Culturally Responsive Teaching & Differentiation, Katie Wood

     As a teacher, it is never fair to look at one's classroom and expect every student to learn in the same way. All students come from different backgrounds in language, gender, ethnicity, past experiences, different levels of confidence in themselves in subjects in school, and the list goes on. In differentiation, what we as teachers have to do is look at each student and notice that they are all different from each other and those differences make a difference in the classroom. We must look harder and beneath the surface to understand our students. This resource I found is a video of Carol Tomlinson discussing differentiation in the classroom and how differentiation requires responsive teaching, which is an approach to instruction that takes into account the needs and strengths of today's diverse student population. This resource could be used in today's classroom because Tomlinson explains that becoming a culturally responsive teacher doesn't just happen in one day. Teachers need to understand that it takes time to peel back the layers of the different cultures in today's classrooms. She can help teachers understand the first steps they can take to differentiate their own classroom.

Reference 

J. (2011, October 05). Carol Tomlinson on Differentiation: Responsive Teaching. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01798frimeQ