Chapter 12 DI

Chapter 12 talks about the “making sense” for students when it comes to a concept. One thing that stood out for me is when it talked about a good activity verses a good DIFFERENTIATED activity. It was interesting to see that they are not so different from one another. The differentiated activity just adds a deeper level for student understanding. I would compare it to a good activity being one that is standards based and a differentiated activity as one that is standards based but reaches each student on their own individual level. Some students may need a different amount of scaffolding while others might need to be challenge of a higher level of a concept. The good activity is standard for each student but differentiated activities are centered around the student and how they can achieve that standard on their level.
When I read this, I thought about a couple of my students who are on a higher level of thinking and it is very obvious. Yet, they are forced to do the same activities of all the other students in the class. I see the boredom and frustration on their face and their desire to be challenged. I try when I can to give them “challenge problems” that might be more difficult but I realized it’s not just about the difficulty. I also need to appeal to their interests while still causing them to be challenged. Without that connection to their interests, most of them will simply give up. That, in turn, defeats the whole purpose of trying to challenge the students to think on a higher level.