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Introduction

            "The biggest mistake of past centuries in teaching has been to treat all children as if they were variants of the same individual, and thus to feel justified in teaching them the same subjects in the same ways," (Gardner, 1994).  Children are all very different in a variety of ways.  Not all children look the same, behave the same, or think the same.  Even though children may be of the same age, they each have an array of needs.  These needs follow over to education in the classroom.  Not all children learn the same.  It is up to the teachers to provide these various methods of teaching to target the individual needs of the children.   Teachers can use different materials to differentiate teaching methods in order to engage all of the students in learning.  Also, teachers can modify the entire process in which they teach to target the needs of every student.  However, teachers being human, tend to lose sight of that. 

            Even though these methods are in mind when preparing to teach, teachers can lean towards one method and forget about the other ones.  I have interviewed a teacher of the elementary school level to gather a better understanding of how teachers apply these methods to their teaching.  By using a variety of my own methods, I have analyzed the interview transcript to study how this teacher talks about teaching.  The teacher's tone of voice, the way she laughs, and how long she discusses certain points reveals how she truly feels about teaching.  In comparison to my findings, I have reviewed The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, written by Carol Ann Tomlinson, which gives an excellent evaluation of how teachers can effectively target the needs of all children.  Furthermore, this study provides exceptional proof that many teachers subconsciously teach using their favorite methods, rather than incorporating every method into their teaching.

Literature Review

            The text that I reviewed is called The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, written by Carol Ann Tomlinson.  In the text Tomlinson provides a variety of ways that teachers can effectively make their class a differentiated classroom.  What is a differentiated classroom?  “A classroom where the teachers strive to do whatever it takes to ensure that struggling and advanced learners, students with varied cultural heritages, and children with different background experiences all grow as much as they possibly can each day, each week, and throughout the year,” (Tomlinson, p. 2).  Children need different ways to learn in order to stay focused on what is being taught.  “They also accept and act on the premise that teachers must be ready to engage students n instruction through different learning modalities, by appealing to different interests, and by using varied rates of instruction along with varied degrees of complexity,” (Tomlinson, p. 2).  Tomlinson explains that teachers can use a variety of materials to differentiate teaching, as well as modifying the process in which they teach.

            In Chapter 2, Tomlinson states how the process describes activities designed to ensure that students use key skills to make sense out of essential ideas and information.  When a teacher is teaching they may need to consider modifying the lesson spur of the moment in order to increase the likelihood that the learner will understand the key ideas and information.  For example, Tomlinson explains that while teaching, a teacher may need to modify the process for an advanced student who has already mastered the skills being taught that day.  The teacher may assign an activity that is more complex or allow a struggling student to complete an activity at a slower pace.

Methods

            To further my study on differentiated classrooms I interviewed LK, a second grade teacher to learn how she uses a variety of methods to teach her students.  I chose to interview an elementary school teacher because when I graduate, I hope to work in an elementary school.  Before I began the interview process, I produced a series of questions that target my research question.  I carefully picked out which questions to ask to ensure that I would not breach anything personal with the interviewee.  To begin the interview, I asked easy questions to make sure that LK was comfortable being recorded and to lead her up to my main points.  After a thorough interview that gave me a better understanding of how to differentiate a classroom, I transcribed it and analyzed the data.

Data

            The data that I collected from the interview provides proof that humans subconsciously discuss what they prefer most when presenting any sort of information to other people.  I will be analyzing the different topics that I presented to LK; how she teaches, different methods she uses, different materials she uses, and how she modifies her process when she teaches.  I have divided these topics into separate sections to make the data easier to interpret.

How LK Teaches