Student-Centered and Differentiated Instruction1

Ashlee Dillingham

UED 496 Field Experience/E-Portfolio

Student-Centered and Differentiated Instruction Rationale

Paper Regent University

Introduction
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Instruction that is differentiated to fit each child’s need is an integral aspect of teaching.

Each child is made uniquely but in the image of God. To integrate my faith with the impact it has

on my teaching, I exemplify my approaches to the uniqueness of my students through Genesis

1:27 and Psalm 139:14 as it states, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,...” It is my job as an educator to tailor my instruction while

integrating my faith to ensure every child achieves success to the best of their ability.

Rationale and Selected Artifacts

Artifact One

My first artifact demonstrates evidence of differentiation in correlation to the expected

independent and guided practice product of a lesson. The scaffolded graphic organizer has

notable question stems and sentence stems for more guidance throughout the lesson. I created

this organizer to help my students better comprehend notating key details that we were able to

identify as important, summarization of a text, which was a concept the majority of my students

still needed more practice with, as well as critical thinking to understand how reading the text

helps us understand the characters. In designated sections that were to be completed during the

guided and independent practice, there were guided ‘thinking questions’ to incite critical

thinking skills that assist with comprehension. I also added sentence stems to assist my lower

students with developing a summary statement. In the two Language Arts classes I student teach

in, I have six IEP students in one classroom and eight IEP students in the second classroom, and

to ensure I meet their specific academic needs and meet them at their level while providing the

element of challenge to critically think, I created a scaffolded organizer. Many of these students

range from a first to third-grade reading and comprehension level, and I have seen the difficulty

they experience in formulating their thoughts into writing, therefore the question and sentence

stems act as a guiding factor to promote comprehension and developmental skills, which

produced positive comprehensible results amongst my students.

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Artifact Two

The second artifact shows how differentiation is implemented into my lessons and lesson

planning.Based on my cooperating teacher’s initial evaluation of the students, I was able to

become more aware of my students’ differing learning styles and needs as well as beneficial

accommodations. Therefore, I try to incorporate different methods and strategies to ensure each

student is equally able to learn effectively. During this lesson, I adhered to the needs of my

kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learners through several diverse tactics. As the students were

understanding how to draw conclusions about the author’s purpose across different types of

media, I incorporated differing methods of differentiation. During the instructional portion of

the lesson, to guide and assists my lower learners before and after we read the text and

completed drawings, I displayed and reviewed a “Thinking Questions”' chart with questions

designed to help generate thoughts about the media and its features. As the lesson progressed

into drawing illustrations to understand the purpose of functional text in media, my kinesthetic

learners were able to experience enhanced learning. For my visual learners, displaying the text

with the document camera and reading along with the copies in front of them enriched their

comprehension. For my auditory learners, the video displayed during the instructional input and

independent practiced enhanced learning and focus.

Reflection on Theory and Practice

Differentiation and student-centered instruction are impactful concepts to the academic growth

of every student. No child is alike, as they possess their own developmental levels, skill sets,

abilities, and work ethic, and it is my role as an educator to meet their needs at any level and

stepping stone they are on, as well as to help them build upon it and achieve greater. Just as I

have my own learning style, I am learning how to implement lessons that adhere to multiple

learning styles and capacities that my students possess. In doing so, I have developed
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instructional practices that help foster each child’s growth based on what I have learned in my

curriculum course within Regent and my student teaching experience so far. Research

describes how “differentiation tailors instruction by presentation, and that a teacher may vary

the method and assignments covering the material to adjust to students’ strengths, needs, and

interests ("Differentiated Instruction: A Primer," 2020).” I have a better understanding of the

importance of taking the time to know and understand my students where they are. I have also

learned how differentiation in learning mitigates frustration among students who comprehend

information differently than their peers. I have also learned based on both experience and

research that “Appropriate learning styles enhance the academic performance of students ("Is

the Student Centered Learning Style More Effective than the Teacher-Student Double-Centered

Learning Style in Improving Reading Performance?," 2019)”. As disheartening as it can be to

see my students experience difficulty, it is my faith in God and my knowledge from my

Regent education courses that motivate me to put forth more effort into my instruction and

lesson planning to ensure every child experiences academic success and full comprehension.

References

Differentiated Instruction: A Primer. (2020, December 23). Education Week.

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/differentiated-instruction-a-primer/2015/01
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Is the Student-Centered Learning Style More Effective than the Teacher-Student Double

Centered Learning Style in Improving Reading Performance? (2019, November 27). PubMed

Central (PMC). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6890716/