Thing #5

Lisa Nielson posted her views in an article she titled Why I Will No Longer Work To Differentiate Instruction. As a Special Education teacher, her title really caught my eye.  Gone are the days of the “factory model” schools where everyone was expected to learn in the same way at the same pace. As I read the article further I realized that she and her colleague, Tom Welch, are shifting the responsibility for learning to the student by changing the terminology to “Differentiated Learning.”  Ms. Nielson made the following statement in her article: 

“I realized that when teachers gave up control and empowered students to use the tools they want and meet learning goals in the way they choose, then true differentiation could begin and it wasn’t all on the shoulders of the teacher to figure out how to do this.”

As I continued to read through the article I realized that our 23 Things class is based on the “Differentiated Learning” concept.  We, as participants, are responsible for our own learning.  It is up to us to decide how much we will get out of this class.  I really understand the philosophy that Ms. Nielson is encouraging educators to adopt.