Implications for ELs
In the article “Differentiated Instruction for English Language Learners” which was written by Karen Ford the author discusses how teachers can best support English Language Learners (ELL) through differentiated instruction. The author explains that differentiated instruction is an approach to teaching in which teachers and/or educators teach all students the same material just in different ways. “The goal of differentiated instruction is to create learning opportunities that make allowances for differences in how individual students learn in order to ensure equal access to important academic content” (Long, 2018). Students in today’s classroom come to school with different experiences, cultures, language, personalities, interests, and attitudes and the way in which instruction is presented must be differentiated to ensure all students’ diverse needs are being met.
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The first element the author discusses that can me modified is the content or “the information and skills that students need to learn” (Ford, 2018). The second element is the process or “how students make sense of the content being taught” (Ford, 2018). The next element is the product or “how the students demonstrate what they have learned” (Ford, 2018) and the final element is the affect or “the feelings and attitudes that affect students’ learning” (Ford, 2018). All four of these elements can be modified to best meet the diverse needs of the students present in the classroom. When differentiating instruction it is the responsibility of the teacher to identify what the student needs in order to progress with the instruction and curriculum and then make the appropriate changes to the lesson, curriculum, or instruction to meet the needs of the