Characteristics and Challenges of a Differentiated Classroom

The key to a differentiated classroom is getting to know your students well enough to design lessons and units of instruction that will best meet his/her needs.   Differentiated classrooms utilize a variety of instructional strategies, offer a shared responsibility for learning, are student-centered, offer a variety of assignments measure student success by growth, include on-going assessments, assess authentically, and most importantly offer students a choice.  Differentiated instruction not only provides additional ways for students to take in new information, but increased ways to demonstrate what they have learned.  A differentiated classroom frequently give choices to students concerning topics of study, approaches to learning, ways of presenting evidence of learning, and learning environments while keeping constant with grade-level standards.  A differentiated classroom is not uniform lectures, repetitive activities, and homework assignments involving only memorization or recall.  Rather it’s student-centered, where students are not embarrassed by individual differences or learning difficulties.  Those individual differences are embraced, and as a result, teachers vary their instructional practices in response to their students’ learning styles and readiness levels to provide appropriate degrees of academic challenge. The goal is to work with students at their current level and to make provisions for those who need modifications, whether it be for special needs or to challenge gifted learners.

The greatest obstacles that I see in trying to authentically differentiate in my classroom are time, resources,  and grading practices.  Obviously the amount of time needed to dedicate to differentiation is enormous, especially in the beginning stages. Creating a variety of assignments that are both student-centered and engaging, while remaining authentic, is time-consuming.  Asking myself “does this assignment accurately asses what I want them to learn and know how to do” about multiple assignments in varying degrees of difficulty is a daunting task to undertake weekly or even daily.  Another obstacle to effectively differentiating in the classroom is the amount of resources, rather the over-abundance of resources available.  Many times I struggle with researching new ideas and activities, especially in interest areas that differ from my own, because there are too many ideas to comb through.  I can get “lost” for hours searching for ideas of how to modify or differentiate assessments and classroom activities.   I also struggle with how to grade differentiated assignments.  When the method of differentiation is in the final product or type of assessment, I often agonize on what is fair for grading purposes.  For many students, and more importantly-their parents, the grade is more valuable than the journey they took to get there.  Until we change the mind-set of many parents and students that not all activities must be assigned a grade, determining how to grade differentiated assignments will remain difficult. 

The most considerable challenge that I face is the enormous variation in the academic level of students coming into my classroom.  Consequently, a “one-size-fits-all” classroom is not an option if I want to successfully grow the students that enter my classroom and provide them with valuable educational experiences.  “Differentiated instruction is effective instruction that is responsive to students’ readiness, interests and learning preferences.  All three characteristics of the learner—readiness, interests and preferences—allow educators and students to build new learning through connections to existing knowledge and preferred ways of working.” (Edugains)  I reflect on what it was like for me when I was the student or how I felt in staff development sessions in which I gained valuable knowledge and I try to plan units, activities, lessons, assessments,  and projects that will be meaningful for the students in my classroom based on their interests and ability levels.  Oftentimes this includes students working by themselves, in random groups, or in groups according to similar readiness, similar interests, or similar learning profiles.  With the inconsistent levels of student ability and diverse learning styles and interests, differentiation is imperative to ensure that all learners’, from the below-grade level students all the way to the gifted learners, needs are being met. The ability to systematically and thoroughly meet the needs of the individual learner is central to the work we do as educators. (Edugains)

Characteristics of a Differentiated Classroom. (n.d.) Retrieved March 15, 2015, from http://pdsupport.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/Characteristics of a DIfferentiated Classroom




Differentiated Instruction. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2015, from http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesDI/Brochures/DIBrochureOct08.pdf




Taking Center Stage, Sacramento: California Department of Education, 2001, pp.140, 141. Retrieved March, 16, 2015.


Willoughby, J. (n.d.). Differentiating Instruction: Meeting Students Where They Are. Retrieved March 16, 2015.