Differentiated Instruction – Maximizing Each Student’s Growth and Learning Success

Students are diverse. Students learn in diverse ways. While autism and related disorders is the common denominator at Beacon Day School, the numerators are wide and varied, spanning the full spectrum of autism and related disorders. Differentiated instruction is a process for teaching and learning for students of differing abilities in the same class. The model of differentiated instruction allows teachers to reconcile learning standards with learner variance. The first step to making differentiated instruction effective is the same step required to make all teaching and learning effective: knowing where we want to end up before we start out—and then plan to get there.

Differentiated instruction is based upon three principles:

1. Every student learns in his/her own unique way.

• Differentiated instruction recognizes students varying readiness, communication skills, preferences in learning, cognitive deficiencies and social interaction skills in order to provide students with multiple options for receiving information and then applying and generalizing that information. It provides teaching flexibility and allows teachers to adjust the curriculum and the presentation of the information to the students rather than students having to adjust to the curriculum. 

2. Quality is always more important than quantity.

• To make teaching and learning work, our teachers have developed an alternative approach to instruction beyond covering the subject and creating activities that motivate and engage the students in order to improve results in diminished academic and behavioral skills. Instruction is planned around key concepts that will help students relate to, organize and retain what they learn, and develop the ability to generalize what they’ve learned to uncover how the concepts work at school, at home and in the community.

3. One size does not fit all.

• Our teachers and behavioral interventionists work together, continually assessing the readiness, interests and learning profiles of each student. They modify the curriculum and instruction as they come to understand the student and the student’s needs more fully. Working together, our teachers can provide a lively, learner-friendly environment with opportunities for student movement, choice, social interaction, generalization and communication.

Differentiated instruction is not chaotic or another way of providing uniform grouping. The overall goal of using a differentiated instruction model is to maximize each student’s growth, learning success, and progress with communication and social skills. This is achieved by determining where a student is and assisting in the learning process to take the student where he/she needs to end up.

At Beacon Day School, we employ several key components to guide differentiation in the learning environment in order to:

• Provide students with a consistent schedule of activities and learning goals
• Keep a structure of learning expectations and developmental goals for each student to focus on
• Help to effectively manage the classroom in order to impact a student’s learning and generalization of what has been learned
• Modify the curriculum using the IEP to reach learning objectives

Differentiated instruction also includes the integration of therapies such as art and music to connect a student to communication and social interaction learning goals. We believe in the whole student, focusing on the concept that all students deserve instruction that maximizes their capabilities to learn and develops their ability to generalize what is learned, communicate effectively and interact positively with their peers, families and the community.