Summary Of Carol Ann Tomlinson's The Goals For Differentiation

For this article review assignment I chose to read an article by Carol Ann Tomlinson titled, The Goals for Differentiation. In today’s society everyone learns different, whether it be mowing the grass, doing laundry, or even learning how to drive a car; but what most people don’t realize is that it is the same way within the classroom. Today, all students learn differently and teachers need to learn how to differentiated instruction to best fit the learners needs. When planning for differentiated instruction the educator needs to be aware of the students’ strengths and weaknesses. In this article I believe that Carol said it best when as she states, “To grow as much and as rapidly as possible, students must not only learn essential content, but also increasingly take charge of their own lives as learners. “ (Tomlinson, 2008)

One difference with differentiated instruction as stated in the article is, “ Differentiation calls for teachers to have clear learning goals that are rooted in content standards but are crafted to ensure student engagement and understanding.” (Tomlinson, 2008) In order to see improvement when using differentiated instruction you must know your students, because it is extremely hard to base instruction off of someone who you don’t know personally. This article also states, “The teacher should adapt the instruction to meet the needs of the learners readiness, interest, and preferred models of learning.” (Tomlinson 2008) As a teacher you should ensure that your instructional plan should meet all of those needs so that you can see any changes after the