Differentiated Instruction

Christ the King Catholic School is going into its third year of a three-year training program on Differentiated Instruction through Marion Educational Outreach program.

 Only a handful of Evansville Catholic Diocesan schools have received training in Differentiated Instruction, so it was very exciting when CTK was selected. Differentiated Instruction is a teaching theory based on the premise that instructional approaches should vary and be adapted in regard to individual and diverse students in classrooms.

Differentiated Instruction means varied instruction, varied strategies, varied expectations, varied assignments for different students. There are four “modalities”, ways through which we all learn: Auditory (hearing), visual (seeing), tactile (touching), and kinesthetic (movement). CTK school uses all these modalities when teaching. Sometimes one modality is MUCH stronger than another. Some of children learn through multiple modalities. Others learn almost strictly through one modality. Ergo, in a classroom it is wise to assume that the total enrollment of students in a classroom could have a mixture of all four multiple ways of learning. In that same classroom the teacher must reach all children no matter their learning modalities.  

To make learning styles more challenging, there are eight multiple intelligences: Linguistic (word-smart), Logical and mathematical (number/reasoning-smart), Spatial (picture-smart), Kinesthetic (body-smart), Musical-smart, Interpersonal (people-smart), Intrappersonal (self-smart), and Naturalist (nature-smart). 

Needless to say, the above two paragraphs are a challenge to every human being in the education field. None of us want to hinder growth and learning in our children. We all want methods to assess their progress in knowledge, application, and retention. Not every child walks at 8.5 months. Not every child speaks sentences at 13 months. Not every child knows the alphabet at 4.2 months. 

At CTK every teacher wants every student to reach her/his potential, no matter the effort it takes to do so. Every child is complex, and so is every teacher. The two must find a common meeting ground for success. This search includes input and help from parents. The search includes prodding from the teacher, knowing when to push, when to encourage, when to hug, when to demand, when to change teaching and testing styles, assignments and requirements. Teacher/student is a distinctive, holy encounter that lasts a lifetime.