Differentiated Instruction isn't really so different...

Everyone talks about D.I. like it's something new and something that should be conciously worked into our lesson plans... but really, aren't we already differentiating our instruction? My students are all so vastly different that there's no way that I could teach the same lesson the same way for each of my classes throughout the day-- something always changes; whether it is the delivery, the examples, the jargon, etc., every class is different. Before the concept of D.I. became D.I., I think it was simply "doing what was best for each student." I guess that's why I find it so amusing when others seems to get their hackles up over being instructed to incorporate more D.I. into their lessons because if a teacher is really teaching every student and whose goal is to help each student succeed, they are already using D.I.--they just don't know it yet.

One of my students, Sarah*, is a great kid, but her grades don't always reflect her ability level. She has attendance issues, and as a result, she is always behind. She struggles to make up her work-- especially work that involves reading a text. She recently missed a significant portion of our recent Romeo & Juliet unit.  According to a Learning Styles inventory I conducted earlier in the year, I knew that she is a Visual/Auditory learner with identifies as a creative personality. I knew that asking her to sit with a textbook wouldn't get us anywhere, so instead, I thought of a few apps that would allow her to get the information and process it a way that was managable for her and still was consistent with my class goals.

The first app that I used with Sarah was Shakespeare in Bits. This app divides Shakepearean plays up into managable pieces and then provides an  animated video that is accompanied by the original text, both visually on the screen, but also aloud. Another excellent thing about this app is that it is interactive in that the student can click or tap on words or lines to get clarification or additional information as necessary.

The second app that I used with Sarah was No Fear Shakespeare which could be used to provide modern text 'translations' of the original text to aid Sarah in her understanding of the play. Additionally, No Fear Shakespeare provides summaries, character analysis, as well as information on the author, plot, setting, etc.-- all information that would have been covered in class discussions that Sarah missed.