ABSTRACT
152 When teachers differentiate instruction, they plan and conduct thoughtfully varied lessons to account for the strengths and needs of individual learners. Morrow (2011) stated that the most effective teachers “teach skills within a meaningful context and in an explicit manner” and “view all students as capable learners who progress at their own developmental level” (p. 89). This kind of teaching requires deep knowledge of literacy development, pedagogical methods, techniques for assessing learners, and characteristics of appropriate instructional materials. This knowledge allows the teacher to reflect on possible ways to match students to text and then prompt them as needed while reading. In other words, effective teachers know and use methods for scaffolding learners through their reading. Therefore, it is essential for teachers to understand the developmental levels of literacy (presented in Exhibit 1.2) and know how to determine where each student fits in the progression of development. After planning lessons based on students’ strengths and needs, the teacher must remain responsive to individual students during the lesson and provide differentiated types of support. That is, the teacher must have the ability to adapt during instruction, in order to meet the students’ evolving needs (Parsons, 2010).
