson for each student. That is certainly not true, differentiated instruction can be much more subtle, it can include simple things such as seating arrangement, giving extensions on work, or rephrasing an example. The idea is to veer away from the “one size fits all” style of teaching. The “one size fits all” method of teaching does not actually help many students in the classroom, to be an effective teacher one has to at least take the students different learning styles into account. Differentiated instruction actually allows students to achieve more because the teacher knows how they learn and provides a lesson that complements that learning style. Therefore there is more accountability in the classroom and students can’t fall behind. In education it is not always important how the goal is achieved so long as every student reaches the goal. Sometimes the goal is reaching a standard, and many teachers can miss the mark if they don’t focus on the actual needs of the students.

Already, during my field experience I found that when given in-class work there are certain students that I know need my individualized attention, so I give it to them. I don’t do their work for them, I just come up with different ways for them to think about a question to help them better understand the material. And even with the little experience I have it has proved effective. This chapter will prove most useful in the real world setting and in helping my philosophical development.