ABSTRACT
Differentiated instruction has been around for at least two decades, for gifted and talented students. Differentiated instruction is complex and flexible, with many ways to accommodate different teaching styles as well as student differences in: learning styles, interests, prior knowledge and comfort zones. Differentiated instruction is rigorous, providing challenging instruction that motivates students. Notably, in one three-year study in Alberta, Canada, the Anglophone part of the country, it was found that differentiated instruction in French in K-12 classrooms. Effective management procedures, especially in grouping students for instruction, are central to differentiated instruction. It is primarily because differentiation is more a way of thinking about teaching and learning that can be translated into classroom practice in many different ways. Finally, a bit of personal action research: in first year of differentiating, in each level taught, deliberately differentiated the first half of one unit, including the assessment, and then used little or no differentiation for the second half of the unit.
