“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn” — Ignacio Estrada.  Differentiating instruction for your students is one of the biggest lessons I have learned this semester.  We have been taught that lessons need to be differentiated in every education class we have taken.  However, until you are in a classroom teaching real students, I do not think you can get a full understanding of just how important it is.  One of my lessons that stood out to me in terms of differentiation was a math read-aloud lesson on money.  In my classroom, money was a very new concept when I taught my lesson.  I knew that there were going to be some students who caught on much faster than others.  This forced me to think outside of the box when creating my lesson.

For my introduction, I read the students “Curious George Saves His Pennies” by Monica Perez.  In the book, Curious George earns different amounts of money that he saves to buy a toy.  Before reading, I passed out a piece of play money to each of the students.  This included dollar bills, quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies.  For students who typically excel in math and counting, I gave them the higher values of money, such as the dollar bills and quarters.  For my students who tend to struggle, I gave them the lower valued of money, such as the pennies and nickels.  As I read, I asked the students to name their money, tell me how much it was worth, and then place it in the piggy bank when George would earn that amount. 

After the read-aloud, I asked students to practice counting the value of coins in small groups. I placed different toys around the room with price tags on them.  However, the price tags had the coins that made up the price, rather than the numeral value.  The students would work together to tell me how much their toy cost.  This small group practice led into individual practice.

For individual practice, I gave each student a worksheet with multiple toys and prices on it (pictured above).  I explained that I wanted them to circle which toy they would want to buy.  Then, I asked them to draw the coins they could use to buy it.  For differentiation, I gave the students a choice of which toy they would complete and I only required that they complete one.  Each toy had a variety of prices, some easier than others.  Students who struggled could choose easier values and students who had a good understanding could choose a more difficult value.  I also challenged the students who completed one toy early, to complete the whole worksheet.

By differentiating, my lesson catered to different intelligences, ability levels, and interests. Differentiation is a very important factor and I always consider it during my planning!