Comments

Wait, in large families, aren't some children completely ignored? And no one gets enough time with the people in charge? You're there already!

-- GoogleMaster - 21 Apr 2006

well that's sure what I remember from my mom's views on the Kennedy family

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Apr 2006

oh and that whole thing about IQ dropping with increasing numbers of children.....and verbal skills being highest in the firstborn because the firstborn gets all the adult language and everyone else gets divided-up language....

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Apr 2006

I happen to like large families myself

I happen to belong to the minority of Irvington families who managed to eke out 3 kids by dint of one twin birth & one singleton

nevertheless, it has never, not once, crossed my mind to wish for a middle school structured like a large family in which the children are responsible for their own work

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Apr 2006

nor has it crossed anyone else's mind

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Apr 2006

I dug this out of an email I sent to one of our school committee members three years ago.

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The following is an excerpt from one of the DI links at the school web site:

In a differentiated program :

differences are studied as a basis of planning. student differences shape curriculum. preassessment is typical. multiple learning materials are available. multiple options for students are offered. students make sense of information. emphasis on concepts and connections is made. there is variable pacing. students aid in setting goals and standards. varied grading criteria are used. excellence as an individual effort is honored.

A differentiated program is not:

"individualized instruction"* "chaotic"* "another way of providing homogeneous grouping"* "tailoring the same suit of clothes"* more tasks and assignments but different ways of providing learning experiences *From How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms by Carol Ann Tomlinson

If DI is not individualized and there are no homogeneous groupings, then how can it provide more than a superficial challenge for the advanced students. The philosophy of DI is arbitrarily limiting for advanced students. You either have to allow advanced students to move on to new material, or the schools have to set higher standards.

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The school committee member never responded.

Unless it has evolved, DI has no way (does not want) to accelerate material. It will talk of "compacting" as a way to speed up the process for some fast learners, but there is no moving on to new material.

Differentiated Instruction is a wasteland of educational babble.

-- SteveH - 22 Apr 2006

I expect that differentiated instruction is going to be just as bad for average and slow students.

The classroom described in these passages has simply come to a full-stop.

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Apr 2006

"We have a 5-year plan, we have [Politburo] approval, and, soon, we will have full-time [commissars]."

Dang, that should work great!

-- DougSundseth - 22 Apr 2006

hey, Doug - I sure think so!

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Apr 2006

I'll have to write a compare-and-contrast post based in Temple's experiences reforming the meatpacking industry.

So far, everything I've seen about differentiated instruction is the exact opposite of what it takes to improve a poorly-performing industry or organization.

It is a nightmare.

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Apr 2006

differentiatedinstruction

-- CatherineJohnson - 08 Sep 2006