I often speak and write about differentiating instruction. Unfortunately, when I go into schools I see very little differentiation occurring. This is the case even schools who have bought "magic bullet" programs like Renzulli Learning who tout themselves as a "Differentiation Engine." I have visited about a dozen schools using such programs but without a solid foundation in what differentiation means. Instead, they have all their students working within the learning management system on the same thing!
When I dig a little deeper about why this is happening teachers confide that they can't possibly create 32 different lessons for each of their students. When I hear this, I realize they're not getting something very important. The students own the learning. When we give up control and empower the students to learn the way they want with the tools they want, the results are terrific and the students are partners with their teacher in designing learning methods, tools, and environments that are best for them.
Josh Stumpenhorst recently celebrated the results of this method of teaching in his blog in a post called, "Student-Driven Learning." In the post he shares the ways empowered students learned the literacy standards they were mandated to meet. Here's what he did.
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