Article #3

Article # 3

“Rethinking Differentiation—Using Teachers’ Time Most Effectively”

By Kim Marshall

Marshall (2016), author of Rethinking Differentiation—Using Teachers’ Time Most Effectively, starts her article by asking the following questions regarding differentiation, “Are we overemphasizing, overthinking, and overusing differentiation when a different approach can focus on learning, harness teacher teamwork, and reach all children without exhausting teachers?” (Marshall, 2016, pg. 8).

Marshall refers to Tomlinson’s (2010) work who is an expert in the field of differentiation. Tomlinson explains differentiation by saying, “Differentiation is effective attention to the learning needs of each student. The purpose of developing a differentiated classroom is to make sure there’s opportunity and support for each student to learn essential knowledge and skills as effectively and efficiently as possible. The key is getting to know each student and orchestrating the learning environment, curriculum, assessments, and instruction so all students learn what’s being taught” (Marshall, 2016, pg. 8).

After discussing Tomlinson’s work on differentiation, Marshall then begins her critique of differentiation. In her critique, Marshall talks about a provocative article from 2011 by Schmoker found in Education Week who suggested that “there was no credible evidence that differentiation works”. According to Schmoker, differentiation is based “largely on enthusiasm and a certain superficial logic” (Marshall, 2016, pg. 9).

Then, Marshall goes into reframing the issue regarding differentiation and suggests that “differentiation is just one of a number of factors in effective instruction” (pg. 10). Marshall then says that teachers should consider two questions before they begin to differentiate which are, “what are students supposed to be learning?” and “are all students mastering it?” (pg. 10).

After asking these two questions, Marshall then introduces the idea of phases of differentiation. For phase one, Marshall talks about planning units and lessons and warns teachers not to overthink or overwork during this phase. For phase two, Marshall discusses delivery instruction and explains that it is important to assess students while they are learning (pg. 12). During phase three, Marshall explains the importance of following up after instruction by looking over assessment data during learning and “examining what student’s had problems with and why” (pg. 13).

Once Marshall discusses the three phases, she then focuses on the results (pg. 13). In the results section, Marshall says that “every day, teachers face the challenge of reaching students with a wide range of abilities and needs. When those needs are not met, the achievement gaps with which student’s enter school get wider and wider” (pg. 13). Marshall sees the need of differentiation, but also explains that differentiation is not always the best approach. Marshall ends by suggesting that the best approach is to have principals take charge and help the teachers focus on the following two questions: “what are students supposed to learn” and “are all students mastering it?” (pg. 13). Although this might be a lot of work, Marshall believes it will be effective work that will pay off for everyone in the school.

Reflection

I chose to review this article by Marshall because her research focused more on the teacher’s perspective regarding differentiation. In addition, Marshalls article title really caught my attention because her title reads, Rethinking Differentiation—Using Teachers’ Time Most Effectively. I never really spent a lot of time reflecting on my opinion of differentiation until I saw this title. Marshall also asked many great questions that made me think even more about differentiation such as “Are we overemphasizing, overthinking, and overusing differentiation when a different approach can focus on learning, harness teacher teamwork, and reach all children without exhausting teachers?” (pg. 8). In addition, instead of instantly saying that differentiation is the key to helping students succeed, Marshall decided to include information and ideas from other sources such as from Mike Schmoker to illustrate that differentiation “seemed to complicate teachers’ work, requiring them to procure and assemble multiple sets of materials” (pg. 9). I also liked how Marshall organized her article by using a lot of bold headings and including bold boxes that consisted of thought provoking quotes regarding differentiation. Finally, I liked that Marshall ended by suggesting more effective approaches to differentiation.

Reference

Marshall, K. (2016). Rethinking Differentiation—Using Teachers’ Time Most Effectively. Phi

Delta Kappan, 98. Retrieved from http://pdk.sagepub.com/content/98/1/8.short