Differentiated Instruction
This process helped me learn more about differentiation and how TAB can broaden the horizons of my students. I want students to all feel proud of their work and avoid self-doubt when looking at others’ art. Using the TAB method limits students from comparing themselves to others negatively because they are all creating very different works with the same artistic concepts in their projects. TAB not only caters to students’ confidence, but it is an amazing opportunity to differentiate nearly every step of the art teaching process. “Children learn well in different ways and seem to profit most when instruction is differentiated in some manner to accommodate these differences.” Sternberg, R. J., & Li-Fang, Z. (2005 pg. 245). Moving forward, I will be encouraging my colleagues to improve their own differentiated instruction through TAB based instruction. I have begun hosting teachers-in-training in my classroom and will be hosting my first student teacher this spring. I hope that I will be able to impart some knowledge on the importance of differentiation and explorative methods of art education on my teachers-in-training. I look forward to seeing how I grow as an educator and how my students grow as learners with the TAB approach.
Differentiation is a technique that educators do to accommodate the learning differences and needs of their students. “In a differentiated classroom, commonalities are acknowledged and built upon, and student differences become important elements in teaching and learning as well.” (Tomlinson, C. A. pg. 1. 2001). As an educator, differentiation is crucial to reaching all students and providing them equitable learning opportunities. I teach about 500 students ranging in age from 4-11. Across the grade levels and classes, students have a very wide variety of learning styles and needs. I use a variety of materials, visuals, student grouping, and much more to make my lessons accessible for each student.
In Unit 1 I created a mind map. A mind map is a visual organizer that shows my original understanding of differentiated instruction. Originally in Unit 1, I reviewed the unit content I added my new understanding and learning to the mind map. In my mind map I recorded my understanding before and after reviewing the unit’s content. I was fairly confident with my understanding of student needs, classroom environment, processes, products, and more. After my readings I gained a clearer understanding of techniques for differentiating. For example, Tomlinson, C. A. (2001) on page 5 of How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms describes the ways in which student grouping should be blended. Students should be in different group settings throughout a lesson and project. Individual, group, partner, and whole class groupings all have an important place in the classroom and reach a wide variety of learners.
I broke my mind map down into 6 branches: accommodations, content, student connections, environment, process, and product. I had begun with a pretty good understanding of differentiation, but after originally viewing differentiation content I started to find more specific information on how to apply differentiation to these different “branches”. Over the past eight weeks I have furthered my understanding of differentiation even further. In the sections of process and product I feel as though I have developed the most growth. My biggest focus for growth was centered on students designed products and processes. This furthered my desire to learn more about TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behaviors) throughout this course. TAB is entirely student centered with the teacher providing an artistic problem for students to solve using their artistic understanding. Although I believe that my understanding of these topics has grown a lot, I still feel as though I have just scratched the surface on differentiation and TAB.
Resources:
Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. Chapter 1: What Differentiated Instruction is—And Isn't. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.