Running head: STUDENT CENTERED AND DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION 1

Student Centered and Differentiated Instruction

Ashley L. Moose

Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 496 Field Experience ePortfolio, Spring 2019

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Introduction

How does faith impact a lesson plan? This can be a hard question to answer when you are

staring at a long list of standards thinking about how in the world you are going to make sure that

your students hit every single one by the end of the year. I believe that faith impacts lesson

planning because it requires you to look at each student as an individual with specific needs

rather than a simple grade. I believe that differentiation will be important to any teacher who

views education through the lens of Christ. According to Tomlinson, a key characteristic of a

differentiated classroom is that “​the teacher proactively plans and carries out varied approaches

to content, process, and product in anticipation of and response to student differences in

readiness, interest, and learning needs" (Tomlinson, p.7, 2001). Differentiation is important to

me as a Christian educator because it focuses my attention on an individuals’ needs and because

God Himself set an example of differentiation in His teaching. Hebrews 1:1 says "in the past

God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways”. As I read

scripture, I see God using numerous methods of communicating with humanity. He met His

“learners” where they were and He spoke to them according to their individual needs. This is

exactly what I strive to do for my students as an educator.

Rationale of Selected Artifacts

Differentiating the expected product of a lesson

My first artifact shows evidence of how I differentiate the expected product of a lesson

based on student learning level and academic ability. I am placed in an inclusion classroom with

7 students on IEPs for academic deficits. Many of these students struggle to read and write as
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well as other fourth graders do. I have noticed that their learning is often hindered by having to

transfer their thoughts into writing. I taught a lesson about summarizing fiction and the

assessment required students to use a graphic organizer to write their own summary of a book

based on the problem, solution, and key events. As I prepared this lesson, I knew that a few of

my students would have a difficult time writing their summary on their own. I decided to create

two different summary sheets for my students. One sheet was completely blank; another sheet

had sentence starters to make sure that students were thinking about the problem and solution as

well as putting the events in the correct order. During my lesson, I pulled my lower level

students to my table during independent work to guide them through their summary. I read the

sentence starters aloud and guided my students through the graphic organizer to help them create

their summary. They were able to create their summaries with success because of this.

Differentiation does not always have to take huge amounts of time or effort to implement.

Planning for different learning styles

The second artifact that I chose shows how I differentiate my lessons to meet a variety of

student learning styles. Learning style refers to different “ways individuals concentrate, process,

internalize, and remember new and difficult academic information or skills”(Collinson, p.42,

2000). I am well aware that there are a wide variety of different learning styles in my classroom

and it is important to me that I meet as many learning styles as possible in each of my lessons.

The lesson plan that I have selected shows how I meet the needs of kinesthetic learners by giving

them the opportunity to get up and do a sort about theme and plot. It also shows how I meet the

needs of my visual learners by writing the plot and theme of the book on the whiteboard for

students to copy. Lastly, it shows how I meet the needs of my students who learn by
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communicating information with others. Towards the end of the lesson, I had students share the

different themes that they noticed in the book with their groups.

Reflection on Theory and Practice

Differentiation can be a daunting task for many teachers and it is true that it does require

extra thought and time in planning. However, the benefits are worth it. Students have more fun

and get more excited about learning when the lesson meets them where they are and is adjusted

to meet their individual needs. Differentiation requires a shift in thinking in the minds of

teachers. It “enables rigorous, engaging and authentic curricula for all students because we

modify instruction to respond to students' readiness, interests and learning profile features. The

state standards are the foundation for this work, not the goal” (Hedrick, p.2, 2012). Shifting your

mindset from viewing standards as the goal of teaching is not easy to do. My education at Regent

has greatly helped me in my ability to differentiate because my courses never taught me that

standards were the goal of my teaching. The use of the “Understanding by Design” book in my

courses taught me that standards are the foundation upon which I must build and differentiate my

instruction. There is a lot about differentiation that I have yet to learn, but I look forward to

growing in this area as I continue my journey as an educator.

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References

Collinson, E. (2000). A survey of elementary students' learning style preferences and academic

success.​ Contemporary Education, 71​(4), 42-48. Retrieved from

http://eres.regent.edu:2048/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.regent.edu/doc

view/233043145?accountid=13479

Hedrick, K. A. (2012). DIFFERENTIATION: A strategic response to student needs.​School

Administrator, 69(​ 5), 26-30. Retrieved from

http://eres.regent.edu:2048/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.regent.edu/doc

view/1018563449?accountid=13479

Tomlinson, C. A., Miracle, A. W., & Martin, L. (2001). ​How to differentiate instruction in

mixed-ability classrooms​. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum

Development.